This past weekend, my parents went crazy cleaning. In the end, their efforts were worth it. At 3:30pm on Sunday, just as my dad and I were starting our weekend movie, my aunt Ling-Ling called. My dad’s mom’s brother was in town from Anaheim until Wednesday. After a quick chat, it was decided that our family would host dinner that very night.
The movie was immediately put aside as my parents raced into action. It has been ages since we hosted guests. My room became temporary storage space (aka a tool to make our house look cleaner and bigger than it actually is.)
All of the relatives (Aunt Ling-Ling, Uncle Cary, Pat Wang, Great-Aunt Mei-Hsiang, Great-Uncle Bruce) arrived around 5:30pm. They stood around joyfully chatting as my parents put the finishing touches on the meal. Many of them hadn’t seen me in years and I was repeatedly complimented on my weight loss. My brother’s thick beard also got quite a few mentions and some worthy praise.
Dinner was served at 6:20pm. The two big dishes were spicy dumplings and carrot soup. On the side were fish, tofu and a few veggies. The two vegetarians at the table (aka my dad and my uncle Cary) missed out, but to be fair, everything was put together on the fly.
The entire meal, my mom spent a fair amount of time entertaining the guests by showing off her succulents and her tupperware. Her iMac happens to be located next to the dinner table, making it very easy to bring up pictures of the items in question.
Things started winding down around 8:00pm. In a scenario eerily similar to the night before (aka at my friend Oliver’s hot pot party), we nibbled on cheesecake, gossipped and drank tea before calling it a day at 9:30pm.
