Although poor, the rituals of the New Year have always been very important.

On New Year's Eve, it was still dark outside, so I had already gotten up.

The coldest winter month is the coldest season. The wind outside is blowing, whistling the already bare trees, and the withered branches are floating weakly in the wind, as if they can be blown off at any time.

The snow outside fell a week ago, but the heavy snow had not melted. The snow in the yard was cleaned up and piled up in the roots of the tree, and the yard looked very neat.

There are still a few trees to be used in spring because I have a son. When my son grows up, he needs to build a house for his son to marry a wife. Now, he has planted trees and has become a talent for ten years, which can be used as the rafters of the house.

Lao Liu was thinking about it and heard my mother's movement outside.

"Get up Yulian, it's time for us to work." Lao Liu said to his wife.

In the second half of the night, the child woke up again. Yulian took milk for the child and fell asleep again. Now it was very sleepy, but thinking that it was New Year's Eve, Yulian knew that she needed to get up.

Taohe was still sleeping soundly on the bed, but Hongxia had been so excited that she could not suppress her excitement. Today is New Year's Eve, and at midnight today, she could put on the new clothes in the closet.

"Grandma, what are you doing?" After Hongxia got up, she was wearing a thick cotton coat and looked at the grandma in the outer room with white flour, not knowing what she was doing.

Because the family is poor, they rarely eat white flour. Two meals a day are corn flour and rice. This is the only fine grain because the rice is grown at home.

Rice may not be available in the south. There is a large reservoir here, more than 50 kilometers away from the town. There is an irrigation canal that attracts water from the lake and comes to farm. Therefore, corn and rice have always been grown locally. These rice has become rare rice, which is definitely considered fine grains, but white flour has to be bought, so the family rarely eats pasta.

"Steam the tribute bread." Grandma said while kneading the noodles with her hands. This noodles have been distributed since last night. Today, it looks good. As long as you add alkaline noodles to the noodles, you can steam the tribute bread.

Grinding noodles is a laborious task. If the mixing is not evenly, the steamed one will cause alkaline bumps.

"It's so good, so good, I'll eat buns." Hongxia smiled on her face. During the Chinese New Year last year, she was still young and had no impression. This tribute bun was not a bun, but a kind of steamed bun, but it was made very delicately, like flowers. These were all for offerings and prepared for the old gods.

Just as grandma was kneading her, Fang had already gotten up and started to be busy. She put the red paper into the water, and soon the water turned red.

Every year, I have to post Spring Festival couplets at home. Lao Liu went to school until high school. He is also a person with ink. Lao Liu's brush is pretty good, so every year during the Chinese New Year, Lao Liu writes Spring Festival couplets by himself. At the same time, there are people nearby, so Lao Liu asks Lao Liu to write for him.

Of course this is free. Sometimes the words on the Spring Festival couplets are written badly, and Lao Liu will spend money to buy paper and make up for them. Lao Liu's picture is just a joy.

However, this year, the family did not write Spring Festival couplets, and no nearby villagers came to Lao Liu to write, because everyone knows that when Lao Liu's family had a funeral, they would not be able to post Spring Festival couplets within three years.

This red paper is also left over last year. Fang soaked the red paper in the water just to use this red paper.

At this time, grandma had already started to put the noodles on the panel. Yulian walked over and said, "Mom, you have a rest, I'd better do it!"

"No need, Yulian, you'd better go to rest. You've just finished confinement and are still weak. Peach pits are making trouble again in the middle of the night. You're very tired. I can do this little thing."

My mother is tough and she is very good at everything she does. She is not a problem to steam tribute bags with noodles. At the same time, my mother is also very grateful to her daughter-in-law.

The eldest and the second brother discussed each family for one month, but Lao Liu did not agree and wanted his mother to live with him. In ordinary families, there were conflicts between his daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. I was afraid that Yulian and Lao Liu would make trouble because of this, but Yulian didn't say anything, just like before.

It’s hard to find such a daughter-in-law!

A poor couple is sad for a hundred days, which is what later generations say. Nowadays, most families are poor, but everyone is sticking to poverty and is still living happily. This is the simplicity of people in this era.

Hongxia watched her grandmother and her mother work together. This tribute bag is very particular. There are three layers below, each layer is a polygon. Knead the noodles into a certain shape, stack them together in three layers, and then put a spherical shape on top. Each corner of each layer must be placed with the red dots that have just been soaked out.

Several people were busy working together. After kneading the noodles, they put them in the pot, boiled a few handfuls of wood-fired pot, and soon the heat came out.

"Let me burn the fire!" Lao Liu said as he squatted down and stuffed firewood into the stove. It was burning brightly inside. Looking at the flames, Lao Liu seemed to feel that his life would get better and better.

Although my father is gone, life still has to be forward, this is life.

"Forget it, I'll cook it!" Yulian squatted down and said, "You go to the west room and take out a piece of the meat to melt it. Let's chop it into stuffing. Make dumplings at noon. By the way, buy mom and make dumplings with vegetarian stuffing."

I have to eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year. This year, Lao Liu harvested rags and the harvest was pretty good. So I cut more than a dozen kilograms of pork this year. I finally had a little more comfortable life this year, but my mother doesn’t eat pork, so I have to make two kinds of stuffings every time I make dumplings.

The vegetarian stuffing is not easy to make the flavor. The dumplings made for my mother are mainly leeks, eggs and mozzarella. The mozzarella is cut into pieces and put into the thread like meat. For many years, my mother has loved eating this kind of stuffing.

After hearing Yulian's instructions, Lao Liu immediately got up and went out. Yes, he had to buy some delicious food for his mother during the Chinese New Year. He had to buy more of this mozzarella, because after this morning and until the third day of the Chinese New Year, he could no longer spend money.

After steaming the tribute bag, I worked hard until eleven o'clock. On the cabinet in the outer room, three plates were respectfully placed behind the portrait on the wall.

Every household has this layout. On the wall of the outer room, there is a picture opposite the door when entering, but no one knows that there is a place where the gods are hidden behind the portrait. Even when the four olds are removed, the family is silently offering sacrifices. This is the place where the gods who bless the family. Every year during the Chinese New Year, the gods are invited back to their homes and spend the New Year together.
Chapter completed!