Christmas in Hong Kong

This was the first year we spent the entire Christmas break in Hong Kong. And guess what? It was fabulous! No planes to catch, no colds to catch on the plane, no living out of a suitcase. The city is fabulous during the holidays. The weather is superb (about 65 degrees) and there are far fewer people....except where we live in Causeway Bay, where all of mainland China decides to go to do their holiday shopping. But if you basically ignore the 4 blocks south of us, Hong Kong is great at Christmastime. 

Brrrrr...it's cold! 

We decided to splurge and get a real Christmas tree, and I don't even want to think of the carbon footprint on it.

More like a Christmas bush, Ryan said. It was
sort of shaped like a Christmas tree. 

We also had many activities planned to make it festive for the kids. (Actually, I realise now I mostly have pictures of Madeline. This is a hazard of having twins. When we have 3 kids around, we always have our hands full so we can't take as many pictures.)

First up, the CDNIS Christmas party. Mads assures us she had a great time. She was all smiles and candy canes, but unfortunately she looks absolutely miserable in all the photos!

Oh the irony.

This little girl is so patient. For the third year in a row,
she was one of the last kids to have her name called by
Santa, but she never got upset. 

Friggin' finally, Santa.

One of our top 3 Christmas gifts. 

We also started a new tradition of making Christmas cookies and Christmas cinnamon rolls and passing them out to neighbors and friends. 

Making the cookies with my friend Veronique.

We had a pre-Christmas brunch with our Hong Kong family - Kirk, Julie, their two kids, and Jim.

Mads and I saw a play called "Father Christmas."

Mads, Grandma, and I went to Disneyland! It's actually a perfect place to go for someone Madeline's age. It wasn't too big or too hot (think Disney Florida or Anaheim) so we were able to see the whole park in one day. And surprisingly it wasn't too crowded this year. A magical time had by all!