GrandMa's Birthday Party

My grandma is the only eldest member in my family since two other grandpas (my dad's side and my mom's side) and one grandma (my mom's side) passed away in 1999. This year, my grandma (let's call her “A Ma") is turning 85 years old. In Chinese culture, elders above 80 years old are really special for not only himself or herself, but also for his or her family members. In our case, it's really special for us since A Ma lost her husband almost 10 years ago and now she lives by herself.

Currently, A Ma lives in the south of Taiwan, a city named “Tainan", where is dried and sunny all the time. As for us, we live in the north of Taiwan, a city named “Pingjen”, where is just like Florida, humid and it rains a lot. Started from I remembered my childhood memories, A Ma has a serious knee injuries, which brought her lots of knee ache. This is the most important reason why she doesn't want to live with us in the north. So, this time, we (my dad, Sandy, Irene, and I) decided to drive down to A Ma's house and celebrate with her.

We secretly planned and reserved a date and restaurant with all my uncles, aunts, and cousins. My cousin, Ying, picked up A Ma's favorite Chinese restaurant and bought a sweet potato birthday cake from “Opera" cake shop. Ying told us that Opera's cake is pretty popular flavor is their famous in the south and the sweet potato is their famous flavor. So we have a 8" round cake for A Ma.

At the beginning, Irene and my dad were planning to drive down on Saturday morning (the 30th). Then, Sandy and I will take the high speed rail to Tainan earlier this morning. But my cousin on my mom's side, 書翰, and his wife just have their 1st baby, 智謙. So we didn't drive down on the 30th. Earlier this morning, we woke up @ 6, and started driving to the south. I can’t remember when is the last time we drove to the south as a family trip. We don’t travel a lot in Taiwan because of the horrible traffic jam and the crowds of people. So this time is our 1st family trip after Irene finished her research program at UF.

Well, I must say that it’s always fun to be with your family member. We had some great spicy sausages in the rest areas on the high way. Also, we had the slurp, the coke style smoothie, at the 7-11 stores near A Ma’s house. It takes us almost 3 hours to the south. Then, by the time we arrived to A Ma’s house she was ready and waited for us. The typical sunny weather in the south makes her lost some weights and now she looks skinny than before. Still, I love her silver hair color and her gorgeous smile.

Here are some photo shots I took at the restaurant.

* on the left:

A group picture with A Ma (Clockwise from the leftmost): the man with blue shirt is my 1st uncle, Chris; the lady with blue shirt and short hair is my big aunt; the lady with pick shift next to A Ma is my 1st cousin, Ying; The lady with silver hair color who wears the white shift is my grandma, A Ma; the little girl with long hairstyle and the red shirt is my 1st niece; last but not least, the lady with short haircut and the pink shirt is my 1st aunt, Joan.

* in the middle:

A group picture ( from the left most) with my dad, A Ma, my 1st niece, and my 1st nephew.

* on the right:

My dad and A Ma. My dad is the youngest child in his family. I am not sure if my dad is A Ma's favorite kid, but I bet that he is the one who can always make A Ma's dream come true.

* on the left:

My parents! : ) The lady with black shirt is my mom, Sandy. : )

I just love to see my parents together and the big smile on their faces.

* in the middle:

A Ma is cutting the cake and Chris is the only one who smiles and looks to my camera. : P

* on the right:

A photo with Irene and A Ma. Irene is the oldest grand child with "Yang" family name in our family. So my grandpa loves her and Ying( the oldest grand child in my generation) a lot.