A Belated Mid Autumn Celebration

Believe it or not, this year I did not buy any moon cake except for 1 small box of 公仔餅 (kong chai peng). It was a rather busy time for us this year, Charlotte started school in Aug and she was sick more frequent than ever, Brenda (our maid) was going home, and I was busy preparing for work transition and pass down before my 3 weeks full time off during the week of mid Autumn celebration. However, Charlotte still gets her lantern and just like every year my mom bought her the 1 st lantern. This year it's a very neat Mini Mouse lantern. In fact, we prefer the traditional lanterns than the modern battery operated ones as most of it come with a very loud and noisy music.

We didn't expect to have any celebration for Charlotte this year but just last week we received an invitation from the E&O Group that a Lantern Festival will be held at the Seri Tanjung Pinang on Sept 20th, again just like last year! I was very happy to receive this invitation and we definitely going to make it there early this time.

The first thing we saw when we arrived at Seri Tanjung Pinang was the Lion Dance! That was a very good welcoming icon. Charlotte got a very beautiful dough doll from an ang pow (red packet) she picked out from the lucky draw box. She chose a bird from a wide range of designs, could it be she is born in the year of Rooster?

Then we headed towards the exhibition/food booths. Charlotte was first attracted to the "candy" making booth. It was actually the "龙鬚糖" (sorry, I don't know what it is called in English) but they replaced the 龙鬚 with the "poh piah" skin instead.

I never thought Charlotte would like it because she isn't much of a sweet tooth baby and so I have never let her try it but Charlotte seemed to enjoy it! (just like the daddy, he was eyeing on the candy without the wrap, heheheee)!

It was also Charlotte's first experience with the trishaw. The organizer actually hired a nicely decorated trishaw and let their guests (I guess more for the children) to experience it. We also took the chance to sit on it and go for a few rounds :)

Then there was a series of stage performance and lantern riddle guessing. We spent only just a short while as the food they served wasn't suitable for the children, mostly spicy food, how sad. So we left and had our dinner at our favorite family restaurant somewhere in town.

It was a nice experience again for Charlotte and us to enjoy a Mid Autumn celebration.