Merry Christmas! We had a great day today, despite missing family and wishing we could be home with them. It was so fun to see Lucy open her presents and spend the day with her.

Here she is on her new chair, playing with her new puzzle.

After breakfast with the Bates (see video below) we headed to our friends', Des and Kay's, house for Christmas dinner. It was nice to be around other people on Christmas Day when you are missing your family.

After dinner we played Cranium. This is Jen "puppeteering" Pete during the game.

Pete and Lucy wishing each other a Merry Christmas with lots of love.

Here's Lucy on Christmas morning.

At Bob and Jen's for breakfast.

We love and miss all of you and hope you are have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. As I write this, it is 5am on the West coast, Christmas Day. Here we are about to go to bed and Christmas is almost over. Crazy. We love, love, love you so much.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve came and went and we are now an hour away from Christmas Day. As I was making the breakfast casserole for tomorrow morning and wrapping the last of Lucy's presents after she went to bed, I kept imagining my Mom and Dad and how many times they have done those same things for my sisters and I. I can't believe that Pete and I are starting our own traditions with our own family. The weirdest thing is that I am so excited for Christmas tomorrow - I feel like a kid again. Only this time I'm not excited for my own presents - I'm excited to give presents to Lucy - and to Pete too. Even though Lucy still doesn't quite get it, it is fun nonetheless.
Here are some pictures from the day:

Lucy in her Santa hat at our "Christmas Story" Chinese dinner tonight.

Pete, Lucy, and I when the Peking duck arrived - Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra!

Lucy and Pete in their new pajamas - Pete got a Daddy bathrobe as well.

The tree fully loaded for tomorrow.

Lucy's brand new chair, just her size, with plenty of books, a puzzle, and a new doll waiting for her.

I had to go to the doctor this morning for a routine glucose screening (everything was good). While I was gone, Pete took this cute video of Lucy.

A Christmas Eve greeting from our family ...

Dinner with the Bates ...

Merry Christmas! We are sending you lots and lots of love.

Santa

We took Lucy to see Santa this afternoon, and it actually went a lot better than I anticipated!

Here we are at the mall - Lucy was immediately excited by the "pretty tree."

Waiting in line for Santa there were a lot of fake berries to play with - again, exciting!

Inside Santa's house, Lucy and Daddy stopped to pose by the tree.

Here are the three pictures I took of Lucy with Santa ... they didn't turn out so well.

Lucy wasn't actually sad - I thought she would cry when we put her next to Santa. Instead, she just wanted off the couch - there was just too many things to explore in Santa's house! Luckily, we did get one good picture of the three of us with Santa (I guess four of us). It turned out really well, but since I don't have a scanner at home, I can't post it. It was a fun day. I just have a bit more Christmas shopping to do tomorrow and then I am all set for Christmas. We are missing our family, but definitely trying to make the best of it!

Sunday ... and no work tomorrow!

As per usual, it was a lazy Sunday around here. I headed out in the afternoon to do some Christmas shopping in Stanley, and actually got quite a bit done. I am missing that Christmas bustle that I always feel at home, but going out today helped a bit. I think Pete and I may watch "It's A Wonderful Life" tonight, which is one of my favorite movies ever.

Lucy has something in her mouth in this picture, which turned out to be a piece of pasta from last night that she found on the floor. Nice.

Cute girl.

Break - Finally!

Christmas break has finally arrived! Hooray! Yesterday at 11:00am, our hectic, busy, schedule came to a halt, I finished my last college application, and we headed home to give Lucy a hug and a kiss. As I have said many times, we are sad that we aren't going home, but I am looking forward to two weeks of solid time with our tiny (but growing) family. I am so excited that Pete can spend all day with our little girl! Yeah!
Here are some pictures from tonight's photo shoot:

Lucy doesn't always smile when I tell her to, but every now and again, she'll stop what she's doing and pose for me - tonight was one of those nights.

A mischievous pose here ...

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Hopefully I'll be able to blog a little better this week with some time off!

A Trip to the Park

As I mentioned yesterday, Lucy hasn't been feeling well for the past couple of days and because of this, she hasn't really left the confines of our 650 square foot palace. So, as it is still around 75 degrees here in HK (sigh), we decided to take her out on an adventure to the park. I think it was really good for her to get out and get some "fresh" air (as much as it exists here.)

She rode on the little toy animals.

Met new friends ... kind of - she ran up to them excited, anyway.

Pete wrote her a cute message on one of the toys. (It says "I Love You" in case you can't read it.)

Then he took her down the spiral slide.

She played captain of the ship.

And finished back on the little toy animals again.

Before she went to bed tonight she seemed happy and smiley and was playing with us, so I hope she is feeling better. If she is still feeling badly tomorrow, I think it will be time for a visit to Dr. Thondup. She is such a cutie, I hate to see her not feeling well.

Busy, busy week ...

... but we are almost to Christmas Break. Both Pete and I have been running around trying to get everything done before break. I am almost done with college applications and it will be a relief to get them all finished and in the mail (or sent over the internet, which is more and more the case.) To top it off, Lucy has been running a temperature and we aren't sure if she has a bug or if it is just the big teeth that are coming in, in the back of her mouth. I hate seeing her not feeling well and a temperature always worries me.
Here are some pictures from today:

Giving me a bit of a pose ...

Trying to put the cap back on the lens, which I'm pretty sure means she is done taking pictures.

Playing with her puzzle, one of her favorite toys.

I hope she feels better soon - I hate to be working when she doesn't feel well. Only five more work get ups, though, until break. I am sad that we aren't going home, but I am looking forward to relaxing with my family.

Happy Birthday, Poh Poh

Happy Birthday, Poh Poh (That's "Grandma" in Cantonese).  We love you so much and we hope you have a great and wonderful birthday.  Lucy told me to tell you that she wishes she was there to give you a great big birthday hug and kiss!  

P.S. I'm not sure what is going on with this outfit.  God bless Marianne - she is wonderful and I don't know what we would do with out her, but sometimes her color coordination leaves something to be desired. :)

Playdate

Today we had a playdate with some other families from school with kids about Lucy's age. We went to a place called "Wise Kids" that has a play area for young kids, with lots of age-appropriate toys. The kids play for an hour and then the staff ends by leading the kids in some songs. It was kind of funny to hear "Apple," the song leader, sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with a Chinese accent. The kids loved it though. Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures at Wise Kids, which is a shame. I'm not sure why they don't, but here are some from the rest of the day.
After we got done playing, we got some pizzas and went to this grassy area nearby. Grass is hard to come by in Hong Kong, so it was interesting to watch Lucy's reaction when we put her down to play in the grass. She pretty much hasn't seen it much in her life, which makes me sad.

Here she is greeting her friend, Taylor. They are good buds.

Waiting for pizza. (Notice Lucy's outfit ... this is the third time she has worn it since we got it in the mail. I just think it is so cute, I want her to wear it as much as possible before the season is over. Thanks, Mom - I love you!)

All of these people are Chinese tourists, who stopped to watch our kids playing. They stayed for like 10 minutes starring in awe. Sometimes, it's really weird being a Gwilo (that's what they call white people here ... it means "Ghost People") in Hong Kong.

Lucy and Pete playing in the grass.

A picture of all of us and our pizza picnic.

Rolling around and having fun ... all this space is a weird feeling for us here!

Exploring.

Saying "Goodbye" to Taylor by sticking her fingers in Taylor's mouth. Apparently that is how one-year-olds say "Goodbye." :)

Tonight I made chili for dinner and I am attempting to make Jiffy corn bread in our toaster oven. So far it looks like it might work, but I am not getting my hopes up yet. I found Jiffy corn bread at "Park N Shop" (our local grocery store) the other day and decided I just had to give it a whirl ... I miss corn bread.