Christmas in Hong Kong

Instead of going back to the US this year for Christmas, we stayed in Asia. Neither Tom or I get the official "Christian" holidays here in China, so we were had to localize our Christmas plans. We decided to take a break from China and head to Hong Kong for some shopping and an English-speaking break! Little did I realize that in fact, many Chinese also took advantage of the shopping side of that quest and were also in HK during this holiday! Oh well! I put all of the pictures out on our updated (finally!) website. And there are a couple of YouTube videos as well, including some from her earlier 1st Grade Christmas show.

The night before we left, Dec 23, we let Natalie open a gift she had received from our driver, Zhong Biao. She got a neat game and some cut-out animals. It was very nice of him and his family to do that for her!

We arrived in Christmas eve, almost two hours late. Air traffic going to Hong Kong was cited as the reason we sat on the ground in Shanghai for so long! We arrived around noon and worked our way through the Hong Kong airport to the Airport Express station (fast train) which is right at the airport. From there we headed to Kowloon where we exited and grabbed a taxi. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile which was close to the Star Ferry and had a MRT (subway) station right across the street. We checked in and then headed out to go to the island. We took the Star Ferry over to the island portion of Hong Kong. From there, we caught the subway and headed to Times Square. We grabbed some pizza for lunch and then went and hit the stores! We bought about $200 in books! Natalie spent ALL of her saved allowance on books. She ended up with about 15 new books she picked out. Plus Gammaw bought her a book too! After buying our books, we shopped for some new athletic shoes for Tom and Natalie and some dress shoes for Tom. Unfortunately we had to haul all this stuff back to the hotel on the subway. When we arrived at our stop, we found out that the exit by our hotel was closed due to Christmas events being held outside in the streets. Oh well! Finally made it back to the hotel around 7:30. Went and had our meal in the Executive lounge. Then to bed!

Christmas day got going with Natalie opening a couple of gifts from Mom & Dad, the book and Fairy craft that Gammaw and Pappaw had bought her. Breakfast in the lounge, and the off to Disney! We took the subway and made it there at 10.15, right at opening! Hong Kong Disney is soooooo much smaller than Orlando! It was really nice, at least from our perspective. You could easily get from one area to another with a 2-5 minute walk. Still long longs for a couple of the rides, but overall was pretty easy. Only thing we underestimated was the temperature. It was pretty warm, and our little Heat Miser was wearing long sleeves and jeans. She had pink cheeks all day. We called all of our Family once we got there. Sad to not be home this year, but that's another blog...


After a full day of playing at Disney, we headed back to the hotel. Again at dinner in the lounge and then Natalie passed out around 7:40. So we all went to bed (we share a big king size!) reading our new books! Lovely Christmas!

Finally, Friday came and we just spent the day shopping at a big mall, Harbour City, that was close to our hotel. Natalie had a meltdown in Toys R Us when we first arrived. She wanted some toy and we told her she had already gotten lots of stuff and Santa had probably delivered gifts, but she totally started crying and saying we were mean. I was pretty frustrated with her, but I guess it is understandable. She had gone for 3 days getting everything she wanted, so why not continue that! Anyway, I got to shopping by myself for awhile. I got a new pair of shoes, new jeans, and a skirt and top. Nice to find western sizes. Tom and Natalie went and saw Bedtime Stories, which none of had heard about, but was the only non-dubbed movie to see.

Then we headed back to the hotel, checked out, and headed to the airport. We got back to Shanghai and our house around 10.30. A bit late, but not bad. Natalie got to see the gifts from Santa, but we waited until Saturday morning to open. She got lots of stuff from Santa, including a new Nintendo DS. She got lots of stuff from Santa and turns out that Santa had stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Bramer's and brought some stuff with him from them!

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!