Lunar New Year 2015 was without Clarissa-Anne but is virtually connected via Skype as we make our traditional CNY rounds to Grandparents, Grand Aunties & Godparents place. With the festive period stretching over a weekend, its 4.5 days of festivities ending each day tired ....
Traditional Lo-hei started with the re-union dinner, followed by the first day of house-visits and merry making. Guess its something that we do take for granted when we are at home, but greatly missed when we are overseas. (This is the dish where the slices of fishes just disappears after tossing !! Apparently, this is practised only in Singapore & Malaysia)
The family group photograph is surely a MUST (for attendance taking !!), only there's greater competition of shutter bugs as the years goes by. Aside from the usual "still" shots, video taking is slowly creeping it as the pictures are intertwined with videos to present a clip for the YouTube to mark the occasion. Guess our Crop Communication role has been expanding. (See : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_dkSL056oo&feature=youtu.be )
New clothes on the 1st Day of CNY is almost mandatory. This year, the sisters-in-law showed up in "flowery" dress theme (more commonly referred to as 1 tree with 2 flowers ... there was also a table cloth .... somewhere !!!).
As Tai-Ji is into her golden years, we dropped by Marine Parade to meet up with her there together with Che Mimi & her family (with a chow-chow, family dog !!!)
Meeting up at Godparent's place is our last stop for Day 1. With Jared & Liz also joining us there. Meeting up with God family, friends and neighbours is what keep the CNY spirit going, year after year. Clare's presence was also felt via Skype. The brother was of course most happy to accept her hong-pow on her behalf.
Un-coodinated, the god sisters were in Cheong-Sam, so it was also a photo opportunity to have them snapped one for the album.
Day 2, was the open-house day for us. Some of the office staff came up to share the festive spirit. We had representative from China, Thailand, India, Malaysia & Singapore staff coming by. Good exchange of culture and best practices from our neighing countries on how CNY is celebrated there
Janson & Debra (from JasonSally) came by in the evening with Sarah-Marie's friends and Grand-aunty's family also came by, sharing their kueh-lapis secrets & baking know-how.
We technically had 3 generations of visitors that evening to celebrate the festive event, adding and re-inforcing the spirit of CNY.
Day 3 was less active/hectic with ex-office friends meeting up and catching up on old times ... and having a good laugh at the good old days.
A parting shot, by the multi-purpose Pine Tree, outside the house which was decorated up for the Christmas period and now transformed to meet a more "Chinese" Theme for the Lunar New Year.
