Happy Year of the Dragon!
2012 is the year of the Water Dragon.
We hope that it will bring us good health, success, and happiness.
We had a fairly quiet celebration this year since we are new to the area.
Every year at this time, we especially miss our family and friends back home in Malaysia, and around the US.
This year, we were fortunate enough for hubby’s ‘cousin’, Dick to invite us to his home for a pre-New Year Celebration.
As usual the kids had a good time running around with their ‘cousins’ and the adults totally enjoyed the large spread made by Dick’s mom.
CNY reunion dinner was simple – just Hot Pot / Steamboat.
We didn’t get any fresh sliced meat or fish. We just had fish balls, meat balls, shrimp, tofu and vegetables with some eggs and noodles, in a homemade ‘ikan bilis’ stock.
Yummy!
The first day of CNY was on a Monday, and so myself and the girls had work/school that day. Boo!!
But we did have pork jerky (‘Long Yoke’), turnip cake (‘Lobak Kou’), homemade pineapple cookies and sweet soup with lotus seeds, for breakfast.
The reason being:
- Pork jerky: just a traditional CNY treat
- Turnip cake: The word ‘Kou’ sounds like the word ‘tall’ in Cantonese, so hopefully it represents growth
- Pineapple cookie: Pineapple is ‘Wong Lai’ in Cantonese, and the word ‘Wong’ translates into wealth or prosperity
- Sweet dessert: Something sweet to start the year
But I did go out for Chinese buffet lunch with my co-workers. Since we usually eat at our cafeteria in our office building, this was a small treat.
The best part was that the Senior Managers footed the bill.
Once I got home, my MIL had already finished cooking. Just simple dishes, but nice to have a home-cooked meal, and everyone eating dinner at the same time.
Then the kids got to change into their Chinese outfits. This is the best part of CNY for my kids because:
- They get to dress up
- They get to serve tea in my fancy tea pot which was used in my wedding
- They get $$$!
And that was pretty much it for CNY. Sigh…..
No comments:
Post a Comment