Adventures Abroad: Christmas 2016

We got the best Christmas present ever this year in the form of Grandma Fox. Madeline was particularly happy (read: Grandma secretly gives ice-cream), and Ryan and I were so excited to be on vacation during our vacation (read: Grandma does everything).

Grandma Fox took me and Madeline to HK Disney as a Christmas gift. It was Madeline's first time to Disneyland and it clearly made a lasting impact. While she has never seen a Disney movie, watched a Disney commercial, or been to a toy store with Disney products, she now talks about Tinkerbell and Snow White as if they were close friends. She loved the rides, the parade, and best of all, the character breakfast.

On the Dumbo ride.

Waiting for the parade.

I couldn't help but get into the Disney spirit myself!

The child-size princess crown fits Madeline's head,
but it's too big for mine.

Here are some pics from other fun adventures with Grandma Fox.

Peppa Pig came with us on the ferry to Discovery Bay.

Performance art.

Tea time with Grandma.

We also enjoyed the CDNIS family Christmas party. In the past the usual agenda included: food, kids running around hog wild, Santa, kids running around hog wild, chaos. But this year the organisers had great activities, including a "snowball" fight, pie eating contest, cupcake decorating, and organised photos. It was a great time!

Santa's handsomest reindeer.

Ryan does not hold back even when it comes
to snowball fights with kids.

Mads represented Team Kirchner at the pie-eating
contest. We'd like to thank her for her sacrifice in
eating whip cream and gummy worms.

Waiting for Santa.

We had originally planned to stay in HK over the Winter Break, but then we realised this might be our last time to travel to exotic destinations for quite a while due to the imminent arrival of double trouble. Even one of my students commented, "You know this is your last Christmas with only one child, right?" as if she too understood the severity of the situation.

So we ventured to Koh Samui for the other half of our break to meet our friends the Curreys. You may remember that we also spent last Christmas with them in Penang. Apparently, they only travel and live in places that pair well with their name (Thai Currey, Indian Currey, Penang Currey....uh-oh, they're running out of places to go!)

Mads was reunited with Aubrey and got to meet the newest Currey, Ford. I wish we could tell you about the many adventures we had, but somehow all of that stops with kids. I'd like to be the kind of people that strap their babies in a backpack and go trekking in Nepal, but really by the time we get to break we are so exhausted we just want to lounge at the beach. So true to form we spent our mornings at the buffet breakfast and poolside, afternoons by the beach, and evenings....what evenings? We were all in bed by 8pm!