I Love Fall Birthdays!

To prepare for the expat trick-or-treating in our area, we did some decorating.

I haven't seen any "real" pumpkins, but these are good substitutes.

I'm hoping they will still make good pumpkin pies and soups.

 It's always fun to decorate!  Ellie painted Darth Vader (anyone sense

a Star Wars obsession at our house?), and I made a wreath out of

a hanger and some silk leaf vines I found at a market.

 Sorry this is a bit out of focus--I should have put down my bags

before trying to shoot the picture.  But the iPhone does pretty well.

 The family asked what I wanted to do for my birthday,

and since we were already going to be in town for the branch party

I thought it would be fun to return to the Ancient Culture Street 

and look for some artwork to spice up the apartment.  We looked at shop after

shop, and finally found something we really liked.  Now I have the four 

prints, I just have to get them framed

 (and there are pretty inexpensive frame shops in the area).

 And we ended the day looking at my cake (we'd had too many treats at the party--

more sweets just didn't sound good by then). 

 It was a total surprise, put together by one of the missionary couples.

I have to say that it was beautiful--when we finally ate it on Sunday night,

we found that it held true to Chinese form.  It looks good on the

outside but the inside isn't so wonderful.  How can you make

cake with no sugar???

 And what's better than being serenaded?

And I had happy birthday wishes from family and friends here

as well as in the USA.  I feel pretty lucky indeed!

(And it just so happens that I was wearing red, which to the Chinese, signifies luck. 

 That's why all Chinese weddings

have red dresses, and they rent red cars, and tie red ribbons

to everything.  Lucky, lucky, lucky!)