Our Life Stories: Chinese New Year Celebrations: Extended Family Gathering

Inevitably as I grow older each year, I become more and more nostalgic. Chinese New Year gathering with members of my maternal extended family is one such event that evokes nostalgia.

Among cousins whom I used to play with on regular Sunday gatherings at my granny's place, I was chief of them all. I am the oldest and one of the more boisterous and talkative ones. Naturally, I provided much of the leadership during our playtime. Back in those bygone years, while the adults gathered for their weekly mahjong sessions, we the children gathered for our make-belief and role-playing of movie scripts with imaginary 'good' and 'bad' characters. Some of us get typecasted unfortunately ;0)

When we got too exhausted shooting and killing one another or were simply bored lying down and pretending to bleed and die, we would break for granny's dessert. Sometimes, we gave up the high drama for reenactment of slices of everyday life, like becoming hawkers touting customers at the top of our voices. We exchanged our own currencies, made up our own laws. Someone would feel slighted, offended and retreat to a corner and cry in self-pity. An adult would intervene or we would just leave the poor outcast alone, until he or she was ready to rejoin the group. Little did we know, of course, that we, as children, were all really having a big dress-rehearsal for the ups and downs of life in the adult world. Now we know - with its fair share of happiness and heartaches.

This year, one of my younger cousins, Leonard, is getting hitched. Leonard is the elder son of my fifth and only uncle. My mother was his caregiver from the time he was an infant to his pre-school years. Leonard was much doted on by my sister, who even at that young age demonstrated very positive mothering qualities. No wonder God has now bestowed upon her two most beautiful children. As for me, my mother used to say I was simply too immersed in my own world and most times, was quite oblivious to my surroundings. This manifested in an impressionable episode when I was asked to babysit Leonard. I had him sitting and leaning on my chest. But I left him to do something and the next moment, a loud bang and he was lying flat on the marble floor, wailing out of shock and pain. Wow, lesson learnt - never imagine an infant can sit upright on his own, check before assuming. There were other hilarious moments - me getting annoyed at Leonard for writing on MY piece of homework; my mother complaining about Leonard doodling on HER table cloth, and lamenting on how he was too tardy learning his Chinese characters but loved counting his coins. As it turns out, Leonard is now branch manager of a local bank ;0)

In my memory, I cannot remember exactly when Leonard left us for formal school, when his younger brother Adam took over as the infant in our home and left us as well; and when all our weekly rowdy gatherings came to a natural death. Other things took over in all our teenage and adult years. Work, church, sports, girlfriends, boyfriends, marriage, children. Now, we the cousins meet once every Chinese New Year. Our interactions - one cousin proudly announced the freedom of staying single; another 'naughty' cousin commented on how I never seemed to have grown taller, much to my objection; others getting amused by watching the 'photocopied' versions of my sister - her children. Secretly, I imagine each of us must have had a fleeting thought that we will never be able to go back to being just children ourselves.

Lounging beside the pool in Icon where my cousin, Kenny's apartment is