Happy Festivus of Lights!

On the Lunar calendar, the 15th day after the Chinese New Year marks the lantern festival. We didn't experience this holiday in Beijing, but it was beautiful here in Taiwan. We went to a lantern display Friday night at the Sun Yat-sen memorial hall and were dazzled by the lights. The kids actually woke up with nasty coughs that morning, but like naughty parents we hauled them out for a night on the town anyways. They loved it and were tucked in their sweet little beds by 8:30, so it was worth it. Let me just say that the Chinese people have skills with wire and paper! The displays were done by different schools around Taipei, elementary through high school. Most were rats, signaling the year of the rat. The large main lantern shown above had hundreds of rats crawling all over it and a fantastic light show. I've been feeling a little homesick lately (mommy, are you REALLY coming in April???!!!) but Shaun pointed out that even Effingham doesn't have a Taipei 101. I had to concede on that point. We definitely have unique experiences overseas. The lantern show was "the good." Samples at Costco are "the bad" and "the ugly."