A Rather Different World

Last weekend Little Brother (LB) asked me if I was booked for Christmas holidays. I checked my e-calendar. Knowing that I was free, he suggested we have a hotpot dinner at home. “Good. We have plenty of food, meats , veggies and thick soup in the upper and lower chamber of the fridge.” was my answer behind a cheerful heart. The parents always have to book him in advance followed by regular “casual” reminders. Big changes happened for the family this year. This was the third time dad was invited for family gathering.

 

The first invitation was for his birthday celebration in the middle of June. We planned to treat our sadness and warm up ourselves with hot Korean BBQ after going through the most confusing and unsure period in handling the aftermath of mom’s passing away. On the day before noon I was called to meet with Lun and his care worker at the emergency to treat Lun's recurrence of kidney stone pain. In our family, Lun always had priority for crisis intervention. LB would step aside automatically. 

 

The celebration was postponed from early summer to early winter. It was my turn for the birthday celebration. We dined on the following day after my visit to Lun on my birthday. Finally we had a Korean BBQ dinner in the newly renovated restaurant. It was classy. Since we treated each other for birthday, the bill was splitted equally. I believed that Mom would pay differently. Man and woman are different, basically.

 

We both love woodwork. He made a bow, and I made a walking stick. By nine o'clock on Christmas Eve we finally settled for a meal. LB has prepared frozen pork steak being cut into slices which required teeth power to enjoy after boiling in hot soup. Besides, dishes included cooked chicken wings, chopped cabbage, four seasons beans, three kinds of fish balls, frozen clams, small scallops, the surplus vermicelli from the Celebration of Life of mom in July, together with ginger, green onion, coriander, and a lot of garlics (One kg was bought just for $3.99). Garlics with or without skins, made tasty soup. Skins were “spitted” out afterward. We demonstrated men’s eating style, that is fast and rough.

 

Father and son got a full stomach on Christmas Eve. Another program was waiting for me the next day at Lun's place.