A Belated Merry Christmas to You All

Truth is, I totally forgot about this on the Christmas Day, and on the 26th I felt too lazy. Well, belated Merry Christmas anyway... or cross that 'belated' out, since it's technically still the season of Christmas.

And it is now so close to the end of the year that I feel I can grasp the year 2011 with my fingers. And I've not made any New Year Resolution at all. Well, I think my resolutions would be as simple as "I resolute to do everything I resoluted last year, but failed to do." Which was all of them. Yes - I was not able to keep even a single resolution! Failsauce. But oh well.

So since I can basically think of nothing more... I wish you all a Happy Christmas for those who celebrate, and Happy Holidays for everyone.

Tangyuan

On the 22nd of December every year, and 21st for every leap year, the Chinese celebrate Dong Zhi (冬至), or Winter Solstice, when the day is shortest and sunshine is weakest. On this day, Chinese around the world gather in families to make and eat tangyuan together. Even though there is no winter in the South-Eastern Asia countries, Chinese families there still make and eat tangyuan every year. Tangyuan are balls of glutinous rice, and they usually come in varied colors. Albeit different in colors, all these Tangyuan are made from the same flour - food coloring is added to make the balls more attractive. Tangyuan are originally eaten in the Lantern Festival (元宵节 yuan xiao jie), which is the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, but they are replaced by mooncakes.

A bowl of Tangyuan

Tangyuan are made of glutinous rice flour. They are cooked in boiled ginger and/or sugar water. They are also sometimes served in red bean soup or black sesame soup. Some people prefer to eat tangyuan filled and some don't. The most common fillings for tangyuan are chopped peanuts and sugar, rock sugar, red bean paste and sesame paste. Some people even fill tangyuan with minced pork(!). Although tangyuan is most famous because it is eaten on Dongzhi, people now it all year round. In Indonesia, tangyuan is commonly known as ronde jahe or onde-onde, and in the big cities such as Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya, tangyuan stalls can be easily found.

Source: Wikipedia and writer's experience

Happy December!

Oh my God, I still can't believe it's December already. I know this sounds very cliche, but I can't help saying "time flies very quickly". Well, it does feel that way - especially that now is December! I always think about how time seems to pass very quickly and that the end of year is very near... while actually, at school, I wait for the seconds which seems to pass very very slowly and I'm only waiting for the recess which is usually only 5 minutes (or less) away. How very ironic.

Anyway, that the end of year is near, I can't help but think that I really didn't achieve much this year. I was grounded much less than last year, that's true (I was (and still am) grounded once or twice this year, but I had lots of anti-computer punishments from February - August of last year, each ranging from one week to one month. Sad.). But anyway, about the achievement (or lack of), all my New Year's Resolution of this year remain unachieved. I think my next year's New Year Resolution will be something about achieving the resolutions I have made.

And lastly, I want to wish you all who might be reading this a Happy December and a Happy New Month!