紅包
As a not-so-concrete rule, I almost never write text posts. Partly because what I have in my head almost never comes out exactly as I want it to in words, and just because my blog is already so filled up with SJ and pretty pictures that I find my words out of place. But I think this deserves one.
My dad’s in Taiwan right now on a family vacation with his side of the family, so Chinese New Year this year feels a little bit hollow; a tad bit empty. My mom, because she’s not half as picky as my dad, even suggested that we go out for KBBQ for our 年夜飯 (but I’m pretty sure that a dinner would like would completely defeat the purpose of celebrating CHINESE New Year..). We ended up having a super chill dinner together, complete with the usual calls of “SORRY, SAFETY” and awkward, inappropriate-while-eating discussions about sweat, etc.
I almost thought that we would wait until my dad got home to do this, but my mom just gave us our yearly red envelopes. I know lots of friends who see this day of the year as their big CA$H DAY and I’m not going to lie, I’ve always been kind of envious. But I think I have a better picture of why the quantity isn’t the important thing.
As she handed us our envelopes, my mom told us that she had gotten them the last time we were all together in Taiwan, back when her dad, my grandfather was still alive. “These are the last written words of his that I have”. Wow. Even though they’re messy, almost unreadable, the two words that make up my Chinese name on my envelope mean so much. My mom said that it took him a few tries to get each name right, since he was already in his mid-90s at that time. Although I can’t remember a coherent conversation I had with him, the fact that my mom was willing to go the extra mile and give us these precious envelopes, especially with my dad gone, made this Chinese New Year’s one of the best.
As I write this, my littlest brother is 拜年-ing and my mom is telling him:
“Your grandfather was the first man in our entire family to accept Jesus into his life. He is the reason we have hope. That’s the biggest blessing”.
:)
