Mom was talking to her aunt. Gua Gua walked to her side and reached out to grab her brother's hand.
Niu Niu hid his hands in the sleeves of his cotton-padded jacket. When he saw his sister grabbing his sleeves, he tried to stretch out his little hands to play with his sister.
While Xu Xiangjuan was talking to her aunt, she was paying attention to the two children. When she saw Gua Gua wanted to roll up the sleeves of Niu Niu's cotton-padded jacket, she didn't stop him. At this moment, she was not afraid that Niu Niu's hands would get cold.
After the joint efforts of the two children, Niu Niu's little hand was finally revealed.
Niu Niu can already sit up, but needs help from adults, otherwise he will fall back soon. He can also turn over now, but he wears more clothes in winter and is too lazy to turn over. He also has little milk teeth. After the baby's teeth grow, Xu Xiangjuan has the additional task of brushing the baby's teeth, which is much more troublesome than brushing the baby's teeth for adults.
Gua Gua compared his hand with his brother's boneless little hand; his brother's hand was smaller than his.
Niu Niu would high-five his sister from time to time, but Gua Gua was not a boring little baby like his younger brother. He would not high-five with his younger brother. Instead, he would grab his brother's exposed hand with both hands and count his five chubby fingers over and over again.
"Aunt, let's come to my house for the reunion dinner tonight?" Seeing that the two children had played long enough, Xu Xiangjuan took back Niu Niu's hand and pulled back the sleeves of her cotton jacket.
Niu Niu was still unhappy and shook his sleeves.
Zhou Cunxin: "We'll have dinner at my eldest brother's place tonight. You can just cook your own food."
Xu Xiangjuan: "When will aunt return to Huadu?"
Zhou Cunxin planned to stay for two or three more days to accompany her father. "I will go back on the fourth day of the New Year."
Xu Xiangjuan: "Then aunt and grandpa will come to our house for lunch on the third day of the New Year. I will ask Aning to pick you up then."
Zhou Cunxin agreed, "Okay."
The family returned home at around 3:30 in the afternoon. After returning home, Xu Xiangjuan took some vegetables and took her husband and two children to her parents' home.
The plan is that if grandpa and aunt come to our house for the reunion dinner in the evening, we will cook it at home. If not, they will bring the food to her parents' house.
When they arrived at her parents' yard, Xu Xiangjuan threw Niu Niu to Zhou Chengning and went to the kitchen to busy herself.
Gua Gua was still playing with his cousins, and a bunch of kids would come to the kitchen from time to time to ask for food.
When the children came, Wu Caifeng gave them small steamed buns, with each child sharing one bun. They were not to eat too much, but to save some for the reunion dinner at night.
The steamed buns were brown sugar buns that Xu Xiangjuan had steamed in advance. They were not big and tasted sweet. The children loved them very much. Gua Gua even specifically said that they were made by her mother.
Xu Xiangjuan has always known that her daughter is a little vain, so she lets her do whatever she wants during the New Year. Most children have this childish vanity, especially a talkative kid like Guagua.
There are many people in the family, so we set up a table for adults and a table for children. The children's table is the usual dining table, and the adult table has a large desktop.
There are tables for adults and tables for children. The youngest child is Guagua, not including Niu Niu. The oldest is the eldest brother's daughter, who is now 9 years old.
The children were very young, so Xu Xiangjuan did not put fish and spicy food on the children's table.
Niu Niu noticed that his brothers and sisters were all gathered around a table, and he made a fuss that he didn't want to sit on his father's lap and wanted to sit at the same table with them.
Zhou Chengning wanted to sit at the same table with the other kids, but six or seven of them had already surrounded the table, so he didn't feel comfortable sitting there.
Sisters Xu Xiangjuan and Xu Xianglan brought the last of the stir-fried vegetables and sat at the table to eat.
The seat next to Zhou Chengning was reserved for Xu Xiangjuan by default. Xu Xiangjuan sat next to Zhou Chengning and took Niu Niu. As soon as Niu Niu was hugged by his mother, he cried out "ah ah ah", as if he had suffered a great injustice.
After coaxing Niu Niu for a while, Xu Xiangjuan started to eat. The dishes she cooked were almost gone. The second sister used to hate eating pig intestines the most, but the second sister took several bites of the pig intestine stew she made with her chopsticks.
In addition to stewing the whole chicken, chicken offal can also be stir-fried. Xu Xiangjuan’s spicy chicken offal is also very popular.
In the past, when there was no food to eat, they basically stewed the whole chicken, which tasted bad, especially the offal. Now that life is better and they can kill a chicken, they will clean out the offal. When the child’s father killed the chicken, he cleaned out the offal very cleanly, so clean that she doubted whether the chicken really had offal?
In addition to chicken offal, there is also chicken blood, which can be used to make blood tofu. In short, in order to make the reunion dinner look sumptuous, no edible food is left out.
After her mother had finished her meal, Niu Niu felt left out and tears were brewing. She burst into tears when the adults and children were enjoying their meal.
Xu Xiangjuan: "Niuniu must be hungry. I'll go feed Niuniu. You guys continue eating. Aning, take Niuniu to the kitchen first."
She also made mashed potatoes for Niu Niu, which were now heating up in the pot. Niu Niu should be almost hungry.
Zhou Chengning carried Niu Niu to the kitchen, and Xu Xiangjuan went to the children's table to see how Gua Gua was eating, and told her not to eat too much, otherwise she would feel uncomfortable and unable to sleep at night.
A half-grown child will starve to death its mother. Her son Guagua is only three years old, so he is not considered half-grown. Naturally, he cannot eat food that is not in appropriate amounts.
Continue eating after the melon is well.
The daughter was young and couldn't eat as much as her brothers and sisters. Xu Xiangjuan saw that her daughter was eating slowly and was mainly talking to her brothers and sisters, so she went to the kitchen without worry.
There were no more chairs or stools in the kitchen, so Xu Xiangjuan moved in the long bench where she and Zhou Chengning sat together.
After putting the bench away, Xu Xiangjuan said, "Aning, you sit on the bench holding Niu Niu, I'll go get Niu Niu's mashed potatoes."
There were still tears hanging on Niu Niu's eyelashes. He was really crying. But now only his parents were around him, and they didn't ignore him, so he stopped crying.
The mashed potatoes were warm. Xu Xiangjuan stood in front of the father and son, bending over to feed Niu Niu the mashed potatoes.
Seeing Niu Niu eating mashed potatoes with relish, Zhou Chengning asked, "Juan, is this mashed potato delicious?"
"It's OK, suitable for little kids... Do you want to eat it? Even if you want to eat it, you have to wait until Niu Niu has finished eating."
Xu Xiangjuan fed Niu Niu half a bowl of mashed potatoes and poured the remaining mashed potatoes into the extra bowl of chicken soup that she had today. The chicken soup was very full and she took a big sip before pouring the mashed potatoes.
After mixing the chicken soup and mashed potatoes a little more evenly, Xu Xiangjuan handed it to Zhou Chengning, "Little kid doesn't like salty or sweet food. The mashed potatoes are bland, and you can't eat them. I'll add chicken soup to mix them for you. Let me hold Niu Niu. Drink first and then we'll go out to eat."
His lover's words made Zhou Chengning feel like he was being treated specially, and he finished a bowl of chicken soup and mashed potatoes in a happy mood.
Niu Niu was full and generously allowed his father to eat his leftovers.
The couple took their children back to eat. Xu Xiangjuan saw her second sister eating food from the children's table, "Sister, what's so delicious? You're stealing the children's food."
Xu Xianglan: "The children can't finish the food, and as an aunt, I have to share the burden with them."
The children's table was not as strong as the adults' table. Several plates on the adults' table had already been cleared, and the adults' table was large, so some dishes were difficult to pick up. The children's table was not large and was full, so it was easy to pick up dishes.
Xu Xiangjuan: "Sister, don't eat too much, be careful not to digest it."
Xu Xianglan: "I know. Just eat your food. The food is getting cold."
During the meal, Xu Xiangjuan interacted with Niu Niu from time to time, and Niu Niu finally calmed down and stopped crying.
After dinner, Niu Niu asked his father to hold him. Xu Xiangjuan was about to clean up and wash the dishes when her mother took her to the small room. "Mom, what's the matter?"
Wu Caifeng handed her daughter two small red paper packets. "These are red packets of New Year's money for Guagua and Niu Niu. Keep them. The children all have some. I gave them all to their mother. Each has 50 cents. Niu Niu also has 50 cents."
"Then I'll keep it for now, Mom. Light a candle at night and wait until I coax Niu Niu to sleep before you come over."
Probably because he knew that his mother gave each gift separately, he was afraid that his sisters-in-law would feel unbalanced. Although they are all children, if Niu Niu each got fifty cents, his sisters-in-law might not agree.
Xu Xiangjuan knew that her sisters-in-law were not that stingy, but she did not object to her mother giving them red envelopes for New Year's money individually.
"Okay, take Niu Niu home and have some sleep."
...
Xu Xiangjuan accepted the red envelope, said a few words to her brothers and sisters, and took the man and children home first. Gua Gua still wanted to play with her brothers and sisters, so Xu Xiangjuan let her play for a while and would go home when she was tired.
After coaxing Niu Niu to sleep, Xu Xiangjuan and Zhou Chengning said, "Mom and I will go light the candles tonight. I see that you can't talk to my dad and my brothers, so just stay at home. You don't have to wait for me. Go to bed early."
Zhou Chengning was very concerned about the time his lover would come home at night, "About when will he come home?"
"It's quite late. I may stay up until eleven or twelve at night, or I may just sleep with my sister. I'll tell you after I send Gua Gua back." I haven't talked to my second sister for a long time. Sisters must chat for a long time.
"Okay, I get it... Juan, if you sleep at my parents' house, what if Niu Niu wakes up in the middle of the night? I'm not very good at taking care of children, and we have to prepare a small banquet for Niu Niu at home tomorrow."
"I almost forgot about this little troublemaker Niu Niu... Then I'll come back early in the evening."
Zhou Chengning achieved his goal of wanting his lover to come home early. After his lover rejected his suggestion of sending her to her parents' house, he watched his lover leave.
There were candles lit in the kitchen at home at night, and he had to watch over them.
...
Xu Xianglan sleeps in Xu Xiangjuan's room at night. Before she got married, the room was actually shared by the two sisters. However, after Xu Xianglan got married seven or eight years ago, the room became Xu Xiangjuan's by default. Xu Xianglan would only stay there for one or two nights when she came back during the Chinese New Year.
Xu Xiangjuan is the youngest sister in the family, five years younger than her third brother. The eldest brother, second sister and third brother are only one or two years younger than her. Since the three siblings are not far apart in age, they often quarreled and fought when they were young. But Xu Xiangjuan, the youngest sister, was spoiled by her three brothers and sisters.
In addition, her parents spoiled their youngest daughter, so Xu Xiangjuan really became a little bully at home.
After lighting the candles in the evening, the family sat together and talked about their childhood. Xu Xiangjuan was especially teased the most by her brothers and sisters.
Xu Xiangjuan was not embarrassed to be the center of conversation. Whenever people said something to her, she would quickly turn the topic to her brothers and sisters.
The children cannot stay up all night and will feel sleepy early at night. The two sisters-in-law took the children to their rooms first because they were sleepy. Xu Xianglan also let her son go to bed first, and Xu Xiangjuan took Gua Gua, who was yawning constantly, back home.
Xu Xiangjuan saw Zhou Chengning was still in the kitchen, "Why are you staying in the kitchen all the time?"
"I'm afraid the candles will burn down the room. Keep watch."
"How come...are you tired?"
"Not tired, Juan, are you going out later?"
Xu Xiangjuan: "Well, I was chatting with my parents and brothers and sisters."
My sisters-in-law took the children to bed, and we finally had the chance to talk and chat as a family.
Zhou Chengning: "I'll pick you up when it gets dark."
Xu Xiangjuan: "Will it not be dark if you pick me up?"
Now every household has lights on, the streets are not too dark, and on New Year's Eve every home has candles or kerosene lamps burning.
"I'll take a kerosene lamp with me."
"Don't bother. It's not like I can't see. Go to bed early. You still have work to do tomorrow."
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