Happy Chinese New Year of the Ssssnakeeee 🐍

This year isn't a mad rush to get ready as the lion dance was to arrive at 11am. So we all got up, ate breakfast then got ready and dressed up.

Daddy in the meantime had his usual "job" to set up the firecrackers and the angpow with the lettuce. 

Hanging the firecrackers

Typing up both the lettuce and ang pow together

Hanging them up

I had also prepared the basket with oranges last night and got the help of the kids to set up the cloth and "gold nuggets":

And all too soon the lion dance arrived (before 11am!!):

Along with the "percussion":

Everyone loves the performance. Including this little one:

Took a photo of the "men" of the family while the lions were inside the house:

Neither George nor Alfred seemed afraid of the lion:

After the performance ended, we took a family photo:

And when they'd left, we also took many photos:

Then it was time to head to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Everyone had their role to do for the meal. This year's self-declared egg chef Evan, went MIA. So his "assistant" had to fry the eggs:

My job is to cook the mee suah (just the noodles).

And this is the amazing soup for the mee suah. And the chilies which has lime juice and soy sauce:

This is what the meal looks like:

We finally had the time to give ang pow to our babies:

And then everyone took more family photos:

And later in the afternoon, we found the time to blend up the ingredients for the seung wan yuen (peanut balls), then shape them:

While some cooked outside in the wet kitchen, the rest, including the kids helped to peel and cut up all the fruits for our lou sang. 

And then come up with idea to make the "snake" too. Can you see the snake's head along with the tongue and eyes? Ko-ko came up with the idea to use the apple seeds for the eyes.. good idea!

This "runway chef" from lunch also helped to fry up some stuff and later cut up the lobak (taxing some along the way too!):

And finally dinner is served after we have prayed to the ancestors. 

Our dinner spread

Everyone stirring up the lou sang

This time after cleaning up, the kids (and adults) went out to play with the fireworks. 

And to usher in the new year, we had TWO sets of fireworks. One was a smaller one, and another was a big and very impressive one:

Daddy setting up the fireworks

This is the larger fireworks:

After that, we all went in to have the "longan-lychee" dessert. Just nice after sitting in the heat outside. 

The evening (in true Ban tradition) ended with the usual evening alcohol session in the living room, with everyone chatting, drinking and snacking.