Happy Chu Xi (Chinese New Year Eve)!

Happy Chinese New Year Eve (Chu Xi)! Time to send the year of Dog, welcome the new year of the Pig, time for spring cleaning and of course the much awaited..Reunion dinner (nian fan)!

Spring cleaning was pretty easy since its just "The One" and I, vacuuming the floor, moping, changing bedsheets (yup yup, this is my favourite among all tasks), cleaning the bathroom, putting nice tablecloth. Thank you mommy for sending the CNY couplets (we hang it up on the wall) the ang baos from daddy and mommy :)))) and everyone in the family who put in something for us in the parcel (I always love receiving parcels from home).

This year Reunion dinner is a simple affair between "The One" and I, initially we planned to have steamboat (tradition we have back home) but since "The One" will be working on the first day of CNY (yeah, its not a holiday here in Canada) we decided to have a meal instead and have steamboat on the first day. Me, made sweet & sour pork, leek with fa cai and shrimp, steam promfret, lotus soup, we had baby clam (a smaller version of the big abalone ;)), some wine and cherries. As I was telling "The One" the meaning of what each of the dishes, in the end, "The One" said, 'eat fish for plentiful, this for aiyah..whatever the meaning, just have, just have" hahaha. In the night time, we called home and wished our parents happy CNY, my little nephew Max, who is 3 years old now, he can even say 'yiyi, happy new year, xin nian kuai le' in his own cute little 3 year old accent :)

Yiyi and Uncle wishes Max and twins, Caden and Zander, kuai

gao chang dao, sheng ti jian kang, tian tian kai xin and guai guai ok!

I do miss CNY back home where its always lots of fun and laughter meeting up with the cousins at granny's place, eating CNY goodies...now that there are little babies (3 of my sister's (Max, Caden and Zander), 3 from my 2 cousins, (Alston, Aden and Ethan) I'm sure they are such fun to be with. I figure no matter where we are in the world, keeping some tradition at times keeps our culture alive, give us a sense of belonging in this BIG world, how we are brought up and definitely, the happy memories we always cherish..Happy Chu Xi!

Cheerios and keep smiling!

With Love from PoohBear