It's that time of year when this part of the world comes to a stand-still. Families are visited, decorations put up, reunion dinners held, and these red envelopes, which contain money, are given out to those who are single and younger than you.
Samara knows all about the money! Fish and gold are both auspicious and at $5 a bag, Goldfish are a real treat (though I think we brought these back at Christmas).
Lizzie was so excited about the ...
...paper. It is delicacy to her.
Ben normally works during public holidays and takes time off other days because it is CRAZY everywhere when everybody has the day off (remember, Singapore is one of the most densely populated countries in the world). However, this holiday Ben opted to take the time off, which meant a 4-day weekend for us. We had great plans...
We thought since everyone was visiting their families, Thursday would be a good day to go to Sentosa. Ben's Chinese co-worker thought so too. Well, Singapore's Chinese residents were definitely unaccounted for but I'm certain every Malay and Indian was present. Together they make up 23.6% of Singapore's population (over a million people). It was a seriously crowded beach! And I'm not even going to mention how many pictures were taken of the girls or how we had to walk to the little island via the new boardwalk because the wait for the monorail was too long or how then the bus dropped us off at the wrong beach and we walked and walked some more.
We didn't fare much better Friday on our two outings. I opened the paper Saturday morning and saw each of three places we'd been, featured on one page, and had a good chuckle! Sadly, we didn't get to really see much of what we wanted or get any exciting pictures but we do did ALOT of extra walking. I'm not superstitious but I'm starting to think this is all because I put $4 in Samara's Hong Bao not thinking about how that is a "no no" as 4 is the most unlucky number!
On the bright side the walking meant we got to eat more of these. Pineapple tarts are a new favorite of mine!
Saturday, we headed to the Science Center for a wintry Lunar New Year celebration. We don't even have a picture of the awesome shaved iced/fake snow (to the left). We only caught the tail end of a Lion dance. *Sigh* again. But hopefully we can catch one in our neighborhood before the holiday officially ends this weekend. Because you simply can't start out a new Lunar New Year without seeing a proper Lion Dance.
Here is to hopping the year of the Rabbit brings you and yours happiness and prosperity!
love this post! your pictures are fantastic!
ReplyDeleteSamara looks like she is getting really good at holding baby Lizzie. They are both darling! And your pineapple tarts were SO GOOD! Happy Chinese New Year!
ReplyDeleteHow cool! Bummer everything was so crowded!!
ReplyDeleteDid you get a chance to make awesome sand castles?...Remember our rainy day at sentosa.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that out of all the crazy you got to eat yummy treats.
This is like trying to pick the fastest checkout line at the store and always getting the slowest, only about ten times worse! Oh well, some days are like that.
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