Gee, Chinese New Year is here again. And I'm off to stay over for a few days at my in laws to celebrate it with them. Hubby still has his old room there which is now filled up with whatever toys that I don't want to be kept at our own home. Biar berserak kat rumah dia, bukan kat rumah aku. Wakaka.

This entry will tell a story of how I spend the new year. Right.

We usually have steamboat for reunion dinner on the eve. They are very thoughtful to use new utensils. All eight of us will sit together around what-appeared-to-be-too-small-for-eight-person dining table. Though a little bit squeezy, I guess the important thing is to have the dinner together.

The best part of the dinner is the Yu Sheng. Well, the best part of Chinese New Year is the Yu Sheng! I just love the taste. It consists of some carrots, radish, pulps of pamelo, sesame seeds, crackers, raw fish and some other stuffs which I'm not sure what but definitely delicious when its covered with plum sauce and lemon juice. We will lao the yu sheng as high as possible hoping the new year will bring us prosperity. The higher the better. Because hubby and I love it so much, we will also buy it ourselves every other day during the 15 days celebration.

Back to the eve. After dinner, the family will continue cleaning the house (which I usually see already cleaned but yet to them are still not cleaned). I will stay in our room with the air-conditioned on and not-sweating myself out ironing the NEW clothes which we'll wear the next day. All preparations are to be done on the eve. Even down to socks! No cutting of tags, or sewing loose buttons on the first day of CNY, according to my mother-in-law. Knives and scissors are to be kept hidden in case we "accidentally forgot" and use them the next day. Heh. I was like huh? why? on my first year after joining the family. I mean, we Malays don't have those kind of superstition. It was definitely something new to me. But I believe, their believes is that everything should be nice and happy on the first day of CNY. You don't want to hurt yourself cutting things. It'll be a bad start for the new year. Bad luck.

When ironing and cleaning is done, we will sit together in front of the tv and watch that countdown-to-CNY show on channel 8. Even though I don't understand the language, the atmosphere is there. It's different from Aidilfitri where we have mixed feelings of happiness, sadness, kesedaran (since I can't think of the English word right now) and etc, for CNY it's totally HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY! When midnight comes, we will cry out HAPPY NEW YEAR! macam budak jakun and shake hands with one another. And then, I will usher my kids to hide in our room because that is when father-in-law burns some praying papers just outside the main door to usher in the God of Fortune! Every year without fail, in my mind, I will have this image of the God of Fortune walking tip-toe-ing through their door. Heehee.

So the next day is spend visiting. We visit more houses on CNY than Aidilfitri. Really. Hubby has quite a big family. We'll give two oranges to the elders with good wishes and later the elders will give us another set of two oranges thanking us and wishing the same for us. It's quite lovely actually. The opposite scene from Aidilfitri when we cry cry mintak ampun maaf. Haha.

Ok, the tak best part is the food part. We will eat kuaci, nuts, kuaci, dried cuttlefish, kuaci, oranges, kuaci, kuaci and kuaci. Lunch and dinner is a takeout. No cooking, or rather, no cutting, remember? That is why we see Chinese having their meals out even though it's their festivity. We can't find Malays eating out on Aidilfitri, right? :D

Ok at this point, I'm done telling story about how I celebrate CNY. How to stop? Hahaha.

I shall stop now lah. I will take lots of pictures and put them up on my next entry. In the meantime, enjoy the 4 days holiday! And Gong Xi Fa Cai! Heehee.