A Little Low

Hubby is sick. He's been fighting a bug for a few days. Now he's losing his voice and sleeping a lot.

Worse, my throat feels rotten and my head is heavy even as I type this.

More bad news. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year eve. We have friends coming for dinner for the customary New Year Eve "family gathering". Dinner menu is split half way and for our contribution, amongst other dishes, Hubby is supposed to do his famous crispy skin pork.

What's more, I have a batch of cupcakes to bake and ice because my children want to invite friends over. I'm glad that I managed to get two batches baked and iced for the neighbours earlier!

When Hubby gets ill, which is not very often, he doesn't complain. He gets silent and matter of fact. When he takes to his bed, you know he is in need of rest. None of this moan and groan stuff.

Earlier I tucked him in bed with some hot tea in a flask. Later I gave him some chicken soup. Now he's sleeping again.

I think we'll call it an early night....

Celebrating the Chinese New Year?

I have a dilemma. Well, dilemma might seem a strong word. Anyway, read on and let me know what you think.

Here I am, an ethnic Chinese, and a Christian.

As a Christian, I don't follow horoscopes or go have my fortune told. That's because it is stated clearly in Scripture that this "not on". (You can read more about it here.) I also make a stand against yoga and marital arts. This is because they have spiritual roots and lean towards having to tap into the spiritual realm which is not of Christ. (Blogpastor did a post about this a few weeks ago which I thought garnered some good comments)

However, I do celebrate Christmas, for reasons mentioned in earlier posts, despite it being of pagan origins!

Now that the Chinese New Year is coming. Should I celebrate it? After all, I steadfastly refuse to remember my children's animal year (ox, tiger or whatever, I have no idea!) By the third or fourth month after each Chinese New Year, I would have forgotten what animal year we are supposed to be in. This is because from young I was taught that the animal you were born as dictates the person you are. That sounds a lot like believing and following the horoscope and the zodiac signs.

I don't know where this came from. Google says the site has been disabled. But isn't this a nice pic?

Yet at the same time whenever Chinese New Year comes round, I would inevitably send out sms replies to those who greet me. I would give my children the obligatory ang-pows , stuff my face with the seasonal mandarins, and decorate my house would have smatterings of red, although nothing to the scale of Christmas.

Nice pic taken from www.showchina.org

This year, I plan to give my neighbours little cupcakes like I did for Christmas. The icing decoration would of course be Chinese New Year symbols such as the lantern, the mandarin and the cherry blossom.

Am I being a hypocrite? Am I being confused? Am I having an identity crisis? Or am I just embracing my cultural, ethnic origins without the spiritual trappings?

While deliberating your reply/comment, take some time out to feed my fish... then you might want to go over here to learn what you can do with a mandarin orange!