CHAI TONG YUEN (also known as Sweet Glutinous Ball Soup)...This is an annual event at the Lee's. Every year grandpopo will call every female member of the family at home to help out with making the colourful flour into little balls before boiling them into sweet dessert. I recall as a child, I was always fascinated by the colourful flour and would asked to be given some to play with...the adults at work would usually give me a pinch of the flour that they were working on and I would make pretend cooking them in my own masak-masak set. As I approached my teens, I no longer needed to beg for flour to play with, but instead I was given permission to sit with the adults at work...hahahhahha...and ever since then, I always picked the brightest colour and had an obsession comparing sizes of the little balls!! =)

To me, this Chinese tradition is very important and it knits a family together therefore it should always be practised no matter which part of the world you live in...We, Chinese should always know where our roots come from and should be proud of our heritage. In my opinion, as Westernized as our world is becoming today, events in the Chinese calander should never be neglected because behind every event, there is always great values to it.