On Saturday evening we celebrated Chinese New Year Eve at my grandmother’s house. As always, there was plenty of delicious food, crazy lawn games and warm family chatter.

After dinner and desserts, the aunties bring out the ang pows. It’s all very informal in our family. The aunties rush around. The kids rush around. Everyone’s wishing each other Gong Hay Fat Choy. Everyone’s laughing and shouting and there’s a huge traffic jam in the house.

Someone gave Callum an ang pow. He said “Gong Gong Fart Choy” (which probably means, Grandpa farts vegetables) and then said “Do Jeh” (thank you) as he took it. He passed it on to me, exactly like we rehearsed. He dawdled off into the traffic jam of people. My brother intercepted him and was about to give him another ang pow, when Callum stopped him and said, “Oh! No thanks! I already got one.” He walked off to look for some toys, and at that moment I was convinced he didn’t inherit any Chinese genes.

Next day we went to church. There was a special Chinese New Year lunch, traditional activities, photo shoot and the whole place was decorated. It was really cute. Everyone had to bring a dish to share. I brought re-heated supermarket spring rolls as my contribution to the Chinese New Year fare – a bit of a cop-out, but at least they were vegetarian!