Chapter 1161 - 1101: New Year’s Eve, Eating for Good Luck

"Mom, you don’t have to worry about me. Your son-in-law thinks I’m great. To him, there’s no woman better than me."

Pauline Briggs wiped her face with flour, smearing it all over her. "Shameless, who brags like that about themselves?"

"If you don’t believe me, ask Adrian."

Adrian Desmond walked in holding their son dressed in a bright red cotton jacket and continued Sienna’s words, "Yes, what Sienna said is exactly what I think."

Realizing Adrian heard her words, Sienna felt embarrassed and softly said to Adrian, "I was just speaking nonsense earlier."

Adrian leaned in, wiped away the flour on her cheek, and gazed at her intently, saying, "You spoke well."

Sheehan grabbed a dumpling and tried to pop it into his mouth, but Sienna quickly snatched it away, "Sheehan, you can’t eat this."

Sheehan looked at his empty little hand, saw the dumpling gone, and his mouth quivered as he started to cry loudly.

"Sheehan, do you want to eat dumplings? Grandma will cook dumplings for you," Pauline wiped her hands and went to the kitchen to cook dumplings for Sheehan.

"Little glutton, why do you put everything in your mouth?" Sienna smeared flour on her son’s little nose.

But Sheehan continued to cry uncontrollably. Sienna made silly faces to cheer him up, and Sheehan, giving face to his mother, stopped crying quickly.

"How come he doesn’t behave like this when he’s with me?" Adrian said.

Sheehan squirmed non-stop, like a little eel, almost slipping from Adrian’s arms.

"This little guy wants to walk again."

"Support him while he walks," Sienna said.

"I’ve already helped him walk for a bit," Adrian replied.

Adrian, being tall, bent over to support the little one as he walked, which was quite a task, especially since Sheehan was very interested in walking now.

Sienna slipped a piece of dough into her son’s hand to play with. The little one put it in his mouth, tasted it, found it not tasty, and spat it out.

"Sheehan, how about we make dumplings to eat? Sienna demonstrated to her son how to make dumplings.

Sheehan sat on his father’s lap, watching his mother’s nimble hands pinching out dumplings one by one, his eyes wide and unblinking.

Adrian sat on a chair, took a dumpling wrapper, and said to his son, "Son, put the filling inside."

Such a small child didn’t know how.

Sienna placed some filling on the dumpling wrapper in Adrian’s hand, "Make a few."

Adrian watched as Sienna pinched out a dumpling with two hands easily, without any difficulty, and imitated her style, aimed, and pinched hard... the dumpling burst.

Adrian: ...

Sheehan looked incredulously at the dumpling in his dad’s hand, then at his mom’s, completely puzzled as to why the dumplings looked different.

"Why are you using so much force?"

"I wasn’t using force."

Sienna handed him another dumpling wrapper, teaching him how to make dumplings, and Adrian learned earnestly while Sheehan watched intently with big eyes.

After making a mess of over a dozen dumplings, Adrian finally managed to make a "successful" dumpling, though it was quite ugly, at least it didn’t break.

"Not bad, there’s hope for you yet."

Adrian looked at his ugly dumpling and then at Sienna’s beautiful dumpling, feeling more and more that his dumpling was ugly.

Sienna placed a peanut on Adrian’s dumpling wrapper, and Adrian curiously asked, "Why put a peanut?"

"On New Year’s Eve, we eat dumplings for the meaning of ’New Year’s Eve Dumplings’, by placing peanuts, candies, candied dates, and chestnuts inside. Whoever eats it is said to have good luck in the new year."

Sienna slightly tilted her head and said, "Let’s see who’s lucky enough to eat the peanut you wrapped.

Sixth Master, good luck."

Besides placing candy, candied dates, and chestnuts in the dumplings, Adrian even playfully added mustard and chili peppers.

...

On New Year’s Eve, the whole family gathered together, bustling with noise around three tables.

The old lady said, "Harmony in one family brings a hundred blessings, two words ’peace and safety’ are worth a thousand gold. Today, our whole family is gathered together to celebrate the Spring Festival, I am truly happy.

Next year, Sienna will add to the Johnson Family again, making the family more prosperous, and I, the old lady, have lived another year..."

Curly said, "Great-grandma, you’ll live to a hundred years. Like a pine tree, like a turtle, like Mount Nanshan..."

"It’s ’Fortune as boundless as the East Sea, longevity as eternal as Mount Nanshan. Turtle year and crane life. Pine and crane bring everlasting spring.’" Sienna had privately taught Curly, but the girl got it all jumbled up.

"Anyway, it’s the same meaning, right?"

"Okay, okay, I understand, I the old lady have many years to live and to see you marry." The old lady said.

Curly stuck out her tongue and took a sip of the Osmanthus Wine in front of Adrian when no one was paying attention. Caught by Adrian, Curly made a hush gesture.

"I hope everyone will have good luck next year, smooth sailing and success every year, everything progresses! Let’s raise a glass and bless everyone."

Everyone raised their glasses together, drinking homemade Osmanthus Wine.

The Osmanthus Wine had a light yellow color, a strong osmanthus fragrance, tasted sweet and sour, rich and mellow, with a long-lasting aroma.

Sienna, being pregnant, drank juice, smelling the wine’s fragrance, said, "This year’s Osmanthus Wine is made so fragrant, I’m craving wine."

Pauline said, "We’ll save it for you, have it after you give birth."

"Okay."

The wine had a sweetness to it, Curly mistook it for juice and wanted to drink more, but Adrian stopped her. Adrian placed his hand over the wine cup, warning her with his eyes. Curly didn’t dare to be wanton after all.

The old lady reminisced about hard times with sweetness, and those below listened with laughter and seriousness.

"You girl, growing up in a honey pot, haven’t experienced any hardship... you need to learn to cherish fortune." The old lady said to Curly.

"I cherish fortune, I cherish fortune, great-grandma, when are you giving out red envelopes?"

"Little money-grubber, you can’t be filled no matter how much money is given to you."

"Stuff a bit more, and I’ll be filled."

"Red envelopes, only after kowtowing tomorrow can you get them. Can’t give them today." The old lady said.

"Ah, so many rules for getting a red envelope during the new year."

"Dumplings are here..."

Everyone received a small bowl, Sienna said to Adrian, "Let’s see if you can get the lucky ones."

In the end, Adrian got all the mustard and chili pepper dumplings he wrapped for himself.

Seeing Adrian’s colorful face, Sienna teased, "Sixth Master, here’s a saying for you: ’One must live with the consequences of one’s own actions!’"

Adrian covered his mouth, feeling his tongue go numb.

"Oh, I ate a date...and a chestnut...and a peanut." Sienna had one lucky bite after another, luck was on her side.

The old lady said, "All the luck was eaten by Sienna, next year Sienna will definitely have luck on her side."

Sienna smiled and said, "Thanks for grandma’s blessing."

Sienna placed the last dumpling in her bowl into Adrian’s, saying, "The last lucky one is for you."

"How do you know it’s a lucky one?"