Tomorrow the Chinese will be celebrating the Moon Festival or Mid Autumn Festival. This holiday is the second most important holiday behind Chinese New Year for the people here. The Moon Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, so it is different every year. There are many stories that go along with the Moon Festival, one is about the "moon lady" who lives on the moon. Another story I found interesting surrounds the mooncakes that are eaten during Moon Festival (by the way, Danny really likes these little cakes, but I'm not a big fan!!). The legend says that during the Yuan Dynasty (AD1280-1368) the Chinese were ruled by the Mongols. They wanted to overthrow the government so, knowing the Mid Autumn festival was coming, they made little cakes and put instructions for the attacks in the cakes. On the night of the Moon Festival the government was overthrown and the Ming Dynasty was born. Even today, people eat these cakes during the moon festival with their families and watch the moon. It is also noted that if you are away from your loved ones on the Moon Festival you can all celebrate knowing you are looking at the same moon!!!!
We celebrated Moon Festival a day early with a party at our compound. It was a wonderful night, the only thing missing was my husband!! There were lanterns hung all over, a band playing, performances by some of the children in our compound, food from all around the world, and new friends to get to know better!! I decided tonight that my kids have adjusted amazingly. They were running around dancing and playing with balloons like they had lived here their entire lives!! They especially love all of the attention that they are given by the staff at our compound and the Sheraton. Since we spend a lot of time eating and playing at the Sheraton, everyone knows the kids names and they are especially drawn to Cooper. I was watching the servers tonight take his balloon just so he would come and talk to them!!!! Coop loves to ham it up, so they were thrilled!! Some days (like when water is dripping from my ceiling for the third time) I question if we made the right choice living in this particular compound, but when I see how welcomed we have been and how happy my kids are, I forget about the water and am completely thankful we are here!
I celebrated something else today, I turned on my oven for the first time! Yes, I have been living here for almost 7 weeks, but I haven't needed the oven. Anyway, I made some brownies (from a bag - thanks mom!). They were interesting...rock hard all around the edge and had a little nut flavor since I had to use sunflower oil instead of vegetable oil! Thankfully my father in law had mentioned that the temp may be in celsius, or else they would have been as hard as cement!! Regardless of their little issues, the kids thought their mommy was the best because she made them brownies. It really is the little things....
I hope you all have a great weekend! We are eagerly awaiting Dan's arrival tomorrow night!! We miss him so much!! Only 11 days until we land in Chicago!!
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