Happy New Year!!

Actually, its New Year's Eve but today is the majority of the celebration. I sit here writing you with a fat stomach (no big surprise there!) and a thankful heart that I'm here spending this time with my family. Today has been all about family and it has been great. We started out with a quiet morning. Incense woke me and the smell of burning paper. It is Chinese tradition to burn paper money (fake paper money) to allow our dead relatives to prosper in our wealth. The smoke carries the wealth up to our relatives. After this most of the family who live out of town arrived, right before lunch. Before we ate lunch though, the table is set for our dead relatives again and we wait until they have had their fill before we sit and eat. After that we all sat around and talked about each others lives and "caught up". Before dinner we made a trip to see my grandfather in the hospital, he was not ready to come home today. The dialysis had taken quite a toll on him but he is doing fine and should come home soon. Dinner was fantastic! I've included a pic of the spread. Not everyone can eat at the table at once, so the pecking order goes from the oldest (my mom!) to the youngest. There was enough food for everyone and then some, a great meal for all. I can hardly move I've eaten so much but I've been told that we have to go to the night market tonight for more food, and then at midnight there is another meal!! I need to run more!! Plus tradition says that each child that is not married and hasn't finished school gets some money from each adult so I'll be passing out some cash tonight too, more that happy to! I've also included a pic of my grandmother who isn't with us anymore and her mom... and her mom! Three generations on the wall, Happy New Year!! -Tony