All About Your Child

This happened on 26 January 2009

Early in the morning, just before we head to my in-laws’ place, the kids greeted us “Gong Xi Fai Cai” (direct translation:~ congratulations prosper) with mandarin oranges. In return, we gave Hong Bao (Red Packets with $ in them) and said nice wishes like “Kuai Gao Zhang Da. Shen Ti Jian Kang.” (direct translation:~ grow up fast and good health)

Then off we went to the very first house ~ their grandparents’ place. What could be better than seeing their beloved grandsons greeting them with their gifts.

And the same ‘ritual’ of exchanging mandarin oranges for Hong Baos continued over there to all the married couples. So during CNY, its money-earning time for the kids and money-spending time for the married ones. *laugh*

After lunch, we head off to visit the relatives from Allan’s side.

Squeezing 14 humans in two cars instead of 3, ‘cos its so difficult to find parking space during this time of the year. Ok, one of which was a 7-seater, so its not too bad.

Look at how excited the kids were as they head off to get more Hong Baos. They practically ran most of the time!

The relatives were camera-shy, so I couldn’t get them in my camera.

While the kids had great time playing with the parrots and toys in different houses, munching chocolates and sweets at the same time; the adults, were busy chatting away with those whom we hardly meet. For most of them, its once a year.

The visitings ended at 7pm+ after 4 places….and it was an easy-peasy job that night to get the kids to sleep. *wink* I’m so glad that Singapore, being a Chinese majority country, granted 2 public holidays for this festive, so that there is sufficient time to visit both sides of the married couples. Tomorrow (27 Jan) my kids will be off to visit my dad’s family.

*for those of you who needs a little cheering up, you MUST hop over here.

MISS ME???

*laugh* 4 good days of break from blogosphere. You know, Chinese New Year is really a wonderful festive; a time for ‘get-togethers’, laughs, updates, visits, hugs and surprises.

For the next 2 days, I’ll be blogging about the many visits from one relatives’ house to another. But for now, let’s wind-back to 23rd and 25th January 2009.

*drawing by Keatkeat. Those 2 red things are NOT Hong Baos, they were my single-sofas. Hmmm… I wonder why Allan and I have no hands….

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Reunion dinners are extremely important to the Chinese. It’s when everyone in the family comes together to have one good meal before the (Chinese) New Year arrives. Even if one is stationed overseas, he/she would make the effort to come back for this special meal, and that’s exactly what my cousin-in-law did. *wink*

Every year, I’ll have 2 reunion dinnerS. One with my immediate family, the other with my in-laws. This year’s dinners were extra special on both sides. Finally, its NOT ‘NOTHING-ELSE-BUT-STEAMBOAT’.

My sis was asking, “Are we gonna have fishball steamboat again this year?” *laugh* You see, when you have kids, the food is more or less catered for them more than the adults… so to my sis, its FISHBALLs feast, even though there were lots of other meat, seemingly invisible when put beside a mountain of fishballs! *laugh*

And my MIL decided (out of the blue) NOT to have steamboat this year. She felt that its time for a change. Indeed, 2009 has brought lots of changes even though January is not over yet. I LOVE 2009!!!!

So here’s the goodness from both reunion dinners:-

The Change:

We bought this~

so at least, its not just steamboat alone, we could barbecue on the hotplate too.

The Food:

At my house on 23rd Jan, Friday

Chilli Crab

The Main Course

The Hungry Ones

At my in-law’s house on 25th Jan, Sunday

Lao Yu Sheng

I MUST tell you the story behind this photo. 13 of us tossed this whole plate of Yu Sheng with our forks and chopsticks. Allan tossed the Yu Sheng so high, it ‘rained’ onto CH. *laughed* At the end of the crazy 1 full min of tossing that plate of yummies, CH had peanuts, crackers, abalone strips, carrots and white carrots strips from head to toe!!! *huge laugh*

Everyone laughed so hard even though my 8 year old niece was fuming! I wanted to capture the moment and how messy the table and the floor were after everyone tried to toss higher than Allan’s tosses. *huge laugh* But I couldn’t, I had to pacify and clean up my eldest niece first…. what a waste!

Chicken, Prawns, Abalone, Mushrooms, Sea Cucumber, Pork…..

Cabbage Soup, Chili Crab (again), Vegetables…..

and MY FAVOURITE!!! ~ Shark Fins with Crab Meat.

Ok, I know I’m gonna get whacked on the head for loving the last one, from all my blog friends who are concerned about the cruelty behind this dish…. *head lowered* *pout*

The Best Part for both Reunion Dinners

My House: It was a fun and painful dinner. The margarine from the hotplate kept spatting on us, so it became an “Ouch-Ouch” dinner. The kids had great fun putting lots of food in and scooping them out. No, not onto their bowls but onto ours. They were happier going through the motion then eating.

My in-law’s House: Yes, the fun part was on the misery of CH. But the Best Part was that the Reunion Dinner went as planned. You see, I received a call from my MIL at 1pm on 25th saying that WD was in hospital.

MIL suspected that he could be down with Hand Foot Mouth Disease, after a week of fever and one red spot appeared that morning on the sole of the foot together with ulcers near his throat. After a long 3 hours of wait in KK Hospital, the doctor confirmed that its NOT HFMD, just heatiness. *phew* What a scare! ‘Cos MIL wanted to cancel the whole event if my little 1year old nephew medical results showed positive.

The Surprise:

My FIL bought NEW lion heads for my boys. He was aware of the terrible conditions of their lion heads many months back. So this had been in his plan long ago…. how nice.

Binbin’s Old (left) and New Lion Heads.

You can see that the beard, eye-brows and mustache have been ripped off! I wonder how many months will the same fate happen to the new one.

Keatkeat’s Old (left) and New Lion Heads

Look at the Mouth! Ok, the beard was gone too!

You’ll see the boys ‘IN’ their new pets tomorrow….stay tuned *wink*