Teresa's wedding

Kevin's sister Teresa got married last Saturday. In Chinese culture, there's usually an engagement party that mostly revolves around the bride's family and friends and then the wedding which is mostly for the groom's family and friends. Often these are held on separate days, but more and more couples like Teresa and Ruai-Fang are deciding to do it all on the same day.

So last Saturday morning, the groom and his family were welcomed to the bride's home by her and many members of her extended family for engagement festivities. A big part of the engagement is the bride serving tea to her husband and family. Here you can see Teresa and an aunt preparing to serve the tea. I suppose traditionally the purpose of this is to see how well the new bride could take care of her new family. The ironic thing is that Teresa (like most modern brides) was so busy being made up for the day that she wasn't at all involved in the tea-making. After the tea ceremony, the bride and groom are each given gold jewelry by the families.

After a few pictures, everyone took a break for a couple of hours as the engagement was finished.

Not long after lunch, the groom returned to pick up the bride for the wedding festivities that took place at his house. That gave us a chance to take naps and get rested up for the reception that took place in the evening.

Keanu and Kate were asked to be ring bearer and flower girl for the ceremony. Remember, Keanu's a pretty shy and opinionated kid, right? Flash back 2 months when we went to the bridal shop to try on their clothes: "No! No! No!" No amount of bribery or trickery could get him into the clothes. So I had Grandma send over a cute shirt, tie, and vest for him to wear instead. Still no luck... Any time the topic came up, he said he was going to wear his car shirt and car shoes. Guess what he wore?

No such luck! The week before the wedding, Teresa took her other nephew to get fitted for a suit at the bridal shop. He's pretty cute, huh?! And little Charley (who turned three just days after the wedding) had a great time bustin' a move in the bridal room in his cool tux! Here's our family of four along with the beautiful bride before the reception began.Kate, on the other hand, loved her pretty flower girl dress. She kept her sparkly barrette in her hair for a few minutes while we practiced walking into the dinner, but after that she was done with the pretty barrette. Oh well, she was still quite a hit! We had a bit of down time before the wedding began, so we snapped a few pictures. And then Keanu got jealous of all the pictures of his little sister and jumped in front of the camera for a few shots of him, too. We killed some time playing on the high chairs because then Mommy didn't have to hold her shy little flower girl. Keanu was pretty bored by this point, too. We were just waiting for guests to arrive so we could get going with the evening. Finally, it was time to start. The bright spotlights surprised and blinded Kate, but she walked about half way up the aisle. That was enough for us.

So then we ate and ate and ate. Ok, that's what most guests did. Keanu was too busy to eat. In Chinese weddings, the bride spends most of the reception changing clothes and socializing with the guests, so I guess that's what Keanu was doing, too. But wait, he wasn't changing clothes and he was only socializing with his cousin Angela and sister Kate. That's still enough not to want to sit down and eat.

Finally, the dinner was finished and guests left to go home. As the receiving line slowed down a bit, Keanu and Kate decided to join the pictures of the families who were leaving the ceremony. I guess everyone thought they were too cute to ask them to step out of the pictures! Here they are with Teresa and her new sister in law.

And then there were a few more chances for uninterrupted pictures. Like the bride and her mom.

Kate and her Ah-ma (grandma)

And finally, the bride with her two nieces: junior bridesmaid Angela and flower girl Kate.

It was the only sunny, beautiful day in the 2 weeks surrounding it, and we wish Teresa and Ruai-Fang a lifetime of sunny, beautiful days.

Mid-Autmn Festival

Today is the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, so that means there's a full moon and our last holiday scheduled until Chinese New Year! [Double 10 and New Year's Day fall on weekends this year, so they don't count :( ] I don't really understand why this particular full moon is important every year, but we certainly appreciate the holiday. Typically people celebrate by having a BBQ, giving moon cakes (think fruitcake at Christmas), eating pomellos, and admiring the moon.

You might be wondering, "what are pomellos?" Have no fear because I'll tell ya!

Think of a grapefruit that's about the size of a toddler's head. It's got really thick skin and a mild citrus flavor. They're in season now and that's why they're so popular at this festival. In the days before toys were plentiful, adults cut the pomello skin like a flower and then placed them on their kid's heads as hats and play-things. We've got plenty of toys, but the tradition continues. Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend so you can see what I'm talking about.Kate didn't really like this idea, so she pulled hers off pretty quickly. I did get one quick shot, though.

Later today we're going to meet some friends who are barbecuing, and we'll certainly be able to see the moon since the typhoon over the weekend cleared away all the clouds.

A tale of two weddings, part 1

On April 10, we were lucky enough to attend two weddings. The first one was for a good friend of mine, Amanda, and her new hubby YuanKuei. Actually, they were married in California last fall so the ceremony this month was the Taiwanese one. Here's the beautiful bride.

And her lovely gown - that she doesn't have to store forever or try to figure out what she'll do with it afterwards since it's rented - a fabulous Taiwanese tradition, I might add!

And the groom.

And then she changed into this gorgeous gown.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the last gown - a brilliant red color that accentuated her already thin waist - as this was the state of my daughter by the end of the luncheon. She'd had a bit of a nap at the beginning, but that just wasn't enough.

Congratulations Amanda and YuanKuei!

The First Month

Kate reached an important milestone in Chinese culture today - she's one month old! That's a good reason to share with readers all of the "rules" I've broken in the past month.

Let's start with pregnancy. According to tradition, pregnant women are not supposed to use sharp objects such as knives or scissors. Also, the expectant parents are not supposed to move any furniture while pregnant. Supposedly Keanu was born early because we put the crib together the weekend before he was born.

The first month post-partum is the most important and there are tons of rules - too many for anyone to keep track of, but I'll share a few interesting ones that I didn't even consider following:

• no shower or hair washing (However, the hair washing rule has been modified as long as the new mother dries her hair in the bathroom and the wet head isn't exposed to the air outside the bathroom.)
  
• special diet: mostly chicken soup made from rice wine or other special foods made with Chinese medicine. Usually this food is prepared by the mother-in-law or possibly the mother of the new mom, but it can also be brought to your door several times a day or you can stay in a "maternity hotel" for the month and they'll cater to your special post-partum diet. Interestingly, this diet doesn't include water or milk and often doesn't promote any kind of weight loss.


• staying home, preferably in bed so you can rest.
  

This month can be translated to "sitting month" because that's exactly what you're supposed to do - sit (or lie) and do nothing but recuperate and take care of your new baby.

The first time we went out (she was aweek old) we got all kinds of stares from the neighbors but Kevin's response was "it's up to her" (meaning me) and they seemed to accept that this crazy foreigner doesn't do anything right!

After the month is finished, the family gives rice or cake to friends and family to celebrate the baby's birth. In the past, these rice boxes were only given if the baby was a boy, but now it doesn't matter. The box has mostly rice (with something sticky and brown cavering it), a chicken leg, and 2 hard-boiled eggs. If you use your imagination, the eggs and leg are supposed to represent the male anatomy, again, it was only for baby boys. We gave these boxes to a bunch of people, but knowing that most of my friends wouldn't appreciate it, they got cake instead!