ding dong hong kong: December 2012

Here is a quick little re-cap of some of the things we've been up to this month...

Some serious decorating our little tree that we bought last year. Everything is so small and pathetic, but the girls don't seem to notice or mind. At least this year it has lights! I can't help but imagine how excited I will be to unpack all of our old decorations once we're back in Canada and have a little more space to work with. But for this season of our life, we can be content to keep things nice and simple! :)

Annika's school musical. It was really sweet. She was in the choir, and this year she sang her heart out. We knew all the songs off by heart because we'd heard her sing them so many times at home.

Waiting in her classroom with her friend Ashley.

Posing in a Christmas display on the way to skating lessons.

The Swarovski tree at Festival Walk. Yeah, it's pretty impressive, and the lights change color.

The girls with their teacher, Brian. They're still quite slow and steady on their skates, so I think we will do another round of lessons after Christmas.

We heard that Disney was all decked out for Christmas, but our passes are only for weekdays, so we decided to take a trip on a Friday right after school to see the park lit up at night.

The big tree on Main Street.

Is it just me, or is there a resemblance?

They do a special Christmas parade with "Santa Mickey".

Trying to master the chopsticks...

And... success!

I wasn't able to capture it well, but there were snow machines sending snowflakes into the air and onto our hair. The perfect way to experience snow! :)

The big tree lit up at night.

Our Tuesday playgroup had a children's Christmas party, and Leila was actively listening to Christine's little Christmas story.

The kids performed a few songs that they had practiced the weeks leading up to it.

Leila and her silly friends- Evangeline, Rachel, and Abigail.

Annika's teacher had a class party on the last day of school. They also got to wear whatever they wanted instead of their uniforms, which was VERY exciting! I thought it was funny, because in his email, he requested that some parents come, but not too many because the children would get too excited. He also thought it would be okay if a few kids brought some snacks to share, but not too many because he didn't want the class to be too full of sugar. Well, there were lots of parents to come, and way more food than any of the kids could eat!

One parent brought these Angry Bird cupcakes to celebrate their child's birthday. They were a hit, although at this point Annika told me her stomach was starting to hurt because she'd eaten so much!

Showing Leila some of her classroom activities.

And I discovered this masterpiece on the bulletin board. :)

Our little apartment decorated for Christmas.

And finally (if it works), a little taste of Annika's Christmas concert. Enjoy!

This afternoon we wanted to check out the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade, which we've heard is really nice. On the bus there, we noticed a split-second too late that we missed our stop to get off. The next available stop was at Elements, so we got off the bus and I texted my friend Shannon to see if she could tell me how to get there. It turns out they were planning to head there after Liam woke up from his nap and we could all go together. How perfect!

So the girls had some playground time, which is all they ever want anyway, and we had some Starbucks, which is all we ever want anyway. At least while they have their holiday drinks.