20mins to....

the year of the Tiger. Well, according to the Chinese Calendar at least. For those of you out there who are non-Chinese, every Lunar Year is represented by an Animal. The coming year is represented by the big cat above... The current year is represented by the Ox and the year after the Tiger would be the Rabbit...

It is a tradition for ALL Chinese families to gather on the eve of the Lunar New Year (LNY) for a special dinner known as the Reunion Dinner.... and we are no exception. This year, again, dinner's over at my place. Reason being the dinner table is the biggest amongst my siblings :p.

Starting from 5pm, the noisy and activity level in the house began building up, climax-ing at about 8pm before subsiding briefly and ended with a final bang around 10pm :) Apparently, one of my Sister arrived at 5pm to help out with the preparation for the dinner. My eldest Sis arrived slightly later to join in the "fun". My Bro finally arrived around 7pm and that's the moment the noisy level peaked.... it kind of subsided after we had our dinner as everyone's full beyond capacity and could not even muster any strength to make any noise, except the kids....The noisy level went up for one finally rally as we had the traditional tossing of the raw fish salad aka Yu Sheng for good luck. We are supposed to say/shout/scream/etc auspicious words or phrases as we toss the salad... the higher you toss it before dropping it back to the plate, the better it is supposed to be. As such, its not surprising to sometimes find someone voiceless or hands full of salad post-toss. :p

Tomorrow's going to be another long day.... My relatives are going come over and visit Hero. For me, I'm mentally preparing to answer the usual questions from them. As for what they'd be asking, no prizes for the correct guesses :)

Happy Lunar New Year to you and your folks. May the year of the Tiger brings to you immerse prosperity, health and good luck in whatever you do.....