holiday

Well, it looks like we will have the chance to visit one more Asian country before we say good-bye to our Hong Kong home of three years. Our wonderful traveling buddies Phoebe and Joey have invited us to join them on a trip to Okinawa for spring break. Yippeee!!! We're excited! So lucky! Can't wait!  
The only thing is that we will be gone over Easter, so we will miss out on Good Friday/Easter Sunday church services and won't be eating that ham dinner that I would have made had we been here (except not). Last year we were in China over Easter, so it feels like it's been a while since we've been able to celebrate Easter. An important holiday, if you ask me!

Which got me thinking about the holiday celebrations (or lack there-of) we've had this year...

 - We spent Christmas Eve flying to Taiwan and Christmas Day at Taipei zoo. Lego Santa was the only "Christmas-y" thing we came upon that whole day, so it didn't really feel like Christmas. 

- Since Annika has an American teacher, for her first time her class exchanged Valentines. Thanks to their grandmas sending us Valentine's from Canada, she was the only one who had "real" Valentines to pass out. The ones she received were all home-made and there were a few thank-you cards in the mix (she loved it, though, and hasn't let me get rid of her shoebox full of them). Leila also made a class set that she brought to school, but she was the only one in her class who did so. About a week later she came home with a small gift and a card from one of the girls in her class thanking her for the Valentine. 

 -We attended a carnival the Saturday before Halloween put on by the churches in Discovery Bay. We barely noticed a few days later when the actual day of Halloween came and went. 

- Last week on March 17, I put green long-sleeved shirts underneath the girl's uniform shirts. I don't think anyone even noticed- they certainly were in no danger of being pinched. 

- We spent Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in Chiang Mai, so it went unnoticed. But we did attend a rather eclectic American thanksgiving celebration in November. 

But although our holidays have looked different than what we're used to, we also:

 - hung out on the beach during Mid-Autumn festival with our lanterns and glowsticks

 - spent the evening of Annika's birthday at Disneyland

- enjoyed dragon dances, Chinese New Year meals, and participated in lai-see traditions during Chinese New Year.
And maybe this year we'll make it out to the Dragon boat races during the Dragon boat festival in June. 

It might bother me that my kids have missed out on some holidays and traditions if we were planning to be here long term. I think it's hard for some of my friends who live here, and some people do a lot better job than I have of trying to keep their traditions alive. But knowing that we're moving back and they will have many years ahead of them of celebrating holidays in Canada makes me feel like we haven't missed out on all that much. And luckily they're oblivious to the amount of candy they've missed out on during Halloween!

But I'll say it now. Next year I want to celebrate all the holidays. I hope to:
- spend Christmas with family!
- bake birthday cakes in an actual oven! (Here's hoping!)
- go on a Valentine's date with my sweetie! 
- go to Christmas Eve, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday church services!
- color Easter eggs! 
- and have an Easter egg hunt!
- carve pumpkins!
- let the girls dress up in costumes that aren't total home-jobs!
- Visit Santa! If the girls aren't too old! 
- Turkey! Ham! Peppernuts! Mincemeat! Gingerbread! 
My mouth waters just thinking about it.