My New Year Celebrations Day 1

Had a fabulous New Year Eve dinner of steamboat, Yum!

Day 1 is just as great. The usual routine of going down to Ah Ma's house, collect ang-pows, 'smack' my annoying cousins, put up with compliments / criticisms / stupid questions from everyone, gamble till our minds become saturated, and gorge on junk food till our kidneys become soaked with sugar, salt and grease.

After entertaining a bunch of baffoons [namely Wee, Henglip and Kar Cheng (namely buttocks)] at my house, we all went down to Ah Ma's house for lunch! Lunch was fabulous with chicken and duck, bamboo shoots, sea cucumber, broccoli, goh hiong, and all the miscellaneous. There I had to entertain stupid questions about a non-existent biker boy / F4 / Ah Huat etc. It was a torture and I believe it will get worse over the next few years.

All my relatives started streaming in one by one, ang-pow collection started to become a frenzy. As usual, 二姨 and family were the latecomers shashaying in at about mid-afternoon. Bobbi came along too.

Bobbi isn't your regular "awww-shooo-cuuute" kind of dog which wags its tail in delight and tries to snuggle up to you. No. Try to pet it and it will clamp your fingers. Not to mention the ferocious stare too.

Ah Ma's house is always decked with goodies every Chinese New Year: bak kwa, pineapple tarts, cornflake cookies, potato chips, egg rolls, 旺旺烧饼, Kit Kat and even junior-sized Jia Jia liang teh. Cool.

Some cousin of ours brought his girlfriend along, and as usual, any new additions (confirmed or unconfirmed) to our family do not escape from being bitched on. (Wee loved to imitate the double chin).

Kar Cheng the lucky shit went on a backpacking trip to Ko Samui. Damm envious.

However, I still miss the Chinese New Years when we were all kids. Those days of playing with fire sparklers and poppers (and bathing in the smoke and confetti), eating lots of junk food (who cared about weight gain back then?), and gambling (hopeful for some winnings on top of the ang-pow money). Sigh, how much we have grown.