Moon Festival Birthday Party

9-27-15 

     We had our now annual Moon Festival party last evening. Leona's father came with her brother, sister-in-law and daughter, her aunt (mother's sister), her female cousin with her daughter (but not her son) her male cousin with his wife (girlfriend?), her friend with her husband and son, and towards the end of the evening, her nephew came followed by his brother, both of whom were returning from a bushiban. In all, there were 14 guests here. 
     The food was great, both bought by us and brought by guests. The fresh oysters in the shell and kaoliang sausage from my wife's friend were notably excellent, but everyone brought something. My matzo stuffed Portobello mushrooms sucked; we had no bread crumbs! Everyone loved the 'water bamboo' brought by the male cousin; it looked like corn grilling on the barbeque and tasted a little like bamboo. Mr. and Mrs. Ma didn't come nor did Leona's other aunt (father's sister) or her cousin's son. Wayne didn't respond to my IM invitation and Miss Lee rightfully ignored it when I flippantly invited her in class. 

     Leona has really taken to these parties that we have on New Year's Eve, The Fourth of July, and the Moon Festival. It took some work to get her to realize it would be fun. Our condo is large enough to have different circles of activity in the dining area, living room, and outdoor patio. The indoor patio would be a logical center but there are no activities there outside from CD's I put on. If there was a pinball machine there, the guests would love it, especially the youngsters. Not being given one for my 60th birthday is still my regret. 

      The people who came to the party are her family and our support system in Taiwan. The party also served as a birthday party for her male cousin's wife and we had a big cake and sang the song. We were able to see the moon, though not full until tonight, and even saw fireworks being lit; there may be a typhoon obscuring the view of the moon tonight. 

     The air is cool and dry in Taichung now; the sky is clear. A reminder of the last cross-island typhoon is the branch from the palm tree that was bent and broken; it came off yesterday. This typhoon, originally heading north towards Japan, made a sudden left turn and came west towards Taiwan. At last report, it was supposed to hit land tomorrow; a shame because of the three-day weekend it will interrupt, especially in Taipei.