Christmas break

We had a relaxing Christmas break with several days just staying home, but we also were able to get out and do some fun things.  One of the first things we did was go see the new Peanuts movie.  It was the first time seeing a movie in the theater for Charlotte and the first 3D movie for both of them.  They loved it.  After the movie, we rode the Star Ferry across the harbour so we could see all the Christmas decorations on the buildings.  Many of the huge skyscrapers have lighted decorations (huge Santas, Merry Christmas, candy canes, etc.) that you can see in the evening.  

 The kids and I also took a trip to Ocean Park.  We had a good time.  We couldn't ride any roller coasters without Tom there because Charlotte isn't tall enough, but the kids had a great time playing in the children's area and we watched several shows, including a really good ice skating show.

 We also went to see Cirque Adrenaline, a Cirque du Soleil show which had heart-racing acrobatics and included some motorcycle tricks.  It was amazing.

Charlotte was excited to dress up in her new Chinese dress for the show

 The last day before school started, we took the kids ice skating.  It was their first time.  I was afraid they would get tired and not like it, but they loved it.  We rented penguins for them to hold on to while they skated.  It wasn't long before they were both skating on their own without them.  They can't wait to go back and have informed us they will not need penguins next time.  It was a lot of fun!

Christmas

We decided not to go back to St. Louis for Christmas this year.  Originally, we were going to take a trip somewhere, but then Tom had to work so we stayed in Hong Kong.  It was hard not being with our families for Christmas, but it was really relaxing being able to stay at home over the break and enjoy doing things around Hong Kong without the stress of packing and a 15 hour flight each way (plus a layover and a short flight, it is over 24 hours door to door).  Since our original plan was to go home every Christmas, I hadn't brought any Christmas decorations with us.  We thought about buying a Christmas tree, but real ones are very expensive and it seemed silly considering we didn't have our ornaments to put on it.  I saw an idea for making a tree out of felt on Pinterest (it is intended for toddlers to keep them from playing with the real tree), and decided to make one to make our house a little more festive.  Charlotte had fun helping me make the ornaments.

Our Christmas tree

 We also made Christmas cookies, both kids had fun decorating them.  The kids had very different approaches to decorating cookies.  Charlotte thought about her designs and tried to make them look nice.  Tommy just put as much frosting and sprinkles on as he could.  They also had a Christmas Market at school which is similar to a craft fair in the US with vendors selling their products for Christmas gifts.  That gave the kids a chance to see Santa and let him know what they wanted for Christmas.  Charlotte and I also baked an apple pie as a special treat.

Decorated cookies

Visiting Santa

Our apple pie.  (We had some leftover crust dough so Charlotte made some candy canes for the top)

On Christmas Day, we went to the Shatin Hyatt for a really nice buffet lunch.  They had all kinds of food including turkey, ham, lamb, lobster, and sushi.  They also had a huge dessert selection.  It was a really good meal.  We went with a group of friends and after we finished eating, the kids ran around outside while the adults sat around and talked.  It was a really good time.  Then it was home to play with their Christmas presents for the rest of the evening.  It was a good day.

Christmas Day

Macau

One of the highlights of Jan and Don's trip was our visit to Macau.  Macau is about an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong.  It is part of China, but like Hong Kong it is a Special Administrative Region and does not require a visa for visitors.  Macau is a old Portuguese colony that is full of casinos.  It is kind of like the Las Vegas of China, except without the drunken bachelor party shenanigans Vegas is known for.  Macau is only for serious gamblers.  Tom, Don, and Tommy went to watch the Grand Prix race.  Jan, Charlotte and I decided to skip the car race and go to the House of Dancing Water show instead.  Charlotte was insistent she wanted to do the "show" instead of the race and the times didn't work to do both.

Charlotte and my selfie on the Macau ferry

Tom, Tommy, Don and Jan on the ferry

We got to Macau in the morning so the guys could go to the race.  The show wasn't until 5PM which gave us the day to explore Macau.  We took the bus and then a bit of a walk to find a great Portuguese restaurant a friend of mine (who is Portuguese) recommended for lunch.  It was delicious.  Then we walked to see the Ruins of St. Paul's in the old part of Macau.  Everywhere was really crowded.  I am not sure if it is always crowded or if it was because it was race weekend.

Ruins of St. Paul's

Jan and Charlotte

 Charlotte got tired after awhile, so we decided to find a taxi stand to get to the other side of Macau for the show.  I was glad we left early, the taxi queue was a block long!  We ended up getting there in plenty of time anyway.  The show was amazing!  I don't know how they engineered the stage, but it would change from a dry stage to a shallow body of water, to a deep pool with people diving from the rafters within seconds.  Toward the end, there was a portion with motorcycles doing tricks.  It was amazing, they were doing these dangerous stunts on a stage that had been buried in water just moments earlier.  Charlotte loved the show.  She was literally on the edge of her seat the entire show.  It told a love story, she had a lot of questions about why things were happening and was very concerned the man and woman would not end up together in the end.  She cheered when the "bad guys" lost.  It was a late night before we got home, but we had a great time.

Ready for the show to start

The show was amazing!

Bird Market

We were excited for Jan and Don to visit again.  Last year they visited in September when it was still really hot, so they decided to wait until November this year.  The weather was much cooler this trip.  They spent their days exploring while the kids were at school.  They even spent several days visiting places on their own.  We were very impressed.

One of the most interesting places I went with them was to the Goldfish market, flower market, and bird market.  The Goldfish market is a street lined with stores selling all kind of fish.  Most have floor to ceiling racks filled with small bags that contain colorful fish.  The flower market is a different street with many floral shops selling individual flowers, beautiful bouquets, gifts, and whole trees.  It is interesting to see the different variety of flowers.  Many of the flowers were shipped from Holland.

The most interesting of the three was the bird market.  It was very loud.  With such small apartments in Hong Kong, a bird is a practical pet.  You will sometimes see people carrying bird cages around parks, taking their birds for a "walk".  The bird market had beautiful cages hanging in the trees with singing birds.

Not a great picture, but many of the bird cages had small porcelain bowls to put water and bird seed in 

Lots of bird to choose from

You can even buy food for your birds.  I hope if the person next to me on the train has a bag of crickets in their bag, it doesn't have a hole in it.