This past weekend was the Chinese New Year, and like most years we headed back to Indonesia to celebrate with my wife’s family. This is something that we try to do every year, since it’s an important time for SO and her family.
For those who don’t know, SO is Indonesian, born and raised there, but is ethnically Chinese. Both her parents were born in China and moved to Indonesia when they were teenagers, and as such still follow a lot of Chinese customs. This means family is very important to them, and a family gathering at CNY is always done.
When we go to Jakarta for the new year, we always stay at her parent’s house, which is the centre point for the celebrations, with everyone visiting there. Most years there will be tons of food and every meal there will be at least a handful of visitors.
Jay loves this as all his cousins and uncles and aunts will be there and he has a great time playing with them. Even though all of his cousins are older than him, the youngest is 6 years older than him and the oldest is about 30, he still gets in there and has a great time playing with them.
His favourite aunt also spoils him, and this year she got out a traditional Indonesian grill on which they cooked corn, fish and prawns. I’m not sure how much he enjoyed the food, but he absolutely loved fanning the fire to get the heat up. We all ended up smelling of smoke.
This year was a little different than most though since my Mother-In-Law was only released from hospital in Singapore on the eve, and as such didn’t have time to cook and make all the dishes that she normally does. There was still food at the house, but the family decided to do the two main get together meals at restaurants. Unfortunately we missed the meal on the eve as our flight was delayed and we didn’t arrive in Jakarta until later than planned.
The meal on the New Year’s Day was awesome though with everyone in SO’s immediate family turning up. I’m not going to add this up, but everyone includes, SO, Jay and myself, SO’s mother (her father passed away 2 years ago), her 3 brothers and 3 sisters, 2 brother-in-laws, 3 sister-in-laws, 5 nieces, 5 nephews, 1 niece’s husband, and 2 nephews girlfriends.
Okay, I did add that up and it comes to 28 people. Not bad considering we all sat at the same table to eat. And yes, if you’re wondering, there was a ton of great food and I almost needed help being carried out afterwards.
As an outsider, I always love the CNY celebration and getting to spend time playing with all the kids (who aren’t really kids anymore) and eating constantly for the whole time we’re there. Between this and Christmases in Australia I pretty much don’t need to eat for the rest of the year.
Happy Chinese New Year 😄😄😄