Xin Nien Kwai Le!

Since this the first day of the lunar calendar, I'm going to attempt blogging with my own words, and not the usual impersonal cut-and-paste. Celebrated my first CNY away from home this year. I've had the privilege of spending CNY at home all these years of living abroad. Was kinda nostalgic and sad about missing my usual traditions - starting with reunion dinner with family on the eve; lunch of nasi lemak, roti jala and curry at my aunt's; proceeding to Vee's for rendang, satay kuah and ketupat; finishing off with tophats and mee goreng and Lin's. Second and third day traditions are more fluid. My dad used to throw a BIG second day open house for which we had to slave the whole day away. In more recent years, the usual CNY contingent took turns visiting with each other, something we've done since primary school!!! (Picture on right: Friends ecstatic to be on the receiving end of red packets for the first time during CNY2005!)

Even if I had been home for CNY this year, things would still have been drastically different. Two of the first day traditions would not be happening - my aunt's in Singapore because my cousin's wife is expecting their first baby soon, and Vee's parents are also heading down to Singapore because her grandparents are not celebrating CNY this year and her sister is also expecting soon. Two friends who are part of the usual CNY contingent also recently got married last month and so the usual visiting group got a lot smaller this year. :(

I get nostalgic easily...

This year, we spent CNY eve with a dear family in Becket (about an hour west of Amherst). They live by a gorgeous private lake area, and we had so much fun throwing snowballs, sledding and making a snowman (when the kids were not piling on snow the size of tires on the poor snowman) with their six children! When it got colder and darker, we were treated to a hearty Iranian soup (pronounced "ash") prepared by Maryam and good conversation.

We attended the Amherst Chinese Church this morning (strategically, since we knew they would have a CNY lunch, hehe), and stayed for lunch. The sermon on God's will and guidance was delivered very well by the visiting speaker and we had a good chat with Pastor Dan Brown and his wife, Carol. After a yummy Chinese lunch, we had to finish the shopping for tonight's dinner. Dinner consisted of D-I-Y vietnamese spring rolls (mint leaves, rice noodles, romaine lettuce, char siew, turkey meatballs, and teriyaki chicken), a salad with peanut chilli sauce dressing and fried wontons. Seems like everyone enjoyed making their own versions of what a spring roll should be!

Ahh...there are but 13 minutes left to midnight...I guess it turned out to be a satisfying CNY after all! Happy New Year!