Chinese New Year

My favorite celebration of the year. Today is the 2nd day of CNY but ive not even posted anything about it. sorry! this is because my family and i have been busy rushing from house to house visiting, collecting ang pao. haha! this is 1 of the reasons i love cny but its not about the money that i love, it's the tradition. It is said that an ang pao is a good luck charm that will chase the evil away, but usually an ang pao is given to a child so that he/she can grow up well.

CNY eve / Reunion dinner:-
It's a yearly rutine that my family and i will spend reunion lunch in my grandma's (father's mother) house in the afternoon and then dinner at my kao fu's (mother's brother) house at night and this rutine was carried out without fail this year too.

Lunch
We arrived at my grandma's house at 1pm. We were the first to arrive. By that time, the dinning table were already full of dishes that looked great and also tasted great. Few minutes later, my aunt (father's sister) and her family arrived. Soon, we all sat down around table and started digging in. Actually, the adults are only allowed to sit at the table, the children had to sit at another table as there were no space left. I, my siblings and my cousin were put into the children category as we are the youngest had to sit at the 'children''s table. Food was great. It was prepared by my grandma. I've also loved my grandma's cooking.

This is the list of food she prepared/the typical type of food during chinese festivals:-

1. chinese chopped chicken
2. braised pork leg with sea cucumber
3. fried prawn
4. roast pork
5. fried fish
6. soup
7. mushroom, chicken feet with abalone
8. mixed vegetable

After lunch, we all sat down in the living room and started chit chatting with each other. At around 4, we went back home. We had an hour or more of resting time before we go to my kao fu's house. I was so tired after the lunch, i decided to sleep. Woke up at 6pm, bathed, changed into a new set of clothes, went out.

Dinner
We arrived at around 8pm. By then, all my mother's sibling's family all had arrived which means my family was the last to arrive. And, they already had their dinner. haha! No big deal. We ate the leftovers, which was still good and warm. Dinner was prepared by my kao mo (kao fu's wife).

The list of food she prepared/we ate:-

1. chinese chopped chicken
2. chicken soup
3. fried dumpling (her signature dish)
4. mushroom and chicken feet
5. duck - cooked with black sauce and ginger
6. mixed vegetable

It was delicious but i still prefer my grandma's food best. My kao fu is very funny, he is always joking around, making the atmosphere more cheerful and bringing the cny fever up. We went back at 12am. By the end of the day, everyone in my family gained a thing in common which is our weight. Everyone was like complaining that their weight was a kg or 2 more. haha! And this is only the starting of CNY.