This year, we had a more relaxing Lunar New Year than expected, mainly because Beth had a bout of high fever on the Friday night before chu xi. We brought her to the doctor’s on Sat morning, just in case it worsened and there was no doctor to consult in the following four days.
Thankfully, she was still sprightly most of the time, but it meant that we could go back to rest for most of the days, instead of observing a rather punishing schedule.
Here the two princesses are in their Ao Dais, from my mum who went to Vietnam for a cousin’s wedding recently. (I wanted to get them peranakan outfits but wasn’t organised enough to procure affordable sets by the new year…)
The hubs and I hail from large families. Not quite our immediate families, but our parents’.
This is my father’s extended family. No prizes for guessing why he only wanted one child.
The hubby’s mum’s family is almost as huge if not larger, so is my mum’s. So that explains the very respectable haul by 1pm on the first day alone.
My cousin’s lovely shot of doting grandpapa and grandchild.
This year, it was mainly steamboat – yay! Steamboat for my reunion dinner with my parents, and steamboat on the second day’s lunch at my maternal uncle’s home. Yums! And healthy to boot.
Whilst I’m not a great fan of noise and visiting home after home after home, there are snippets of the festival that I enjoy. I talk often about escaping each year, but I do remember how hard I tried to recreate the atmosphere when away studying. It seemed criminal to have lectures and tutorials on the first day of the Lunar New Year (how culturally unaware is that, folks?!), and I gorged myself silly on 1kg of Bak Kwa that my lovely aunt sent over once. (You can imagine how popular that stash made me with fellow Malaysians and Singaporeans.)
So happy Lunar New Year one and all, it’s SPRING (urm, yup)!
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