Happy Chinese New Year 2567!

 The cool kids

First of all I want to wish you a happy happy Chinese New Year of the monkey! It's our year yo mwahaha. I mean, I'm a monkey so yeah haha. I wish you great health, happiness and prosperity in this coming year ahead! And I hope you had a great day with your loved ones. I can't believe the year of the goat has ended now! Well it was an alright year I guess, and it seems like the year of the monkey is going to be an exciting year for me. Hopefully it'll be an awesome year! :)

This is like the quietest and most chill CNY I've ever experienced haha. Not sure why there were not many people who came and visited us. Not being anti-social but... I kinda like it haha. Well it's always a busy and bustling day for us on this day. So it's kind of nice to have a pretty chill day.

My whole family gathered on Sunday (CNY Eve) and it was such a lovely day. All of my cousins gathered for the yearly reunion lunch (not dinner yes) and it was a pretty awesome afternoon. It feels so weird to see all of us growing up really. Some of us are already married/engaged and my cousin brought her lovely daughter! She's so cute. Spent the day chatting and just chilling with my cousins.

I woke up earlier in the morning too to cook! Decided to try and make vegetarian five-spice balls for the lunch as well. Well it's usually made with pork but I made the vegetarian version, substituting it with chickpeas! I feel it's a success. But I feel something is quite missing. But my aunts were saying it tastes like meatball so it's kind of a success? Haha. Shall post the recipe soon :)

I went to the temple in the evening cause my dad asked me to bring some fruits for the deities at the temple. It was packed! It was also my first time going to the temple during CNY eve so it was an eye opener. Many people were praying, and some others were waiting to see a lion dance performance.

Continued chilling with the cousins again throughout the night, strumming guitars and also helping one of my cousins with her assignment on fungi hahaha. Oh man I don't know like 95% of the questions. Thankfully my others cousins still remember on this topic and they were helping out too. I helped her by translating the questions from English to Indonesian. Pretty lovely evening I must say!

After doing the midnight prayers to the ancestors, we give out the angpao as usual and then... My brothers-in-law were drinking whisky with my uncle haha. I decided to join in with my cousins and drank 3 shots. I hate whisky oh my goodness. I'll stick with vodka and beer. Also it was my first time being so drunk in front of my parents. I hope they are not shocked... Haha. Well I'm a quiet drunk so I didn't do and talk anything funny. I was just quiet throughout the rest of the night. 

As for today well my aunt, sister and I were on standby at my grandmother's house to receive guests. But like I said above there were not many guests today. Perhaps it's the rain, perhaps it's the long weekend, not sure why either but hey, at least we were not so packed and busy haha. Usually by 10 AM people would start coming over. But today there were no guests till like 12.30 PM I think.

You know they say what you do on the first day of the lunar new year, will be a reflection of how the rest of the year will go. So I suppose I'll have a pretty chill year? Haha. Well whatever it is, I'm just going to make this year the best lunar new year yet! Continuing doing great things, doing good things to other people, I'm pretty sure you won't go wrong in life. Do good, think good, and you'll receive good.

It's supposed to be a not-so-good year for the monkeys since we clash with the grand duke of the year. Well I guess let's just not do more bad things in this year.

Alright once again I just wanna wish you a happy Chinese New Year! May this new year of the monkey be a great year for you, filled with health, happiness and prosperity :)