Fw: [MC74 and Friends] My entry for our Forum's photos of the week project - this week project RED and TE^'T

My dear twin BT, CTT, Doc Awake, Khiem, and Forum friends,

Here is my contribution.

 (CTT, my bikini photo does not count, as it was solely for the two persons in the Forum who I know wholeheartedly appreciate it, BT and Doc Awake :-)).

Since I could not go to NYC Chinatown in search for the perfect photo op, and my fellow New Yorker and most eligible bachelor Quang ignored my subtle cry for help (may be I should have offered him mot chau pho in exchange for his help),
I resigned to use what I had at home,something that is red and green, with "un peu de me'lange de couleurs", and evokes Tet.

My memory of my Te^' childhood is excitement of a new year coming, wanting to be a year older (so I could be "mot thieu nu" faster and get to do things that my older siblings were allowed to do), going to the flowers market with my Mom, smelling the fragrances of hoa mai, hoa dao, hoa thuoc duoc, greeting guests coming to our house, getting li xi and then going with our parents to visit the same guests (!), and playing cards with my brothers friends, watching the wrapping of banh chung, savouring lots of yummy foods,.nibbling non stop on "hat dua", and last but not least eating a lot of du+a ha^u'.

 To me, du+a ha^u' is the perfect fruit that symbolizes Te^t with its colors; it also is the perfect fruit to quench our thirst during the sunny and warm days of Te^t. I remember one Te^'t, it was particularly very hot, so I ate a lot of du+a ha^'u, so much so that I ran a fever ! I also love the fairy tale behind du+a ha^'u, one of my kids favorite bedtime stories.  

So here it is, my photo of my favorite fruit for Te^'t.

Have a restful and enjoyable Sunday.
From a white and cold Be^n bo So^ng, NJ,
MC

PS:
Thank you CTT for starting the idea.
 BT and Khie^m, thanks again and again :-) for getting me to start taking photos, and to tell me to keep taking more. I am having so much fun, I even ventured into using manual mode, at my son's suggestion, to shoot my pictures today. Of course the subject was very patient with me :-), allowing me to push it around, so I can play with the light and the buttons, try and retry many many times. As my yoga teacher kept reminding us, it is not the end result that counts, it is taking pleasure in the process leading to it...

PPS: Doc Awake, sorry for your minor disappointment, the ba'nh chu+ng part was inadvertently cropped, so was my head. Next time...:-)
  .