Well, it has been a rather slow and relaxing weekend here to kick off the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival. The kids are on break this week from school and all activities. Most of the ex-pats leave Beijing and go on holiday somewhere fabulous. Because Kelly is back in the US this week for business meetings, and we just recently got our dog out of hock, we decided to lay low this week and hang out here at home. This is a big week here in China. I have heard fireworks going off for probably the last 4 days and from what I here it will continue all week long. Tradition here is to also give "moon cakes" to friends, co-worker, employees. Kelly bought 3 beautiful moon cakes for our driver, Ayi and his employees at work. They are usually filled with dates, nuts, seeds and bean paste. I did sample one, but until they start filling them with M&M's or some sort of chocolate....this girls is okay with not receiving one again! Some of the other traditions are matchmaking...(and I don't mean match sticks) I guess they hold dances to "help" young men and women find partners to see if sparks fly....okay so maybe it is matchmaking in the other reference. They also float sky lanterns.
Since we are just lounging here, we decided yesterday to take advantage of the beautiful weather we are having (and low pollution) and do an impromptu photo shoot in our neighborhood. All of the pictures of the girls were taken here in our neighborhood just within a hundred feet from our house. There is a beautiful little cobblestone walk way that runs in between the houses and follows a stream. At the end there is a pond that is covered in lily pads and you can find neighbor kids frog catching.
Happy Mid-Autumn!
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| Going down our street |
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| These are the door ways that line the streets in our neighborhood. |
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| Julia Renee almost 12 years |
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| Ella Claire 9 years old. |
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| Our home away from home. |
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