#Pink's Family's Chinese New Year 2013

Hey guys!

I’ve been procrastinating on writing my Chinese New Year celebration, but now the time has come to finally do it! I literally dragged my lazy ass and sat myself in front of my lappie to write this! As you probably know already, I’m (and #Undecided) a Chinese Indonesian, which means I’m a Chinese descendant, born and raised in Indonesia. I am proud being both a Chinese and an Indonesian, and I’m delighted that our little blog’s read by many nationalities and I want to show you all more how Chinese Indonesian (well, not all of us, I mean my family LOL) celebrate the most important day on Chinese calendar, Chinese New Year. Warning : Super picture heavy!

Happy belated Chinese New Year from my entire big family :D

Like I said many times, I’m not a morning person, and on CNY I had to set up my alarm very early (again, in my standard, maybe not so early for most people haha) and drag myself to the shower. Oh, one of the ritual (more traditional) Chinese Indonesian family does (I know for a fact #Undecided and my other BFFs don’t do this, my family’s  definitely much more traditional and superstitious than theirs hehe), after showering you’d have to do “flower bath” (sorry I’m really confused on how to call this). As in using flowers mixed with a bucketful of water to rinse yourself, from the top of your head. This symbolizes getting rid of any bad luck and misfortune that might be waiting for you in the new year. Since the flower’s been soaked since the night before, let me tell you this, the water’s freezing cold!!!! Brrrrr… That totally woke me up though :p.

Then I got dressed all in red (a must in Chinese culture, and they should be brand new, especially the undies :p) and put on my make up (read here for a more detailed entry on my CNY look) and dragged myself (and hunny) down stair, where my parents and KC (my elder brother) family’s already waiting. As expected, a friend of my mum’s family’s already there (usually Chinese family has an “open house” on CNY so any visitors are welcome, there’ll be plenty of food and snacks and sweets to welcome them), they been doing this for years so no surprise there. Me and CL (my sis in law) did a last minute hong bao (red packets containing money which married people have to give unmarried people, especially the younger ones) stuffing because we were quite shocked by the number of people showing up, not prepared!

Anyhow, I’m not much of a people person, i’m loud and crazy only around people I know well (family and friends) but I’m really shy around strangers or mere acquaintances, so I hid inside my parents room until they all left. Not only hid, I was also cooling myself because it was crazy hot on CNY (but now it’s cool and rainy again, weird. Seemed like the cool weather’s avoiding CNY because it was only hot on days surrounding CNY!) and I didn’t want my make up to melt so fast LOL. My nieces flocked to me (naturally, I’m the cool aunt, ask them), and we contemplated on getting our pictures taken by hunny, which turned out quite bad -___-, so we had to settle for a selca, to a much better result anyway :p.

With my two pretty nieces

 My notti Baby Boy

Dressed my two boys in special twinnies Snake Year tees :D

After the other family left, my sister’s family arrived (I’m the youngest of four siblings, my eldest brother’s (KD) 12 years older than me, my sister’s (CW) 11 years older than me and my other brother’s (KC) 7 years older than me, I have 5 nephews and 3 nieces, but my eldest sis-in-law and their 3 kids lives in Manokwari, Irian) family arrived, so we went to have mandatory breakfast of misua and hard boiled eggs with boiled chicken broth. There were other food as well (my mum’s an excellent cook but she very rarely cook, we have a cook), but the misua’s a must, oh and a ronde (Chinese glutinous balls in sweet ginger broth) too. 

This huge ass table is only used during special occasion because it's simply too big and not cozy, we used a smaller table at the back on daily basis

On second thought, I should’ve taken pictures of those food but I didn’t *slaps self*, so here’s a picture of misua and ronde, courtesy of google.

Misua

Ronde

After breakfast’s done, it’s time to do the hong bao giving rituals. Married people should also give their parents hong baos, and the parents would (or wouldn’t, it’s not mandatory I think) give the children hong baos too (whether or not they’re married. I think it’s a symbol of giving their blessings to their children). So, all of us (my siblings+spouses) lined up to wish our parents a happy new year (or known as Bai Nian/Happy new year greeting) and gave them hong baos (and receive from them). There are some pictures of us fooling around before and during Bai Nian well (you can see that my family's quite fun-loving and crazy :p). 

Showing off our hong baos

Lining up according to age and "status" LOL (because my sister's husband's older than my eldest brother but considered "lower" in ranks because he's married to the second child :p

Our family’s all narcissistic so we every time it’s someone’s turn to bai nian we all would pose like crazy and make the assigned photographers took our pictures, won’t torture you with all of our crazy pictures lah (also don’t want to embarrassed self), let me show you just a few.

Hunny and KC trying to steal CW's unattended hong baos

Me and hunny was the last in line so we photo-bombed everybody whenever it was anyone's turn so when it's (finally) our turn no surprise that people were taking their revenge LOL

Hunny kept on disturbing people with Baby Boy's plastic gun -___-

Again...

The it’s the grandkids’ turn to greet their grand parents, here’s a picture of my nephews and nieces (minus the three in Manokwari) and my very own Baby Boy. They’re lining up according to their age (they all came in groups of similar ages, in this case even a month difference counts, LOL), they’re all aged 17-5 (5’s my Baby Boy lah, as normal 5 year olds, it’s very hard for him to focus. Making him stay in line was really really a hard task, we kept on having to yell at him because he’d keep on trying to runaway zzzz).

When it was my niece Bb’s turn to bai nian she went crazy and threw herself on the floor, like in dramas you know? And the rest of the line followed suit -___-, they earned extra hong baos from the granny for doing so though *ROFL*.

See her gesturing for two hong baos LOLOL

Next in line didn't want to be left out, he seemed to be kowtow-ing in this picture *ROFL*, note that we DO NOT do that seriously, this is 21st century after all LOL

Baby Boy quickly copied his elder cousins' action

Then the siblings also line up to greet each other, I’m the youngest so I always have to wait a long time to our turn -___-…

Since we do not exchange hong baos then we presented them with oranges lor (no lah it's only a prop LOL)

Then all the kids lined up again to greet their parents and aunts and uncles!

Fast forward to the last in line okay :p

Even all of the helps (my mum’s many maids, I’m not even sure how many maids we have. Then also my sister’s maids, our drivers, etc etc) also lined up to receive hong baos from us (our employees all came too but they’re considered guests so they didn’t have to line up lah haha they got to stay at the living room and snack and chat).

They do so much for us everyday, must put up their pic too to thank them all lah haha

Took some family pictures but i was really unhappy with the angling, i was in the absolute front! Looked like a giant lah zzzz.

In Chinese traditions, you have to go to your family elders’ house. Since my dad’s parents are deceased (as well as my mum’s dad) and my mum’s mum is in Singapore, we went to my cousin L’s grandma’s place (my grand aunt, our eldest relative in Surabaya). Since she’s at L’s new house and L couldn’t leave her house (another Chinese people’s tradition, after you gave birth you should not leave the house for 40 days-die…) so we get ready to go there to bai nian, more cam-whoring session first, obvi..

LOL. Then my sis saw us and rushed to joined us

So, one more lor :p

Even before entering the car we cam-whored some more LOL, the only picture where you get to see our (new? Mine was!) sandals and shoes :p

That's my 17 years old's nephew's car LOL, don't ask me the type lah i also dunno

This was the first time I ever visit L’s new house as well haha. Kill two birds with one stone :p. Took many pictures there (obvi).They have a very pretty and cosy house, love it!

Wahahaha noisy guests evading their place :p

That's my cousin L with her little girl, Elaine :D

Little Elaine's super adorable! I just wanna bite her!

This is a very hard pic to take okay, too much photog at the same time LOL, everybody's looking at different ones! At least most of us looked at the right one in this shot :p (there are like, 20 non usable pics of this same style LOLOL)

These crazy people instisted to take a picture in front of the huge fan, pretending to be a supermodel with their flyaway hairs i guess LOLOL

Next destination (with L’s family minus L and her newborn baby boy who had to stay behind :p, poor L, it’s like that for Chinese families, we visit each other’s house back and forth to pay our respects  LOL)’s my sister’s new home. It’s super new and they haven’t even properly moved in yet, so it’s actually very bare and still unfinished. I don’t know if you can see it but it’s seriously massive (CL often joke that it’s not really a house but a mall, LOL). Like, crazy massive. My house’s huge but our backyard’s huge as well so the building’s not crazy huge. I think my sis’ house’s even bigger and with full building, imagine that.

The almost-non-furnished living room and dining area

CL with her chocolate gold bars and coins LOL

Indonesian "finger food"

Isn't this cake pretty?

Let me show you more of my sis (unfinished and unfurnished LOL) house, okay!

Hunny acting like he's pissing at KC LOL, those two are simply nutz

Need to punch in security password or scan your finger prints before you can enter the rooms, how crazy is that? That's CL acting like her finger's stuck in the finger print scan LOL

One part of my sis's room (not the part where they keep their bed, that's like another room altogether)

Huge, bigger than most 5 stars hotel's bathroom, LOL

CL, inspecting the shower area. Hello me on the reflection!

Found a nice mirror in one of the kids' room, cannot help myself, must cam-whore!

Didn’t stay (too) long because we still needed to go bai nian to Hunny’s mum’s place (his dad passed away while we were in uni). Like I said, I’m not very comfortable around people who are not my own family and friends, and I’m not particularly close to my mother-in-law *LOL*, not that I have any problem with her either. When most Chinese (or any other culture I guess) girls got married they’d get into their husband’s family, not me. In fact, my husband got into my family *LOL*. 

I remember my mum said once that it was a requirement for my future husband, to be willing to get into my family instead. I’m my parents little girl and always will be, no matter how old (I’m old already) I get hehe. This is also the reason why we don’t live in our own house, not like we cannot afford it, but my parents won’t let me (and not like I have the heart to leave them alone in this huge house, they are not exactly very young anymore). Might be hard to understand for any Westerner reading this? But that’s the way (some) Asian people are. Anyway, I don’t exactly mind since our massive room up stairs’ like our own apartment anyway.

Anyway, I didn’t take any picture in MIL’s place, it was really quiet there because there was nobody but hunny’s mum, hunny’s only (elder) brother and his wife already gone back to their apartment. We stayed for a bit, chit chatting a bit (I just found out that MIL fell down while morning walking in the neighborhood, even the face got bruised. It was pretty bad. Being a *ahem* good daughter in law I immediately fill up a jar with Egyptian Magyk-which is really a magical thing-and made hunny sent it to her place later) and stuffs then we went back home to rest a bit.

I said rest a bit and really a bit lah because annoying Baby Boy wouldn’t stop disturbing me while I tried to take a little nap zzzz. That little boy really… It’s like he’s very unhappy whenever he sees people sleeping while he is awake, he’d do anything (from kicking his feet on the bed, playing on his Ipad loudly, making loud noises with his mouth, playing with the curtain open-close-open-close *sreeekkk sreeekkkk sreeeeeekkk srekkkkkkk* to throwing his (super heavy) self on one’s sleeping form) to disturb you! GRRRRRR.

Got a phone call from my mum (yes, the house’s so big the only way you can contact the person up stairs is by calling them) around 5 something telling me to get ready by 6 because we’re having CNY dinner at my sister’s place. I freshen up (you can see my evening detailed look from the same entry) and put on another new (red) dress and went to my sister’s (again).

She already prepared (bought, not cooked. Although she’s better than me I don’t think she’s an expert in cooking :p, my sis-in-law CL is THE expert, she cooks and bake yummy things! My other sis-in-law CJ’s also good!) the feasts, buffet style.

Hmph, dunno what my sis was pointing at

There were also my brother-in-law’s relatives there, I was instantly feeling awkward -___- (so no close up pictures of the foods), it’s so annoying being me sometimes. Whenever I see someone new (or not so new, I’ve known these people for years!) or not very close to me I just wanna run and hide -___-… I also find it very hard to eat around strangers, but fortunately there were a lot more of my own family, gradually I felt better and forgotten my stupid diet *haish*, attacking especially the duck from duck king I told you about on the CNY eve post  and the dove (OMG, I just realized “burung dara” is the same as “merpati” which is dove, I feel so cruel now, but they are so yummy…) meat… I heard CW told CL “Our cholesterol’s going to the roof, duck meat and dove meat” LOL… Okay, diet start tomorrow lah okay *unconvincing* :p.

We just mingle and chit chatting while eating (and afterward), just a relaxing (NOT, so much mosquitoes!!! HUWAAAAAAA!!!! HATE mosquitoes!!!), me especially with my two nieces. Told ya I’m the cool aunt, they always want to be around me *smug*.

My niece Bb kept on asking me to take pictures with her and she said "OMG kuku, you look like our sister here!!!", LOL, love ya Bb :p.

And whenever my bro KC and his wife CL’s around, silly things bound to happen. We always take the silliest pictures whenever we are together *totally their ideas, I remember going to Madam Tussaud’s tour museum in Singapore many years ago and they cam-whored like crazy with all of the wax statues, doing all kind of crazy poses. Actually we just relived it last year at Genting’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum, I’ll do travel posts on them in the future okay* and this time’s no exception.

Silly pictures started when KC and hunny sat at the large mat (it was used for Selamatan or praying rituals when they “officially” moved to this house, remember, Chinese and very superstitious we are. They even have a special suhu or spiritual master to count  the perfect and most prosperous date and hour on where they should move in) in the living room area, pretending to watch the TV when in fact there was nothing but the wall there…

See? They're watching a bare wooden wall LOL

Later on they dragged us to join them and pretended we were watching a football (soccer :p) match or something, asking us to yell out “GOALLLLLLLL!!!” on cue, totally attracting CW to see what’s the crazy noise’s all about LOLOL. And that didn’t stop there, KC made us re-enact the whole thing one more time whilst he recorded the whole thing on his camera -___-… told ya my bro’s mad. *Don’t have the video, don’t ask me to upload it*

More crazy people watching the wall -___-

GOALLLL!!!! (????)

No, it didn’t end there. We also pretended to queue up in front of the (not yet operating) lift zzz. Oh yeah, my sister’s house got a frigging lift WTF ROFL..

Waiting for the never-coming lift

This one's more convincing, yeah? LOL

It was originally only me, hunny, KC and CL who first lined up there like retarded people but more and more people were attracted and start lining up as well -___-… Even KW’s relatives. Really, we’re such bad influences…

More family pics :

From my sister’s house, even though I was getting sleepy (I don’t usually wake up so early…), since KC and his family were going back to (our actual hometown, all four of us siblings were born there) Banjarmasin we weren’t ready to call it a night yet (by we i mean me, hunny, KC and CL, we're a bit of a four musketeers), instead we went (by now it’s almost a ritual, been doing this so many time whenever they were in Surabaya) to Café Pisa (yes, we discussed other places and stuffs but somehow anyhow we ended up at Café Pisa anyway zzzz) for some drinks and ice cream. We tried calling our usual Café Pisa crew (#Undecided and hubby plus KC’s couple friends) but they were unable to join us to there were only the four of us :p.

KC and hunny had some weird-named beer which I tried and it was really light and sweet, this is the first time ever I had a beer which I actually liked! I hate beers in general (only down them it that’s the only alcoholic drink around #desperation LOL). I had a long drink named “California Motherf***er”, and yeah, you guessed right, I only had it because I was attracted to the name LOLOL.

With the motherf***er LOLOL, i just like to repeat the name :p

It was super strong though, like 80% of the whole tall glass was spirit. My God. I was high in no time LOL :p. CL was the only one who had ice cream haha.

I was seriously high after I finished the whole drink, with straw some more *____*, and like last time on New year’s Eve I was starting to develop rashes and itchiness everywhere, FML. I had a very good night sleep though! The motherf***er worked better than my sleeping pills! LOL. 

So that’s how my CNY went! If you had a CNY post on your blog feel free to leave the link on the comment bellow, I’d love to check them out!