Lantern Festival

While I was talking to my parents, I realized it was the day of the Lantern Festival. I asked if they had any glutinous rice balls to eat, since it was already kind of late there and they wouldn't be able to go out to buy any (that and because a foot of snow just fell). They said they did, but only the instant variety. People make their own glutinous rice balls?!! I suppose people must have a long time ago before the frozen kind was sold in stores. My mom went on to tell me all the foods (things like tofu) they made from scratch because they couldn't buy them in stores when they first moved to the US. They also used to go to New York (four hour drive) to buy Chinese groceries. Guess that makes me pretty spoiled when I can't be bothered to go to Cupertino (15 min drive) for groceries.