Continuing the Journey

Our First Autumn Moon Festival!

Last Saturday, we attended our first Autumn Moon Festival, put on by our local FCC Chapter (Families with Children from China). I must admit that I don't know a ton about Chinese traditions and holidays. I try to learn as I go and make every effort to attend FCC events. We are working hard to instill in Carson a sense of pride in where he was born and use the FCC events to celebrate his Chinese heritage.

Since these events are celebrations, I invited my sister Debbie and our friends Scott and Sarah (and their children) to go with us. We ended up being a pretty large group!

And, of course, I took pictures.

Is it me, or does Sophia seem irritated that we haven't left for the Festival yet?
Finally we arrived. Debbie and Sarah got Sophia and Slade settled in the strollers, and we were off to have some fun!
We headed first to get some dinner. While Daddy and Carson were in line, this adorable little boy decided our wagon was a good place to hang out.
We had never met the boy or his mom and we thought it was hysterical how he just made himself "at home" without being invited! Only somebody that cute could get by with that!

Sophia showing off her flexibility. Girl, hold on, the food is coming...you don't have to chew on your TOES!!
Hey, Teenager, are you having fun yet??
That's what I thought. I wanted to get Meggie's picture in the "stocks"...I'm thinking Christmas card picture, here...but her head wouldn't fit through the hole! Still a pretty funny picture...
Is it me, or does Carson look REALLY good in yellow-and-black stripes?? I bee-lieve he does! (Sorry, couldn't resist...)
We headed into the corn maze, hoping to find our way back out. It was dreadfully hot last Saturday (mid 90s) but very breezy, which helped. Unfortunately, the corn was just high enough to keep the breeze away...it got quite hot in there!

Debbie and Sophia, however, thought it was fun!
Meggie hiding in the corn, hoping I'll stop taking pictures. (Nice try...)
Uhhh, Debbie, we already HAD dinner...
What a couple of bums! Selleck and Carson enjoyed the wagon ride through the corn maze.
I can't tell you how many attempts it took to get this action shot. Impressed?!
Meggie, Carson, and Selleck in the corn. (Don't you just LOVE Carson's face in this picture?!)
Ahhh, back into the breeze! Sophia was loving the attention cousin Meggie was giving her!
Our family, on the hayride!
Selleck and Sarah on the hayride! (Their whole family is horribly allergic to hay, but Sarah was willing to brave it. Scott decided it wiser to stay behind with Slade.)
Sophia's first hayride!
My boys, hanging out!
Carson wants to look over the side. Daddy hold him...don't PUSH HIM OVER!!
More silly pictures...Selleck the Goat...
...Carson the Horse, Meggie Moo, and Piglet Sophia!
Just about this time, I got VERY sick from the heat and we decided it was best to head home. Sadly, we didn't get to see the Chinese dancers or the steel drum band (both were being held in the non-air-conditioned barn, which I could not handle) and we missed the end-of-evening festivities of roasting marshmallows over the bonfire and having moon cakes. Hopefully next year...

Our last picture as we headed to the car...SpiderMeggie and SpiderCarson climbing the corn stalks!
I wasn't too upset about missing the moon cakes because Christine, a friend from work, had gotten Carson a moon cake from her local bakery. It was sitting at home so I knew we could try it later.

Being ignorant of most things Chinese, when I heard "moon cake," I pictured this:
(I know that's a moon pie, but that's what I envisioned.) In reality, a moon cake looks like this:
Having done a little research on moon cakes, I knew that they are traditionally sliced in quarters before serving. The power outage early in the week put off our moon cake celebration, but Carson and I did the honors together Wednesday evening...
...before taking our first bite.
Carson was SO excited! He LOVED IT! Mommy, on the other hand, had a difficult time enduring the taste.
I choked it down eventually and decided that Daddy really needed to experience some Chinese culture, too!
Daddy was also not a fan.
(I love Carson's face in that picture, as he laughs at Daddy's reaction!) Carson kept saying, "That's OK...I eat it all!" And he made every effort to do so.
If you look closely, the piece closest to his right hand shows a good view of the inside...a hard-boiled egg yolk was in there! YUCK! The outside crust is made of thick sugar and looked kinda carmelized. Calling it a "cake" made me expect it to be sweet and dessert-like. I think moon cakes might just be China's version of the American Christmas fruitcake...bleccchhh!!

There is a young MRI tech from Singapore who is spending three months working in my department at the hospital. She is so sweet and always asks about Carson. (Yes, I talk about my son too much...) On Friday, she was very excited to offer me a piece of moon cake she had brought in. I nearly jumped backward to get away from that horrid thing! She laughed and we both agreed it was probably an acquired taste. Ya think?!

Despite the moon cake, we did have fun at our first Autumn Moon Festival. Hopefully next year we can make it all the way to the end!

NEXT UP: Carson's soccer pictures and Molly's first care package!