Happie Goat Year- Reunion & Day 1

 Reunion dinner of eve of CNY is at my parents in law house where my Mother in law will prepare hotpot & hot plate. It's easier to have hotpot since we can cook whatever we like and also preparation only involves cutting up the meats, ingredients, most of all my mil need not cook up a storm on that day. We have been having this every year since I married in.

Yu sheng

Hot plate & hot pot

We arrived early at 9am to my in law's place and played with the kids while waiting for them to get ready. See the little nephew who is like a wringgly worm, cannot take good photo with him. But he is adorable to play with.

Moving here & there

Gotta hold him tight for a photo

 Noticed that Mr Love didn't hold this little worm in any of the photos becuase he cannot handle the movements, even I struggle to hold properly sometimes.

And a 3 person photo

 And we started witht he annual greetings. Mr Love's family is more traditional than my in this year. In our household, we need not do this. I dun even say Happy new year to my parents, ever since I got married Mr Love is the one who wished them and I am just in charge of giving the ang baos which I suspect they are more interested in.

Wishing my parents in law good health

My younger sis in law wishing us

Aiden wishing us but he was not happy with too much photo taking

Lastly, Brenden wishing us with help of his mummy

Super love this shot

We will then take an annual family photo before moving out to grand-dad in law house for family gathering.

Annual family photo

Aiden says he want to follow us

 Since Aiden is much older now, he will chose to stay with us since his parents have to give more attention to his kid brother. But he is very well behave, giving us no trouble when with us. We can bring him to walk 20min back & froth to the convenience store and he would entertain us with his chats along the way. Then the the playground before going home.

As much as he loves being with us since we spoilt him, I also love his company since he is very chatty and listens well whenever he needs to:)

A photo @ Ah Gong's place

With Mr Love's pretty cousins

Happie Goat Year -Preparation

In a blink of eyes, we entered the year of Goat. This year, Lunar New Year came a bit late in late Feb giving us more time to prepare. But as usual, I left things till the last minute to complete. Hehe.

Preparation for CNY is usually span across a few week, getting new clothes (good excuse for me yay..), storing some food like fishes (年年有余）, prawns, chicken and hanging up China Leeks (蒜） is a must do for my house though I am from the younger generation.

Cod fishes

 My colleagues were amazed by my "Auntieness" since not all of them follow the customs now. But these were past down from both my mummy and mother-in-law. And since it is not too bothersome, must as well follow.

Tiger prawns

Happy Goat year

 Not sure have anyine noticed, but the prices of CNY cookies now are crazy! A small bottle of Pineapple tarts costs at least SGD15, Medium bottle of Deep fried chiku will set you back by SGD12.50. BBQ pork is SGD 50 for a kg.

I am not a big fan of CNY cookies either is Mr Love and since we are not expecting visitors in our house, we skipped buying the goodies this year. Hehe There are alot of wastage the previous year and it is sinful to throw the food away.

That being said, we still went ahead and make the deep fried chiku on the weekend before CNY. 1KG of chiku costs SGD6 though we need to skin it and slice and deep fried 1 by 1. Time consuming but Mr Love loves it.

Homemade goodies

 Then not forgetting I got wonderful neighbour who will gift us her very yummy pineapple tarts every year, hehe I need not buy any since Auntie's version win hands down. We finished her prawn crackers way before CNY and thus it is not in the picture. Muhahaha.

Our goodies thes year. Gifts & homemade

I've got a habit of buying new bedsheet every year to the horror of Mr Love since the cupboard is bursting with all the past year's bedsheet. Hehe. See my 2015 version of 花开富贵 nice?

2015 花开富贵

 Lastly not to forget the 年糕（步步高升） & 发糕  from the 2 mothes and viola the preparation is complete!!

年糕& 发糕

Of Bonus and Increments

It's time of the year again for bonus and increments not for all companies but at least for mine. After going through last year's scary exercise, frankly speaking any form of payout before CNY is a bonus for me.

Of course there are some who had forgotten about the lesson last year or mistakenly think it's a good year for 2014 and then expect a lot or rather much more from the payout.

There are mixed reactions to this year's payout which is not unexpected.

It's only natural than we compare with one and other but in the process how not to let the whole thing affects yourself is the biggest challenge.

I ever saw an article on this which tides me through the difficult time when I got shortchanged for a bonus payout once.

A guy got 10,000 bucks for his bonus this year and with below scenarios, there were different outcomes.

1). He found out that most of his colleagues got similar amount as him and he felt relieved. Therefore he called home and told his wife he will be buying additional dish back for dinner.

2). He found out that most colleagues got lesser amount than him and he felt elated. Therefore he called home and told his wife no to cook but he will bring the whole family out for dinner.

3). He found out the most of his colleagues got a larger bonus than him and he felt dejected. Therefore he called home an told his wife not to cook his share as he has no mood to take dinner.

Morale of the story, even though the bonus amount is the same but because there were comparison done the person's mood got affected greatly.

Many a times I will remind myself about this story and would be able to cheer up.

Truth is, bonus is suppose to be a happy thing regardless of the amount what other people gets. If you think you are compensate enough for the year of work done than you should be glad for the payout.

That said, not many get compensated based on their hard work. There are many other deciding factors and should you lack one of it, it would affect your payout greatly.

Personally, I think it's the greatest time of the year and you should spread the happiness with your family members.

In my case, both my parents get a sum of monies for their pre-new year purchases for clothes or goodies. Then will set aside another sum for the ang bao during CNY and lastly a feast on the day we go back on the 2nd day of CNY. The amount varies each year with my bonus payout every year, even without any payout last year, I did give them a token sum. Afterall, CNY is a happy occasion for us Chinese, I can do without a proper celebration but I cannot let the family suffer with me.

Like all couples, we do gift each other during bonus period and whether my mood is good or not directly impacts Mr Love the most. It's unfair to take it out of him in the case the payout is not up to my expectations.

Hopefully everyone will have a good payout this year and can have a good year with their love ones.