Hosive

thanksgiving is usually in maryland while christmas and new year’s is spent in nyc with my parents coming over for a week to spend the sleepy week with us. vision church unlike other churches actually winds down rather than ramps up for the holidays since most of our people are from other places; most of our members are out of town enjoying time with their families.

we usually invite more people over for our annual wholesome new year’s but since the yu’s and chen’s were in taiwan for a wedding we opted to have a quiet new years.

we did have some friends over as well as my parents.

my parents seem to get along well with my friends and vice versa.

as we heard from the dude telling his buddy on his cell phone: we started the year right by watching bolt in 3d. when my parents come over, we try to take them to some show or movie. something special or out of the ordinary for them. imax or in this case, 3d. we end up seeing a lot of kids movies because its easier for my mom to figure out what’s going on. one of her favorite holiday movies is elf.

new years also means berger cookies from baltimore…more like a slab of chocolate with an accidental cookie attached.

then for new year’s day, we headed over to community for brunch….a family tradition. my mom usually gets the seafood eggs benedict. theresa opted for the vegetable bowl because of her aversion to meat during her pregnancy. my dad got the blueberry pancakes. and i went with steak and eggs. juice, coffee and cider flowed freely.

maybe i lied to my boy, q. maybe we do eat like this all the time. definitely during the holidays.

but on the whole, a mellow tsang new year’s. happy 2009.

reintroducing my niece jaqueline with a special announcement:

my uncle joseph and aunt theresa are going to have a……….girl!!!!

i’m going to have a cousin to play with in june!

tsang christmas starts with the tsang family gathering…an annual feast of food, video games, hanging out and oddball activities( for which i had just the thing).

it is an all day affair starting with lunch and it ends when people leave..usually after dinner. each family(5 tsang sisters, 1 tsang brother(my dad)) brings at least one dish and then we eat all day: chicken, curry beef, cheesecake, lasanga, soy sauce chicken, shrimp, tea and coffee, egg tarts. theresa made her famous cajun roast which was a big hit once again.

as for odd activities, my family seems up for anything…..so i busted out the flavored sodas. don’t assume that that means tasty flavoring. last year, theresa got me a few holiday soda boxes made by jones(that’s how jones does christmas). but we never had the time to try them. since my cousin daniel inquired, we brought out the chanukah box with chocolate coins, apple sauce, latke and jelly doughnut.

whenever we can get a large group to try these holiday sodas, we do……the results are mixed! and consistently hilarious!

on christmas eve, we started a new tsang tradition in our home in 2008….we called it a christmas eve service but that sounded so formal and unwelcoming. it was more like a christmas eve gathering. we did hymns, candles, readings and silent night….and we feasted!!! small, intimate, simple worship on the eve of the lord’s birth.

it was also the debut of the youngest member of vision church: moriah faith ng! a definitely superior christmas ending for the ng family after tragically losing bethany joy, last year. what a difference 365 makes.

as for christmas day, we usually go irreligious and spend the day with family including a visit to the new temple on christmas: the theatre. in suburban culture, the mall is the new town square where people can bump into each other and mingle. the theatre is where we go to worship in awe.

we caught benjamin button with theresa’s cousins.

above are two pics….one where theresa looks like she has a mustache? and another where she demonstrates her favorite part of the movie experience.

finally, we did a little post-christmas shopping. just a little….because we hate the manic crowds. crowds are okay…we live in nyc! but manic materialistic deal hunting soccer pitbulls? no thanks. we did make a disappointing stop at the underarmour factory store. most of the good stuff was already gone. the upside is that we got some chick fila and went to eat at the nordstrom cafe that theresa’s mom has been frequenting.

and that’s the tsang christmas…from family to church to faith to holiday movies to shopping….real and fake christmas. all the angles!