Happy Lunar New Year!

After last year's MSG poisoning incident, and the near-altercation between Uncle and some pushy lady-patron of the year before, this year we decided to ring in the Year of the Dog with a home-cooked clan reunion dinner instead of a restaurant-do. After tonight, we all agree that we had the right idea. No fuss, no pressure, no MSG, no unwelcome guests at our table. Here, everyone is family and in this assurance we can rest easy.

The occasion didn't call for carol-singing, but we got out the trusty keyboard anyway, and with cousin Lyn thumping on the keys, we sang croaked through a selection of oldies (from the '20s!) to keep ourselves occupied until the final countdown.

In 3... 2... 1...