Saturday, September 29, 2012

Moonpies

So tonight was the Autumn Moon, which we did get to see after all - it was pretty overcast today, so viewing it at first seemed unlikely.  But the bright full moon was in fact visible for a short time, peeking out from the midst of the clouds, officially making everything right with the day.

Mommy and Daddy haven't really had any huge Autumn Moon Celebration with Madison.  It's a pretty busy season for us, and this particular day tends to get lost in the shuffle.  The extent of our celebrations has typically been a Moon Pie.  Yes, Daddy goes and finds a few moon pies from a gas station - or in today's case Wal-Mart.

Strangely, Madison wasn't that into the moon pie tonight.  But Mommy and Daddy were, proving that there is some small percentage of redneck in our blood, somewhere.

No, our Autumn Moon Celebration was not just about moon pies and seeing a full moon.  We actually have a few books that cover the topic, and what the legends are in China concerning this day.  They're pretty unusual:  a jealous wife eats a pill that will make her husband immortal.  He chases her across the sky, but she gets away and lands on the moon where she becomes queen.  She spits out the outer shell of the pill and it becomes a jade monkey.  He becomes king of the sun.  They still love each other, and one day a year he comes to visit her on the moon, which is why it is so bright.  I think that about covers the story.  My favorite part is spitting out a half-digested pill and watching it become a jade monkey.  I'm not entirely sure what the storyteller was on at this point when he or she was making this all up - but I have my suspicions!

Today of course was a work day for Daddy, who was spending time preparing for tomorrow's finale of the Miracles series.  Mommy spent a long time cleaning up the house - which coincidentally is a tradition associated with the Autumn Moon Festival.  I think that tradition was made up by husbands who wanted their wives to clean up the houses though.  Either way, the house is looking nice - cleaning Madison's rooms was no small undertaking.  "Epic" might be an appropriate word, in fact.

Still, Mommy had time for making us chicken parmesan for dinner, which was absolutely perfect.  No, it's not related to Autumn Moon Festival, although we could make it that way if you'd like!  Sounding like a broken record here, but Madison's piano practice followed - this is five days a week, and then there is the class itself.  So she's playing the piano nearly every day of the week now.

We're still listening to the Fairies story at night, by the way.  We're not that far into it, as we're only going about a chapter or two every other day.  But Madison is listening and paying attention - it's a great way to get her to settle down some before bed.  We're also reading lots of books from the library lately.  Madison is reading her own books as well, which is pretty nifty.  She is getting better and better with sight words, and reading on her own.  Daddy and Mommy are very proud!


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