Lantern Festival

Happy Solstice!
Tonight, we celebrated the shortest day of the year, the first day of winter, and the return of the sun. The hip, diverse, creative community of Vancouver provided the perfect atmosphere for such a celebration. Here, even more than at home in NorCal, the sun comes up late, is filtered by a gray sky, and then descends without ever really warming anything. It feels as if it's always a little too dark. I really feel that it is as dark as my world can be. But from a warm, light home we spent a lazy afternoon making lanterns from candy colored tissue paper and mason jars. Everyone pitched in, and we were as proud as we could be as we paraded through Chinatown, just a few blocks from Grammy & Grandpa Ted's house. We strolled past bakeries, produce stands and ginseng shops to the walled garden of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. The lovely garden was adorned with paper lanterns of natural designs. Some decorated with pressed leaves like many full moons hanging in the trees. Zoe was lured by promises of "tea and buns" read from the internet description. She settled for hanging lights, bridges over turtled waters, floating candles and a shared freshly baked cinnamon bun.