Happy Chinese New Year

Boy, am I in need of an update. Our trip to Malaysia was fantastic. The time passed so quickly and before I knew it, I was back in Milan again. How I miss the warm weather, family and friends!

We all ending up arriving on the same day, my sis and matt from Chicago, and us from Milan. It was the eve of the Year of the Ox.


We were only going to 'balik kampung' on the 2nd day, so we had a 'how-many-KL-malls-can-you-hit-in-one-day' kind of day. We did see a couple lion dances.


I think the count ended up being 5. Or was it 6? Of course with some stops for fortification.


Here I'm missing a bunch of pictures from our day back in the kampung visiting relatives. They are in my sis' camera. But the end result was the following. Stefano was quite impressed with how many red packets you could bag during the new year!


Since the Chinese New Year celebrations stretch out for a good 15 days, there were many more lion dances and dinners to be had. Here we are at my aunty Connie's house, warding off the bad spirits with the lions, and loud firecrackers and drums.


Picture with my mom's side of the family. There's a good number of us, no?


We had yee sang countless of times. The higher you toss, the more luck the new year will bring!


Lots of food...


My cousin Edward teaching Stefano how to play mahjong.


Another dinner, this time at our house.



The menfolk chowing down.


We also celebrated dad's birthday.


Look at the kids goofing around. ;-)


A family shot.

Plus one. Poor matt was not feeling well. ;-(


Another with my cousins.


I probably hadn't celebrated CNY at home in 10 years. That's too bad because it was the one time you were sure to meet all the relatives, even the far flung ones that you would only see once a year.