Great Grandma

Last night, Mommy-2-bees celebrated her grandmother's birthday. I think she turned 81, but my uncle said she was 82. We also celebrated her birthday according to the Lunar calendar and not the Western one. Somewhere along the line, the years and dates got jumbled up. While the whole usual cousin gang wasn't all there, (Aunt Jessica was marrying Uncle Kevonte in Austria, Aunt Angela and Uncle Brandon were on vacation in Spain and Aunt Stella couldn't make it) they were there in spirit.

The evening started off with Mommy-2-bees helping Aunt Jennifer pack up her belonging because she moves into her new residence hall at SUNY Stony Brook the next morning. Sometimes I wonder how one person can have so many things, but then again, look at what I have... Earlier that day, Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Jeremy went to Target to pick up some clear bins. It made packing and moving a bit more easier. Although, many of the lids did not close the bins. o.O

After lugging many boxes and bags of clothes, pillows and bedding, we decided to take a break and have dinner. Your grandma (my mom) made a grand feast with braised shrimp, shredded beef and pickled cabbage, soft cucumber/squash, stir fry rice cake with pork and cabbage, fresh whole chicken soup with radish, steamed chilean sea bass and more.. After we finished dinner, Grand uncle Tom started jokes about how members of our family pronounce certain brands a certain way. It was quite funny!

Before the night dragged on, and due to Great grandma getting tired, we decided to cut the cake pretty early. Promptly at 9PM, I lit the candle on the cake and had Uncle Jeremy record a video on the digital camera. He's taken a liking to photography. As I set the cake in front of great grandma, we all proceeded to sing. But I guess, the usual conductors were not there because half of us were singing in English and the other half in Chinese. You would think one side would stop and sing the other one but nope, we carried on with two versions of "Happy Birthday." After the first version was done, everyone proceeded to sing in Chinese. I feel like that's how it was always done. We sang two versions but I guess I was wrong..

Top: Mommy, Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Steven
Bottom: Uncle Jeremy and Great Grandma

For the first time in a long time, we did not have any cake leftover. Since there was less people celebrating, I got a smaller Carvel ice cream cake. We all love the crunchy oreo crumbs sandwiched between vanilla and chocolate ice cream! Don't you?