This year's CNY eve happened to fall on a Sun, hence we had a great rest at home before proceeding to both parents's place for reunion dinner. Late morning, we even went to nearby Sembawang Shopping Centre and surprisingly, the queue was short and the mall was rather empty, though shops were still open. We grabbed a quick bite at the eatery shop and went to Giant and Daiso. Bought some sundry goods and Jovin enjoyed running around as there wasn't much crowd, so she could have her way, though James had a hard time chasing after her hehe.
In the evening, after settling Jovan's dinner, we set off for my in-law's place and reached around 7p.m. Apart from the norm steamboat, there were great delicacies like stewed abalone, cereal prawns etc and all were whipped up within minutes as it was really tasty. Jovin loved the stewed mushrooms and her panda fish cake which my in-laws specially cooked for her. The most hilarious episode was, as all of us were enjoying the sumptous dinner, dear Jovan happily grabbed a toilet roll within his reach and happily munching it. Oh my! Dear commented our dear boy was so pitiful haivng to eat toilet roll for reunion dinner haha! Jovan stared at us innocently as we took away his toilet roll which he was fiddling with. After dinner, James enjoyed some card games with his siblings while I took care of the little kiddies.
My mother-in-law soon distributed angpows and Jovin was so dear to wish her gongxi gongxi and even was so fearful that we would snatch her angpows haha. Of course, Jovan was too young to understand anything so he let Jovin had her way when she took away his angpow. Soon after, we left for my mum's place and my brother was already there. This year, we bought a new set of steamboat cum teppanyakki and it was very good, really felt like the pro teppanyakki food we have outside. Told my mum we should have this more often as the kids loved it too. We had scallops, prawns, beef etc but all through hot-plate teppanyakki and dear ate so much too. To add on, we had almond jelly with longan and all ours stomaches really felt so bloated.
After clearing up, Jovin and Jerad ran around and played with the luminous bangles we bought from Daiso. Jovan happily crawled around as he played with the tupperware mum had in store for the delicacies hehe. Our final programme was temple praying at Upp Thomson and Guangming Shan . The crowd was still manageable as it wasn't midnight yet. Mum carried Jovan to pray around and dad led Jovin around, teaching her how to bow and pray to the dieties. She was really so pious as she bowed to the dieties , clasped her palms together and kneeled down on the floor. Even passer-bys found her adorable and couldn't help but took a second glance at her haha. At Guangming Shan, Jovan was exhauseted and he fell asleep soon after. We completed all the prayers at 12.30a.m and had some vegetarian food before going home.
It was a late night but was a great experience for the kids, especially Jovin so that she understood it was CNY eve and the need for reunion dinner and temple prayers etc. It's essential these Chinese traditional values remain so that it would not be forgotten as the kids grow up. Looking forward to the CNY visting in the next few hours... BTW, my prayers are really answered as my back pain is slowly recovering. Hurray!
No comments:
Post a Comment