CNY Eve

On the eve of Chinese New Year Craig and his parents went up into the hills to his grandparents house. When he arrived he was flat out as usual.

It wasn't long before he had some company when his Mum and Aunty Bess came to chat.

Not long later, Uncle Guapo and Aunty Yu-fang joined the crowd.

But that left Craig's cousin, Soit Jade alone in front of the TV watching Japanese children dancing.

In the interest of fairness the crowd moved to the living room. Craig's little cousin started getting stuck into the lollies and any other junk food that she could convince her aunts and uncles to open for her.

Then, it was back to standing too close to the TV and watching/dancing along with the Japanese children.

Not long later, it was time to hand out the red envelopes. Craig was the big winner. He had more red envelopes than anyone else.

When that was done, it was time to go outside and let off firecrackers. The Lee family have all of this stuff down to a fine art. There is a very definite rhythm to their Chinese New Year celebrations. Every year is the same (in a good way).

This year, Aunty Bess took charge of setting of the crackers, rockets etc.

She had some assistance from Aunty Suprana.

Craig didn't like the firecrackers at all. He was much happier sitting inside away from the noise with his Grandmother.

Craig's cousin was a little braver but stayed close to Mum.

When everyone came back inside Craig was the centre of attention again.

The next day, the weather was cold, damp and very windy. So, we all took a trip to Guandu, where the Tamsui River meets the sea.


Craig seemed to like the fresh air. Every picture taken of him was blurred because he was moving his hands and feet every second.

All in all, it was a really fun way to start the week-off that came with Chinese New Year this year.