Quite Possibly the Most Exciting Moment of the Holidays or The Moment I Worried That We’d Set Durham on Fire

Sweet Erin spent the last 4 months teaching English in China.  She flew in Sunday morning, came to sacrament meeting, went and got an xray, ate dinner, then brought out her Chinese goodies.  There were fun things for everyone.  Beautiful silk bags for the girls, small daggers for the boys, beautiful art for the parents.  And then she pulled it out.  A chinese lantern.  We were, she said, going to be just like Tangled.  You know, at the end, when they sit in the boat and watch the lanterns rise all around them?

Cool.  I was ready.  Except that it wasn’t exactly like that…partly because there were no boats.

Partly because we were still all in church clothes.

Partly because it took a really long time to catch the little thing on fire—something I didn’t notice being a problem in the movie.

And then there was the worry that the lantern itself was going to catch fire—again not something I noticed in the movie. 

And did I mention that it took a LONG time?  We waited and waited and Erin tried to keep the lantern fabric from catching fire and we waited some more.  There was a bit of breeze which probably didn’t help the situation.

I sort of gave up on the idea of seeing a chinese lantern float peacefully off into the sky.

And then it happened.  Ken let go.

And it actually floated.

Not very high at first.  In fact there was a moment of panic that we were going to set the church on fire.

And then the trees on the other side of the parking lot. 

But the lantern kept rising, ever so slowly, away to the east. 

For a few minutes there we thought we were going to get arrested for sure. 
(Mahon was particularly worried since he had a run-in with the NC police at the beach 18 months ago over some illegal fireworks Josh was setting off…)

But the lantern kept drifting, and rising, and drifting.  We watched until we couldn’t see the smallest flicker of a light, and then we loaded up and came home.

And next time we watch Tangled, we’ll know better.

 

A LOT better.

 

PS—Thanks, Erin—that was awesome fun!

PPS—if you want to read the truly amazing Chinglesh  (aka Engrish) directions on the lantern, Cindy Lynn blogged them here.