Piggie New Years
Friday I was off, and so were my kids so it gave me a day to sleep in a bit. Get charged up for the Chinese New Years festivities that were imminent. Spent most of the day closing the books of 12 to Midnight. In fact most of Friday and Saturday were spent working on the books. I need to get the budget devised. Little behind here. Crap. The January budget may be pretty accurate.
The only time I left the house Friday was to take the kids to classes. My son had Tae Kwan Do and my daughter had a piano lesson. I did not feel like doing a whole lot in the evening. Working on the books can really jelly my brains and quick.
Saturday my wife dropped my son off at Tae Kwan Do and she visited the Chinese grocery store. She came home with enough food to feed an army. Then I learned that everyone in the family is coming over for dinner. Cool. So I chilled the beers leftover from the Super Bowl and went back to work on the books.
As we got closer to evening I had to clean up the house a bit. Be the missus gofer, dishwasher, kid job reminder, etc…
Finally everything is set. My #3 brother-in-law +family and #4 sister-in-law + boy friend arrived. It was a nice evening of chicken feet, roasted duck, barbecue pork (char siew), and of course fish. The missus picked up some lormaikai for dessert too. My niece baked a cake that was so wonderfully moist. Glad she could come home for the weekend from University. Wonderful evening.
Sunday I was kicked nudged out of bed as we had to meet my wife’s friends for dim sum at 10:30. We had a good time, though we were really crowded. Imagaine 14 people at one table. And one lady got so mad cause she was given a chopstick wrapper with one stick. She pulled it out and threw it forcefully at the table. Woman cried out about bad luck and such. I thought worse luck if the stick you throw pokes somebody in the eye. She brooded for like 10 minutes too. Some people need to grow up. If my luck is made by a chop stick I don’t have much of a life. But the rest of the meal went by without event. Lots of fun talking and eating. Just heaven on those little plates.
Afterwards we went to another Chinese grocery store. This really increased my mood for Chinese New Year. So many toddlers dressed in traditional red or blue coats. All kinds of special foods. We had to buy more food, as my daughter’s friends were invited for a sleep over Sunday night. And they wanted some real Chinese food.
The afternoon was horrible between coming home from shopping and the girls arrival. I tried to install a new wireless router so we could have a better signal in my house. No dice. The signal on this supposed good router proved horrible, actually slower. So I wasted three hours trying to get it to work right. Going to take the router back and get the signal booster I intended to buy in the first place.
Three of my daughters classmates came over for the night. All of them are caucasian and really eager to try some real Chinese food. My wife made them some fried rice, fried dumplings, and beef noodles. She was quite concerned about the noodles. She bought a Phillipino style noodle and not the Chinese egg noodles she intended to purchase. I liked them, but she was not happy about getting the wrong noodles. One thing I have learned is Chinese really have a discriminating pilatte. They notice things about food I would never consider. Still cannot after all these years of being half Chinese. lol
The night was pretty quiet. Except for the five teenagers. Yeah I got woke up a couple of times. Plus I had to work while they were off for President’s Day. Kids!
It was a nice weekend. But as I read more Asian blogs, I really get the urge to experience Chinese New Years over there. Get a fuller understanding of the holiday and eat some foods that might not be found in the USA.
Gong Xi Fat Choy to all of my readers.
Wishing you, your families and loved ones all of the happiness, prosperity and health that a person can possibly stand. May the year of the pig be good to you and yours.
February 19th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Wheee!! Gong Xi Fa Cai Chup! Hee..
*waits for Big Angpow*
:D
SA: Tank u, tank u! Wish you the bestest, healthiest, wisest, richest, happiest, and nicest new year.
Big Blue Ribbon Angpow Hugs!!!
February 19th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
did u have a good CNY?
SA: Sure did. I hope yours was excellent too.
Red Ribbon for you sir!
February 19th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Happy Piggy New Year to you too!
SA: Thank you May of Oz.
First ribbon in the new world for you. A White Ribbon. :) Must be the jet lag.
February 19th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Happy Chinese New Year. May wealth, good health and happiness be with you, and soon, we can see you in Singapore and the Southeast Asia.
SA: Thank you so much PY. I hope I can visit Singapore soon!
February 19th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
*waits for big fat ang pow too, hopefully*
I see you had a great CNY!! But sorry to hear of your WiFi blues!!! I just set up a new one too myself, and had no trouble, but then it is Apple!! Time to cross over to the Light Side!
Happy Chinese New Year, Simple American!! To you, and your whole family..
GONG XI FA CHAI!!!
SA: I got big and fat covered all day. haha
Problem was the router. I took it back and got the range extender I wanted to get in the first place. Stupid salesman talked me into upgrading the router. So my missus is back in her office. Yay!
Thank you. Gong Xi Fat Choy my friend. Much health, wealth, happiness, and lormaikai for you.
February 20th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Happy oink oink year to you and your family!
P/S: de woman with the chopsticks is scary
SA: She is so emo. And has two kids of college age too. I try to stay away from her when I can.
Hope you are enjoying the holiday.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:02 am
Happy Chinese New Year to you and your family, Simple American! Hope you get to come to Malaysia and experience how we celebrate CNY here real soon (like next year, maybe?), yea?
SA: I think it would be so fun to go to Malaysia for CNY. But I think the missus would have to go to Hong Kong if we are in Asia during that time. Maybe the second time I can.
Hope your Chinese New Year is full of good memories.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:15 am
ha… when it comes to food, we Chinese want to make sure that we get the correct ingredients for an authentically exotic taste. Substitutes will not do. And much research is done on the medicinal and nutritional values of all ingredients.
Your wife is a true blue Chinese!
SA: No arguments from me.
It would be good if you could come East to experience the festivities of CNY. At least once in your lifetime, dear.
SA: I really want to. Would like to do the holiday right once.
February 20th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Happy Piggy year!!
SA: Same to you Jo. Have a wonderful holiday.
February 20th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Kong hei fatt choy to you and your family, too, SA.
glad to hear you had a wonderful cny. Yeah, i missed my family’s cooking - reunion and the hoi lean (start of new year, I think that’s what you call it) dishes.
SA: Thank you Dawn. Hope you could at least call all of your family. It is tough time to be so far from your folks.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:39 am
the missus is so good at chinese dishes too. you’re so lucky! but of cos you knew that already!
SA: And she is getting better all of the time. She has started cooking loh bak goh (white turnip cake) which is one of my favoriotes lately. Man I am going to be so much fatter. I am very lucky to have her. (Lucky to have you as a friend too)
February 20th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Many good, better, best, betterer, betterestest wishes to you and your family!! Yippie!
If I hadn’t seen your picture, I would assumed you are Chinese based on your blog. :p
As for the snobbish flaring woman, if I have the power of Hiro (from Heroes), I will stop the time and go there and slap her hard on the back of her head. Such a minor mistake didn’t need to raise such a fuss!! (fuming!)….
SA: Thank you. I wish, hope, demand, pray all the same for you in the year of the boar.
She really surprised me. I never saw anybody react like that over a chopstick.
February 20th, 2007 at 11:55 am
SA, what is lormaikai? sounds interesting and if it is dessert, well that is even more intriguing to me. The description of your daughter’s friends made me laugh. When I was in high school we had a group of 6 girls that were fast friends. One of us was Chinese (her parents immigrants). Her mother spoke two versions of Chinese that we white people wrongly lump into one. Anyway, the non-Chinese of the group would go to her house and her mother always fed us traditional Chinese food. She said she liked that I would try anything. Oh the memories you have brought to mind today
SA: Lormaikai is a sticky glutinous rice. It has a very sweet taste. Sometimes other things are added to it for flavor and looks, though I must confess I eat a lot of stuff and I have no idea what I am eating.
Good. Glad I brought you some nice memories back. I hope these girls can make some good memories too.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Happy Oink-Oink year to you and your family!!!!
SA: Thank you. Happy Oink-Oink to you and yours too!!!
February 21st, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I work with women who freak out about things like only getting 1 chopstick. Drives me so batty I refuse to eat with them in public. >:o
I’m glad you had a good Chinese New Year!
SA: Cannot blame you bit, as I don’t wanna be around them either. I had never seen anyone act like that before either. Totally shocked me.
Thanks Alisa.
February 24th, 2007 at 9:09 am
HAPPY CNY!!
Gong Xi Fa Cai
Gong Hei Fatt Choy
Geong Hi Huat Chai
=D
it’s badluck to get 1 chopstick?? i got one packet with 3 chopsticks before, does that mean my badluck is tripled?? O.o noooo!!! =P
SA: I would think 3 chopsticks is lucky. If you drop one or break it, you can still eat.
Back from your trip?
February 26th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Wishing you and family a great piggie year ahead too!
SA: Thank you Just Me. The same to you and your family. Lots of happiness, health and wealth.
Thank you for visiting my blog too.
February 27th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I’ve had filipino noodles before, and they really taste different from chinese ones. You like lor bak goh? That’s the only chinese-style cake I know how to make! We have it 2-styles here. One is eat it when it is out of the steamer. Another is slice it into 1in squares and lightly panfry. Both are equally tasty!
Err… are you sure you had lormaikai for dessert?? Over here, lormaikai is a savoury glutinous rice dish with chicken, chinese sausage and mushroom. I’m sure LB can give a clearer description since it is his alltime favourite dish!
SA: I loves loh bak goh. Now the missus can make from scratch. She made it last weekend and so delicious. Just a little oyster sauce and I’m all set.
It was a glutinous rice and very yummy. Though definietly a Chinese style dessert.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
its nice to hear that you did celebrated cny in a way
u shud come over here during one of the cnys…cny mood is everywhere ..in fact, mine has still NOT worn off after the 11th day…hahaahha
SA: Glad to hear you had a wonderful holiday. If I get to Asia during CNY I am certain my missus will want us to be in Honk Kong. At least for the visitation days.
I have been celebrating CNY for 20 years now in this small way. Would be nice to do the big holiday.