Festively in fashion

Chinese New Year is much celebrated in our household. For my mother-in-law, it's THE event of the year and over the course of two weeks, our kitchen is transformed into a military kitchen as she goes into a culinary frenzy, whipping up goodies from pineapple tarts to carrot and pumpkin kueh.

On top of that, we stock up on all the usual festive yums like love letters, kueh baulu, bak kwa, cashews, pistachios, sweets, etc etc (and only from the tried and tested shops) - enough to feed an army.

Apart from the food, we follow many other CNY traditions, like decorating our home with seasonal motifs (the Ikea snakes made a special appearance this year), buying CNY flowers and adorning our beds with new sheets.

No prizes for guessing what is Andre's favourite colour.  When he wears his red t-shirt and sits on his bed, the effect is pretty surreal.

Among all the CNY traditions though, the one I dislike is getting new pajamas and clothes. It's not that I scorn the custom, it's the shopping bit that I find a big hassle. That's right. I'm one of those rare specimens of the female gender who detest shopping for clothes.

Shopping for myself is bad enough - I usually put aside an afternoon wandering around a mall with maximum potential, hoping to score. Shopping for my kids is even worse. Both of them seem to share my aversion to buying new clothes and their busy schedules pose the perfect foil for escaping this yearly duty.

When I can finally get them to focus on the job at hand, it's a comedy of contrasts. Andre wants to stand out so we go looking for bright, bedazzling colours while Lesley-Anne prefers to blend in so we go searching for dark, sober shades that aren't too funereal for CNY.

A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook, "Mission accomplished - CNY clothing bought for everyone in the family. No one should offer any *feedback*. Just wear it."   Way to go, sista! Commandeer the project, Nazi style.

Actually, we did this with the pajamas this year.  Since it was tough enough finding the time to bring them shopping for clothes, we didn't bother with the democratic route for the PJs.  At the nearby pasar malam, we bought one set with a giant teddy bear for Lesley-Anne and Andre was presented with a Power Rangers set (which horrified him). I figure, nobody's gonna see you when you're sleeping so as long as they're comfortable, who cares if the print isn't age appropriate.

In the end, we did manage to get the day clothes to everyone's liking. Lesley-Anne even agreed to wearing a modern-style cheongsam as she needed one for a future school event. Job done for the year!

金龙腾飞辞旧岁 , 玉蛇起舞迎新春!