Happy Moment in Winter (15 minutes)

Happy moment in winter. Happy moment, winter. Winter winter winter we don’t really have winter. I spent the Chinese New Years Eve with the family from my father side. It was always excruciatingly boring. The TV shows for the New Year was boring and I just lay on bed wondering when I would finally feel sleepy.

I always woke up late on the first day of the New Year. The whole house smells like chicken noodle soup. Chicken noodle soup stewed for hours with Chinese mushroom. Grandpa was also by the kitchen table, already finished his chicken noodle soup and was talking to Dad, drinking warm Sake. Dad saw me coming in and suddenly talked to me in English—he always wanted to show off his English in front of the family and maybe intended to practice it as well—for ever since he retired from this American company and stopped flying around attending conferences from all over the world he didn’t get to speak much English anymore.

Dad asked theatrically “you have a good night’s sleep?” he thought speaking really fast would make him sound smarter and more native-speaker-like. I thought, here you go again and mumbled something like “it was ok. The firecrackers and the screaming kids woke me up very early but I managed to fall asleep again anyways.” Grandpa chuckled a little bit saying he couldn’t understand us at all. Dad was looking proud. 

Grandma came out from the kitchen with my portion of chicken soup. She wasn’t particularly fond of me but she made it for me anyways, though it was well past breakfast time. Grandpa asked if I want to add some Sake to the noodle soup: it goes extremely well and your grandma brewed the Sake herself.  “Say when.” I saw he pouring the purple-ish Sake into my steaming noodle soup. The soup changed its color from light yellow to dark brown. 

Finally I said “when.” “So much Sake! You sure know what the good stuff is!” He was delighted. I made my first sip of the soup. “Is it good?” “Divine with the Sake!” said I. Grandpa was really glad. Dad was smiling as well. “Be careful not to get yourself drunk, Peggy” said he.