A few moments from our Christmas

Feshya took this photo on the ferry on the way to Christmas eve candle light service

mall decorations.......and the crowds

no lights on houses, but plenty on skyscrapers

more city views

Christmas eve at midnight after getting home from a candle light service

because big red shiny shoes have so much to do with Christmas right!!??


candle light service

more city lights

views from the ferry on the way to the Christmas Eve candle light service



Sammy captured a wonderful moment of me and hubby

our gingerbread house

Embracing it all

Christmas. I wonder how many blogs have been written about this. Well, I have been doing a lot of thinking about Christmas.
To me it is cold noses and hot chocolate. Baking and more baking. Tobogganing and classic Christmas movies. Gathering with Friends. Being with family or wishing you could be with family. Remembering old memories and making new ones. Turkey and being stuffed with stuffing. Avoiding the malls yet buying wonderful gifts. The smell of a real Christmas trees. Driving around looking at Christmas lights.......
So, now I move across the world.
And Christmas comes.
And I realize how much emotion is attached with the season.
How much my senses have to do with me 'feeling' like it is Christmas.
There is no snow falling outside.
No oven to bake peppernuts in.
Not many Christmas parties to got to.
No turkey to roast.

We have set up a tree (fake, but I am determined to buy a real one next year!). We are drinking hot Chocolate with candy canes, and watching most of our favorite holiday classics on youtube or youku (the Chinese youtube). The kids are having a blast secretly buying gifts for each other. And because our little island is so safe, they can even go and buy them all on their own. We are going to a candle light service on Christmas eve with friends. Christmas music is the always playing.

I have gone back and forth between loving this new experience in this season, and wishing with all my heart that I was in Canada with friends and family right now. That I was were all is familiar.

Then the other day I remember how I had longed and longed to be here. This is all a part of that. New experiences. Enjoying traditions and creating new ones.
Embracing that and not being frustrated with it.

Not just trying to recreate old ones.

The kids love for me to tell them my memories of growing up and how we celebrated Christmas. Tonight I laughed with them when I told them how one day they will snuggle with their kidlets all cozy in their beds and say

"I remember that one year when we lived on a small island in Hong Kong and we................" That made me smile!


Merry Christmas everyone!!

all those things I should be doing

There are so many things I should be doing right now. People to phone, emails to write, things to plan, homeschooling books to organize and on and on it goes.

The kids are sweetly sleeping, all cozy under their blankets. Quiet.

I love the quiet of night time. I do.

This morning I skyped with family and friends. I cried when it was all done. I miss you all so much. My children were also feeling very sad after the visits as well. Christmas is sneaking up. I am excited to have our first Christmas here! But I wish I could package everyone from home, put a big ol stamp on them, and ship them all over here.

Went to check up on the house progress today, and there is no way we could be in there for Christmas. Nothing, nada, zip has been done in the last week. So that has me down as well. I had begun to get my heart excited about being in for Christmas, so please ask for peace for me and the family to be content where we are.

Today my two oldest kids went shopping for family members all on their own. So sweet! Although, they used the change from the laundry that I had asked them to take in. With out asking first. Oops!

But, great news.
I found a little tiny shop, well, more like a ground level house that sells coffee/bread/cheese/whole wheat flour/german bread mix, and did I mention cheese! Oh yes, and to top it off, she also runs a bit of a second hand book store. I am so excited. It is a Philippino lady who speaks perfect English.

Plus, just to top it all off. I was telling her where we were moving to (yes the big pink house and she knew exactly!!!). She asked if we happen to be wanting a dog with our big yard. Nefeshya's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. A family has a golden retriever that they need to give to a new family! We will go this week to have a 'meet the family' time and see if we pass or not.

There is a sweetness about knowing that 'you' are being taken care of isn't it. And yes, finding a used book store that sells homemade bread mix and cheese is a most definitely 'being taken care of'.

Now, go smell your Christmas tree and think of me.

um.....I thought I remember you asking me

One more house story, just to let you in on my daily laugh.

Remember the other day how I was suddenly asked to pick my paint colors? I am sure I was, it wasn't just a dream.
Well today we went to the house to help Brad and some of the students clean the yard.
As I walked into the house I was more than a little surprised to see some of my kitchen walls painted yellow. A rather bright yellow.

For a moment or two I stood rather confused. I went outside, looked at Brad, then went back into the house for a second look.

3 of the walls were painted the color I had asked for, but the fourth, a rather large wall, was indeed yellow.

Then I had to laugh, kinda.

Remember how I said they had laughed at my choices and tried to show me other colors. Well, this yellow was one of the colors they had really pushed for. It was called Sunflower. I 'told' (see hand motion/pointing/head shaking) them that no I wanted the Manilla color.

Not sure what happened.

I thought of asking. But just couldn't bring myself to do it. I am not sure why. Let's just call it acceptance for tonight.

Some new friends stopped by and said I lived in the rainbow house. I chuckled.

But these new friends did bring some great news. They told us of a couple that is considering moving to Cheung Chau to start an English/Cantonese fellowship. My heart jumped at this. We have discussed this and prayed for this. We hope to connect with them next week.

On another note, Brad and the students found a bright green poisonous snake in the yard with a whole rat in its body. I was slightly grossed out as the kids stood around oohing and aahing as Brad cut it open. Lets just call that 'Biology'. We were told that cats are good for keeping the snakes out of the yard.
I plan on getting about 10.

From now on I shall be known as

"The cat lady in the rainbow house"

Now to find some one to translate that into Cantonese!

Naughty

A few days ago as we were walking on the island, Brad had pulled Ethan aside and was 'talking' to him. Ethan is a very happy 6yr old boy who lives in a world all his own. Most days as we walk we have to constantly call Ethan to move out of someone's way, and honestly, 9 times out of 10 he ends up cutting right in front of someone else.
As Brad was discussing this with Ethan once again, another young boy wearing his school uniform rode his bike up beside Ethan and Brad. In a wonderful Chinese/British accent he asks
"What are you doing?"
Brad replies
"Just talking to my son"
The boy quickly takes in the situation and asks
"Was he naughty?"
To which Brad chuckles and says
"yes"
the boy responds
'I am naughty sometimes too!"
and then rides off showing us his riding with no hands trick.

The house

I must put in here first that I am EXTREMELY thank full for this new house that they are renovating for us. It is VERY rare for a family to live in a private house this large and have the huge courtyard we will have. I really can not stress enough how blessed we are to be getting to live here, so please take the following as just some humor and a bit of frustration
This is me in front of our new house. See, I told you it was pink. Did I tell you I really don't like pink? Just reminding you in case you forgot.

So yes, that is it. Stunning no? And let me tell you, everyone now knows where we are moving to. If anyone asks were we will be living, and I say the big pink house, they know exactly which one I mean. So that is a good thing..................right????

Yesterday one of the staff told me that they had started painting the bedrooms and asked if I liked it. He looked quite excited about this new addition, which in all honestly frightened me a little bit. He saw my 'concern' and suggested that perhaps I should go and check it out the next day and let them know if I wanted it or not.
So, this morning the kids and I stopped at the paint store to pic out some sample colors to take over. Remember, I was going to have to explain what color I wanted in sign language (me no cantonese, them no english). I was excited to see the paint sample strips in a display cabinet. But the glass sliding door wouldn't open. Looking up, I saw that they had taped it shut. I laughed out loud. It wasn't like they only had one of each strip, no, there was a stack of each one. But obviously these were for display only. When I asked if the cabinet could be opened so I could take one or two, I was only met with very puzzled looks. They were very helpful tho and let me take the sample book they had behind the counter until I could return it later.

So off we go to the house.
The kids went running inside and came out very excited telling me how much they loved their rooms and could we please not paint it over. I went in to see that they had done some funky painted multi color layering effect type thing in all the bedrooms. Not necessarily my first choice, but the kids are very excited about it so that is great. The workers were also very happy to see how pleased the children were.

I quickly explained that I did not want that in the living room and received disappointed looks from the workers. They were just about to start in on the living room. Then I was asked what color did I want for the walls and what kind of cabinets did I want.

This is were I got a little confused.

See, when we first got here I was told that I could pick out the counter top for the house. Then they said I could pick out the tile, paint, countertops, cabinets etc. That was very exciting, but when I inquired further I was told all those decisions had already been made. Buy that point, I didn't care nearly as much, I just wanted the house finished so we could move out of our 'one room' house.

Then, suddenly they want me to pick it all out as I stood there. Well, except the countertop. That was already there.

I laughed out loud. Again!!

So I asked them if I could have an hour or so to pick it out. Sure sure sure they said.

When I went back and showed them my choices ( a little more conservative than their rather flamboyant ones ), they laughed at me. They gave me more disappointed looks. They showed me bright greens, yellows, reds. But I held steadfast in my choice.

I mean, can you imagine walking into a red/pink house to find your self in a bright green room. Wow, that is a little more than I can deal with.


And like I said, it is not like the houses here are colorful like that. Just for me I guess.

Another rather confusing aspect is that I was told last week that they had ordered all the cabinets but nothing had been delivered yet, so honestly, I am very confused today. Did I just pick out the cabinets, are there some already on their way? I guess we will find out.......

Here is a few more pictures of the house and yard. Next week Brad will start going with some of the boys to get the yard cleaned up. We asked where the garbage needs to go and was told that they still are not sure where it will go. So, we are going to have a designated garbage corner so at least it is a little more manageable. Brad is also going to show the boys how to cut the trees into smaller pieces so they will burn.

Ethan found this hat in the yard and has been wearing it ever since


these are the trees they cut down from the yard and tried to burn, plus A LOT of garbage


and you can't even see the old mattress, couch, boxes and lighting corner

That's right.....blame it on the Canadians

Well, just a few short days ago we were wearing shorts, tank tops and letting the kids go swimming in the afternoon to cool off. This week............

simply,

WE ARE FREEZING!!

Well, technically not freezing. But it is only 10 out right now. But think of it this way. We live in a cement building. The windows are single pane, and most have large gaps in the corners rather than a snug fit with weather stripping. The floors are slate. We live looking over the ocean, but that also means the wind comes whipping up our hill right at the house. The kids sleep on the floor on inch thick foamy mattress'. And........

there is NO heating.

So we have made a few trips to the storage room to exchange our shorts, tanks and sun dresses, for pants, sweaters and anything that will keep us warm. Extremely strange. But, we were all missing the crisp cool air in Canada, so I guess I could just look at this as a gift.

Tonight when we spoke to Alman he asked us how were dealing with the cold. Then he laughed and said we must have brought it with us from Canada.

That's right, just blame it on the Canadians. Not the many many Europeans who live here, no not them, but definitely the Canadians. Too funny! At least they tell us this is abnormal for here. This is usually what the weather is in January or February for a few weeks.

So tomorrow we head into town and look for a room heater.

And tomorrow as I am all snuggly in my blanket and heater blazing away, I will shiver as I think of my hubby at the school.
Not only will he certainly not have any heater. The windows are even thinner and gaps even larger. And he will not take a nice warm shower before he crawls into bed.
Remember this picture.........


This is where he will shower or rather 'dip and pour' to clean after the day and it is certainly, most definitely NOT heated water. BRRRRRRR! I don't know, if that doesn't produce a little character in the students.....nothing will! Well, maybe just a little hair on their chests, well, hopefully only the male students! If not hair, then hopefully a deep appreciation for the person who created hot water tanks.

Maybe if he thinks of it like camping in the cool fall Canadian wilderness it will...................nah, that is just plain and simply cold. Sorry honey.....really I am....I will think of you as I snuggle in my bed!