Wrinkly Smiles and Breakfast Table Chats.

     A couple of weeks ago I spent the weekend in Tai Nan on invitation of the Magan and Chen families. Here I am the complete stranger but yet with in a matter of seconds I felt like one of the family. I would wake up early in the morning to find grandma Chen awake and running about doing her things, breakfast prepared and on the table. We would chat a bit with my broken Chinese and her heavily accented chatter about the day. A couple hours later papa Magan would make his way down to the breakfast table, spending most of the time introducing me to the methods of eating and flavors of some of the many fruits of Taiwan. A lofty time after the previously proposed time mama Magan would make her way down the marble stair case with regal sovereignty, plans made and ready to go. We would spend the rest of the time touring the coastal streets of Tai Nan trying any thing that took our fancy to eat. I quickly learned though that after trying something I would shortly there after be asked by mama Magan if I liked what I had just put into my mouth. If my answer was even the slightest in the positive mama Magan would disappear only to return with an enough of what ever it was to feed an army. The delights didn't end there. Every place we went I was being introduced to another part of the family. Aunts, 4th and 5th uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, siblings and all of them were just as wonderful as the next. After a long day of adventure and meeting so many wonderful people we would return to the Chen mansion  to always find grandpa Chen in his 1980's double breasted suit and slippers watching baseball in his handcrafted Italian leather seat with a glass of tea in one hand and a wrinkly smile across his face.