photo shoot

Yesterday we headed to Kowloon Walled City to attempt to take some family photos to make a New Year's photo card since I didn't get around to making one for Christmas. I made one and ordered it, and once they arrive, I will send them out. But it was a glorious day to take photos, and the girls were cooperating, and I was happy that we had lots of shots to choose from, so I decided to post the "left-overs". It helps that the Walled City is SUCH a gorgeous setting to be in! Also, it was nice and sheltered from the cold wind, and now the temperatures have dropped and will be cold for the rest of the week, so we were lucky we went out when we did!

(year of the Dragon shot!)

(and I don't even have an iPhone... haha)

When our friend Matthew fixed our computer, he was kind enough to put Aperture on for me, and I just discovered how to use some of the settings. Otherwise, I don't really know what I'm doing in Aperture, but it seems fun!
Thanks to our dear friend Jocelyn for being the photographer of the family shots!

Annie was born in the Year of the Dog.

As we left the Walled City to head to a playground as a reward for cooperation we came across this man walking around playing some Chinese tunes. He stopped and played for us, and then played for the girls "It's a Small World after all", which they recognized and loved.

Then, he took out some origami paper and tore little animals for each of the three girls. What a nice guy!

(I love this one!)

Year of the Dragon!

Happy Chinese New Year! Mike and Annie just finished their last day of school for 10 days. We are excited to see what life is like in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year (CNY as we see abbreviated often). Last Friday, CAIS had a CNY evening for families of staff to come and participate in a few activities and eat some CNY food. So we came- the girls looked the most festive of everyone! haha... actually the Chinese ladies all seemed to love seeing them in their Chinese dresses. First we learned how to make lanterns and fish from the red envelopes.

Oh Annika...it never gets old! Actually, I have heard her say "Do you want to see my funny face? My friends Jesse and Diana from Canada taught me how to do it."

I learned how to make dumplings, which probably isn't much different than perogies or vereneky. I thought it was a lot of fun to stand around as a group and make them.

The girls especially enjoyed eating the dumplings that we made, and the noodles that were cooked!
Lastly, Annika's class had a "twin day". This is her new friend Ruby who just moved here, and as you can see, she probably looks closer to Annika's twin than the rest of her classmates would have! Ruby is from the USA, but actually says she's Japanese since that's where she's lived her whole life! So cute!

Happy New Year!

Tooth be told

Annika has had a loose tooth since just before Christmas. This morning, we were already running late for school since she just wasn't waking up, so Mike and I decided to just let her sleep and I would bring her in late. She slept all the way until 7:45, which is pretty late in this house! As she was getting ready, I noticed her tooth looked like it was barely hanging on, so I asked if I could try to pull it out, and all it took was one little tug. Excitement! I had to take a few pictures of her new smile, and of course we were later than ever! But the first thing she did was run and put the tooth in the pocket of her "tooth fairy pillow".
What do you do to keep your tooth from getting lost under your pillow? Well, when I was a child, I was lucky enough that my mom made me a special pillow with a little pocket where I could keep my teeth. Really, I think it was so that it would be an easier job for her to find the tooth and exchange it for a quarter. But I loved the pillow- it was pink with lace around the edge and a pocket in the middle with a white hippo on it. I'm sure I still have it, and I know exactly where I'd go look for it if we were still in Spruce Grove so I could pass it on to Annika. But now it's packed far away in the depths of a storage unit. And unfortunately for Annie, her mom doesn't have the skills to make her a pillow. But... FORTUNATELY for Annie, her Grandma still does! Must be something about being a grandma, because this pillow seems even fancier than the first!

So tonight Annika is in bed with her pillow at her side, dreaming of the tooth fairy to leave her enough money to buy a toy. Probably it will only be enough money to buy some Puccho or HiChews. And today marks the first time I've ever had to be a tooth fairy! Crazy!

Hong Kong Mom

At my Tuesday mom's group, we were asked for ideas to compile a list of "You know you're a mom in Hong Kong when...". I just cut and pasted from a previous blog entry, which mostly worked for this little project. We got to hear the list yesterday and I thought it was cute. I haven't even been a mom in Hong Kong very long, and already I can relate!

You know you're a [expat] mom in Hong Kong when...

~ 'Escalator' and 'Elevator' are among your child's first words

~ you long for even the smallest patch of grass for your kids to run around on!

~ You enjoy grocery delivery

~ People take pictures of your children-with or without asking- or even pick them up without asking to have them in pictures

~ You shop at several grocery stores looking for a precious ingredient for a recipe from home and you are willing to pay triple the price for such items

~ You can't believe you don't put your kids in car seats in a taxi

~ Your son chooses dim sum over McDonalds for breakfast

~ Your son tells you his classmates were asking to trade snacks with him the day he brought dried cuttlefish to school

~ You use your stroller to "part people" as you walk through the crowds

~ You come home with SEVEN colorful bottles of medicine after a visit to the doctor for your child who has a common cold

~ You nod and smile when a local elderly woman scolds you for letting your child play with a stick she considers "dirty" *(actually I have nodded and smiled for all kinds of various scoldings- like how my children aren't dressed warm enough when the temperature is actually in the high teens)

~ Your children run in circles in your living room and/or up and down your hallway on a consistent basis (a result of having no yard...)

~ Your children see hula dancers at a Disneyland performance and say "I sure liked the dance of the Filapina helpers!!"

~ Your children SQUAT on a Western-style toilet to go potty (yes, Annika has learned how to use the "squatty potties" and actually takes great delight in using them)

~ You return for a visit to the States and your children keep asking to play in the park, and it is actually someone's YARD!

~ Your child cringes when you take off her shoes in the grass because she doesn't like the way it feels

~ Your daughter asks to go shopping at the Mong Kok market

~ Your stroller costs as much as a used car

~ the locals like to touch your kids blond hair (golden hair = good luck)

~ Your kids think 700 square feet is a big house

~ You can juggle two kids, a stroller and several grocery bags no problem, you can even haul all of this on a mini bus by yourself... just another day in the life!

we explore a Canadian monument and a Canadian past-timetime

...christmas and bali pics to come...

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, so we took advantage and went to Kowloon Park.

And enjoyed some McFreezes at a McDonald's ice cream stand that was set up there. Yup, McDonald's here has stands AND ice cream treats like McFreezes which are slurpee's with ice cream on top, with a flavoured swirl through the ice cream... YUM!
And... we paid a visit to this Tlingit Blackfish Totem Pole, which was presented as a gift from the people of Canada to the people of Hong Kong by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on the occasion of Festival Canada in 1991.

Did you know we'd given Hong Kong such a memorable gift? How nice we could appreciate it. And then the girls played in the playground. We knew it was warm enough that we didn't need jackets, but really we could have been in shorts. We weren't the only ones overdressed- there were bundled up-but-sweaty kids running around everywhere!

(too cute for words!)

Mike was "shootin' the breeze" with this gentleman for a very long time.
And then we walked around and saw the flamingoes and black necked swans that live there.

Today we tried skating for our first time here. If our little Canadians are going to live in a country without snow, we probably should still remember to teach them to skate. Luckily, there are three malls i can think of offhand, all fairly close to us that all have skating rinks in them.
This was Leila's first time on single-blade skates, and she did really well! Better than I expected. She was willing to try to take little steps on her own.
Annie, however, was spaghetti-legs at first! She had been doing so well by the end of last winter that I had hoped it would come back to her, but it didn't seem like it was- she seemed worse than I'd remembered. But then we got her a penguin to push around, and her confidence came back. She didn't want to quit. She was try to do some crazy moves, and kept encouraging me to not follow her so closely (aren't they supposed to be teenagers when they say that?)


We ended it off with a visit to the park that is above the mall. Annie makes friends in playgrounds so easily. Maybe it's the age.... Anyway, we love holidays! (Except when we're sick. We think it may have been Dengue fever that we all had, but mostly we seem to be better.)

Christmas in HK

"I used to think Christmas was just about presents and Christmas trees. Now, I think it's about Jesus. And presents. And Christmas trees." ~ Annika, December 2011

I don't know if anybody missed me, but seems I've taken a bit of a hiatus this month from blogging. Partly because our computer crashed, and then it took another few days once it was going again to install the new iPhoto. And then partly due to a lack of motivation and just keeping busy with various Christmas activities. But I wanted to at least write one last post before we leave for Bali tomorrow.

Christmas has been different this year. I was actually relieved at first to take a step back from the craziness that is Christmas in Canada, and have things be really simple. I didn't even think I wanted a tree since our place is so small. But then the girls asked for one, and I realized that it still is important to make Christmas special for them. So while Annika was at her ballet lesson, I picked up a rather homely little artificial tree. The girls don't even know the difference! We can't believe how expensive real trees are here. You can get them at places like Ikea, and they even deliver. Since our friends are also all far from home, it seems like lots of them splurged on real trees to make their places feel Christmas-y, but even a really tiny one is about $65. They can easily cost over $100. And they don't necessarily even look that nice! Our little one cost about $10, and came in a pretty small box that we can store away for next year.

(decorating with precision)

(Christmas crafts, and some Christmas decor sent to us by Grandma Ruth)
(our tree and stockings hung on the bookcase with care. I soooo regret not bringing our stockings- they would have been easy to pack, and I love ours so much- they are probably my favourite decoration)
Since we were lacking in Christmas decor, I invested in the Playmobil nativity scene (it is an investment- Playmobil is not cheap!). I was just so happy to find it here, and Leila has played with it every single day. There have been some interesting story lines that have come out of it and it keeps me entertained. The little butterfly decoration on the tree is actually a cell phone ornament that an elderly lady passed to Leila while we were on the bus one day.

We have presents under the tree from Grandma Ruth, Grandma and Grandpa Janzen, Auntie Rita & Uncle Steve, and Grandpa Erwin. So thankful that they have been willing to pay so much for postage so we'll have some things to open from home on Christmas Eve. Or Day. We're not sure when we will actually celebrate since we get back from Bali on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

Our church had a live Christmas nativity called 'One Starry Night'. It was packed with people, and although not as elaborate as the one at WECA was, the girls still enjoyed themselves. I was happy to discover that their Christmas outfits from last year still fit!

We enjoyed Annika's kindergarten Christmas concert. Since there are five kindergarten classes, the kindergarten program gets a concert all to themselves. Annika was in the "choir" and knew the actions to all the songs. That's an improvement from her participation last year! The kids behind her are spelling out GOSPEL, not GO as it may appear.
If you want to know what paparazzi looks like, picture 75 sets of Chinese parents of kindergarten students. I've never seen so many camera and video cameras in my life! They all stood up and congregated in the middle of the gym, and no one could see anything, so they were told to sit down and there would be photo opts at the end. Annika and her friends then had a great time posting for pictures! Japanese, Chinese, Canadian, Indian... I love what an international experience she's having!
This season of advent has been a good mix of Christmas activities, but not feeling overly busy. I don't think Mike missed being in charge of a school Christmas concert even one little bit. That definitely made things less stressful this month. I'm so glad that there have been Christmas festivities that have happened or we'd be feeling more homesick. Mostly we just feel guilty that we won't be home for Christmas. Also, we have been thinking of those who may be finding Christmas to be a difficult time this year. You are in our prayers.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, and may peace be unto you this Christmas season.

Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer

Or... Annika, the Dancin' Janzen. I signed her up for ballet lessons, and her first one was tonight. She came out beaming... success!
And... one of Leila getting ready to go to our Mom's group/playgroup today. Isn't her hair getting long?