Happy 2009!!

We are enjoying our last night in the US! It has been a wonderful trip and I will post more next week when we get settled back in China!!

We hope you all have a blessed and healthy New Year! Lots of love to you all!

A white Christmas after all!!

I told the kids over and over that we would most likely not have a white Christmas. It rarely snows in Tianjin and when it does, there is very little accumulation...until this year!! We came back from Hong Kong and found almost 2 inches of snow on the ground!! It is the most snow they have seen here in almost 15 years - they must know there are people here from the US wanting to experience some of the incredible snowfall that people are seeing back home!! The kids love to see the snow, but today they preferred to stay inside doing all of the projects that our dear friend Jenny sent us!!

We have had a fun Christmas Eve just hanging out and unpacking from Hong Kong! The kids cannot wait to wake up in the morning because there are so many gifts under the tree!! We are so grateful for all of the packages that have arrived from the US for us to open in the morning. Truly though, it is not really about the gifts, but the love and thoughtfulness that goes into each package. We cannot thank everyone enough for the cards, words of encouragement, and care packages that have gotten us through these first 6 months here in China!!

Now, Santa has arrived according to Nordic Track and a bottle of wine has been finished by these two tired elves, so we must prepare for the early morning wake up we are certain will come!!!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!!

Cleanliness, Good-bye!!

Yes, we had to say good-bye to the warm weather, beautiful sunshine and to the cleanliness of Hong Kong!! We arrived last night into Tianjin and this morning woke up to a bit of grey and a lot of dirt tracked into our house!!!

We enjoyed our time in Hong Kong so much, Ellie has requested that we spend her birthday there next year - not a bad idea!!! Ethan and Danny are trying to sabotage my time in China (I agreed to 3 years!!), but they want to move to Hong Kong next!!

Here are some pictures of our final days enjoying the clean, fresh air!!

We love Disney!!

A little swim break in the afternoon!!The castle lit up at night!!Eens and El on the teacups!! The park was basically empty - a 5 minute wait for space mountain!!

Our last breakfast with the characters!! A wonderful ending to a fantastic family getaway!!

The Magic Exists!!

I don't have a lot of time to blog, but I have to say, we love Hong Kong Disney!!! Basically, all I need to say is that we were chosen to be the family to open the park!!! That made my day before I even rode any rides, watched the parade, or met the characters!! We were minding our own business walking toward the entrance and a cast member pulled us aside and asked if we could help. We said sure and she told us we would need to come with her! She explained that we would simply shout Merry Christmas and sprinkle everyone with dust. I asked immediately if she meant pixie dust and she said yes, but I think she thought I had lost my mind!! The kids all got a bag of souvenirs and a certificate for helping! It was a wonderful start to a magical day...

Waiting for our big moment!!

"Merry Christmas Hong Kong!"

Eens conquered his fear of Buzz Lightyear - he rode it 5 times today!!!

Coop couldn't get enough of the Winnie the Pooh ride!! (Sorry for the blurry picture!)

I loved all of the characters dressed for Christmas!

Ellie loved the princesses and space mountain! Grandpa will be proud - she rode it 3 times!!

Good night everyone!!!!

Hong Kong Therapy

There is nothing like a little sunshine, clean air, and warm weather to help mend a broken heart! We took a direct, 3 hour flight to Hong Kong yesterday! Soon after we arrived in the airport, we were greeted by inflatable Christmas creatures - the kids loved it!! We ate at Burger King (which is not my favorite in the US, but here it tastes so yummy!!)! Jen - Danny ate a Whopper for you!! Then we took a nice, clean taxi to our hotel which is the Disneyland Resort located on Lantau Island. The hotel is a smaller version of the Grand Floridian at Disney World! We somehow got a large room with enough beds for everyone and a beautiful view of the South China Sea! Ahhh...Disney of course thinks of everything so this hotel is pretty fantastic. There is a Christmas tree made out of poinsettas in the back and a very real Santa was hanging out in the lobby last night. He was also a very smart British Santa - he called my kids cheeky - that pretty much sums them up if you ask me!!!

The view from our window!

After wandering through our hotel we took a taxi to The Peak on Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong is made up of several islands and territories. In a taxi, you go over huge bridges to get from island to island or there is a ferry to go across the water or you can take the MTR (public transportation) which goes through underwater tunnels to arrive at your destination. Because Hong Kong was under British rule until 1997, they drive on the opposite side of the road and so far everyone we have encountered speaks at least some English. One of the other wonderful things about Hong Kong is that there is a fine for spitting - I know this sounds odd, but if you live in China you totally understand what a great law this is!!! We drove by the port of Hong Kong, which I believe our driver said is the second largest in the world - it was pretty amazing!!

We arrived at The Peak and took a tram up to the top. At one point we felt like we were completely vertical - it was scary and fun all at the same time! Once we arrived at the top there were plenty of restaurants to choose from - we chose Bubba Gump's to remind us of Chicago! We had a beautiful view of the city while we enjoyed some yummy American food! After dinner we checked out the shopping and enjoyed a Starbucks before the backwards journey back down!!

A view of Hong Kong from the top!

On the way up in the tram!

We wore the littlest one out!
Danny's shining moment - no wonder he loves this city - a wax figure of Bruce Lee!!

We were very adventurous and took the MTR back to the hotel. It took a little over an hour (a taxi would have taken longer!) and it was so convenient and clean and easy. We had to take a special Disney train to get back to the resort. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the handrail - mouse ears...

Danny thinks Hong Kong is a mix between New York City and San Francisco. I think it is a little piece of heaven here on earth!! It is so nice that we don't stick out with our 3 children. The kids have only had their pictures taken a handful of times...it's so nice not being in the spotlight!! We can actually enjoy a family getaway here, which is exactly what we all needed!!

First Day of Holiday Break

We survived our first day of the 2 1/2 weeks the kids have off from school. It was not easy, but we made it through and we are actually packed to leave for Hong Kong bright and early in the morning. This was the first day the kids have had off of school since they started that we haven't been travelling! We had a fun day preparing for Christmas...

One of the first things we did was to make reindeer dust. This is a tradition my sister started a few years ago and my kids love it. We simply mixed oatmeal, red and green colored sugar, and glitter and then put it into seperate bags for each of the munchkins. On Christmas Eve the kids will sprinkle it outside so that the reindeer can find their way to our house!!

After that we made some simple Christmas M&M cookies with El's friend Minori. We decided to invite our neighbors over for coffee and cookies later in the afternoon. Plus it will be nice to have some Christmas treats when we get back home - one less thing I will have to do on Christmas Eve!

Next, Eens has been begging me for quite some time to build one of those foam Christmas kits that I had packed from Michael's! We pulled it out and the kids did about 1/4 of it and I ended up doing the rest! It was relaxing and I appreciated having something to do!!

Our two very dear neighbors came over later in the afternoon, so we had a wonderfully full house of kids and three very tired mom's!! I am so happy to have found these mom's right in our compound - we are all from very different backgrounds, but living in China has provided us with common ground. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have Naoko and Karen here - they are lifesavers!!

Cooper as usual provided some entertainment for us in his heels...Danny is so proud!!

On a very sad note, we said good-bye to my grandma today. She was one of the fiestiest women I have ever met and she fought a very good fight against Alzheimer's Disease. I will miss her dearly. Everywhere I have looked in my house today I have found reminders of her. I have some of her crystal pieaces that I use for coffee, I have an apron of hers that I use when I bake cookies, I was planning on making her homemade egg noodles (without the italian chicken broth Aunt Kath!!) for Christmas dinner so I've been looking at her handwriting, and then as I was packing I found a postcard from her when I was in junior high. It was perfect, I can actually hear her say these words, "You better practice for track because I want to see you win!". I'm thankful for the beautiful memories I have with grandma and I'm thankful for such a wonderful family that I can laugh and cry with during the good times and the bad. We all have funny, loving stories of grandma that will keep her memory alive! It is difficult to say good-bye, but I can see grandma in Heaven now with grandpa and I know she is happy and no longer in any pain. I love you grandma...

We will be flying back to the US the day after Christmas to be with my family. As much as I would like to leave tomorrow, we have been planning this trip to Hong Kong since we got here and the kids are so excited. I also think it is best if we stick to our original plans for Christmas for the kids sake. I'm hoping that us coming a little bit later will give my mom something to look forward to after the funeral and then Christmas.

God bless you all!

Question for any potty training mom!

I have to ask this question to any of you who are currently potty training or have loads of experience in this arena!! Dear, sweet Cooper was the easiest by far out of the three to potty train. We had a couple of accidents, some bribery with Geo Trax and now he is completely potty trained. The problem is, he is so independent that he believes he should dump his poop himself. Most of the time, he does get it into the potty, however, today it ended up in the sink...gross, disgusting, yuk!!! This is the sink where the children brush their teeth - I am totally disturbed by the whole thing. I have dumped bleach and any other cleaning product to sanitize, but I just can't help thinking that there was poop in the sink. I try to tell him to tell me when he does it (he needs privacy so he always goes whenever I am in the middle of something!!), but he is not getting it. Any suggestions? Who knows where it will end up next!!!