In remembrance of her

I'm not much of a mooncake fan. The only time I touch a mooncake is when:

1) it's from Mandarin Oriental (they make melt-in-your-mouth mooncakes)
2) it's not the typical brown-skin mooncake - i like shanghai yam mooncakes, buttermilk mooncakes, and mooncakes with black sesame paste fillings. You know the sort.




What comes to mind when I see mooncakes is my grandma's birthday. Her birthday falls on the 12th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. Whereas Mid Autumn festival falls on the fifteenth.

This is the first time we're celebrating/not celebrating mooncake festival without her. As the family is still in mourning, we won't be celebrating this year.

I remember my pohpoh used to pray to the moon with mooncake offerings while us kids busied ourselves with our colourful lanterns.

Today is the 12th day of the eighth month. To commemorate grandma's birthday, we all gathered at her house to have lunch together. According to my mum, it's as if we're going back to celebrate her birthday for her (I think it's a Buddhist thing, as I'm a Christian I'm not really sure how this works).

The funny thing is, I dreamed of her this morning. I dreamed of her talking to me, like how she used to when she was alive. She used to ask me when I'll be going over to her house and what I'd like her to cook for me. She used to cook my two favourite dishes on special request: Black vinegared pork knuckle and Chicken rice wine soup. She used to pamper me heaps.

I dreamed that she was looking well and happy. And when I told my mum and dad my dream, I didn't know why but I had tears welling in my eyes.

My grandma would be happy to know that we were all home that day, and all of us (including the kids) were praying for her hoping that she's in a better place with no suffering whatsoever.

~*It feels good to make others happy~*~

I made some cutesy stuff with the pipe cleaners (again) for my little cousins. It was so nice to see the smiles on their cute little faces.

Meimei and Lulu won't be taking off their rings for a while.

Pohpoh, I wish you were there with us. How i wish you could see the kids' happy faces.