2010’s First House Visit

January 3, 2010
Our lucky fruit bowl

My wonderful beau, Laurent invited my parents over for lunch yesterday to officially ring in the New Year. Sweet gesture, especially since he was doing all the cooking. My parents gobbled up Laurent’s delicious offerings (he’s a chef) and the afternoon went off without a hitch, to my surprise and relieved pleasure.


Besides the delicious lunch, the best part of the afternoon was what involved what in Chinese tradition we call the red envelope exchange. Red envelopes are a very important part of the Chinese culture. Money is placed inside the red envelopes and it’s usually offered on holidays and special occasions such as Chinese New Year or at weddings. Payment for Feng Shui consultations is also placed in these envelopes. Its significance is that it offers the receiver luck, prosperity and when needed, protection. My mom cracked me up. When we weren’t looking, she stealthily put a red envelope in the fruit bowl (that they so conveniently brought over), and another in our last minute attempt at a Christmas tree (that’s another blog post in itself). Hilarious. Not only was our tree kinda funny already because it is just a white plastic Charlie Brown-like tree with no ornaments, but it looked even more humorous now with the red envelope lodged between its wirey arms.

Our even luckier tree!

I am a Feng Shui consultant but it never amazes me what more I can learn from my parents and their own personal gestures.




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