Hibbets' Happenings

It's been a while since I posted -- sorry about that. I've thought about it often.

Tonight's been good. I've had a chance to spend time with my kids and get some "home things" done, which is nice. Now I need to go to bed so I'll get up early in the morning, so I'll try to do that soon. I am beginning to get sleepy.

This morning I got up good at 5:30, got to run on my elliptical machine for 20 minutes and read a chapter or two in Matthew -- it was the crucifixion. At least the resurrection is next! Just in time for Easter, how nice!

Then off to school. Jayden and I did good on timing today. Class went well except for a "run-in" that left me a little flustered. But it will turn out fine, I'm sure.

This afternoon was very pretty, so when I got home with the kids we stayed outside for a while, enjoying the sun. I took two Easter baskets and four eggs outside and introduced Jayden to the idea of finding Easter eggs (because last year doesn't count -- she was about 8 mos old!). It was really cute. I cut Joshua's hair and David studied Biology outside in his Alabama lawn chair.

We came inside and fixed supper -- red snapper on the George and a good green salad. It was Johnny's night for Joshua's school, but fish and salad sounded better than pizza tonight. Mom and Dad supported the school by buying pizza and we ate our fish and salad. Then both kids and the dog all got baths. David had to go back up to school for a concert tonight for his music appreciation class. We didn't go because we knew it would be getting late for the kids.

For supper tomorrow night we're having lentils, greens, and cornbread. I've got my lentils and corn meal soaking as well as my oatmeal for tomorrow's breakfast. Thursday is fast day; we'll eat breakfast and then fast until Friday lunch. That schedule has been working well for us lately. We change to a different day whenever we need to because of different things going on.

I got to update our checkbook tonight; that was good. I don't like getting too far behind on knowing where we stand. I guess that's the accountant in me.

We had a really good trip to east Texas (Holly Lake Ranch, near Hawkins -- north of Tyler, west of Longview) for Mardi Gras break. We went without a plan and lived out our plan! We rested and watched movies and played Cribbage and went bowling and shopping. We ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant in Longview called Papacitas -- we'll definitely go there again. We ate entirely too much and gave a huge tip -- and the total bill was $20!! We did share one entree, but still. You can't beat that. And we had a good time shopping at Burlington Coat Factory -- I love that store!

I got paid today, hooray! That's always nice.

Tonight Joshua and PMD are on my mind. We got an email that there will be a special on Nightline tomorrow night on one of our PMD families in Toronto. I went to the website --- www.curepmd.com --- and am eager to watch the special. I don't know how much info they'll give us. They're researching a potential medication for the boys.

I'm listening to the radio and beginning to get sleepy. So I think I'll sign off for now. Write more soon.

I figured it was time for a "true" new post! The dates on the others are misleading; I moved all my Hong Kong posts over from my health blog (www.hibbs-hints.blogspot.com). I'll try to reserve that for health-related info and news, and have this forum for my personal updates (and ramblings).

David took his first A&P test today. He studied really hard, and he feels good about it. I gave my first two tests this past week, to my two undergraduate classes; the first class is graded and returned, but the second class is still in progress. I have half almost done. I'll try to finish them tomorrow.

Sunday David and I are leaving for a nice overnight getaway. We're just going to Tyler, TX, but we're excited. We'll get to spend two nights and be back on Tuesday. The kids will stay with both sets of parents (one day with each) while we're gone. We don't have any major plans; just to take it easy and rest and relax. Sounds great! So I have a lot of work to do tomorrow before we leave, because I'm not taking work with me (that would kinda defeat the purpose).

I made some king cakes in my bread machine this past week. (That's the only part of Mardi Gras I "celebrate.") They're really just "cinnamon-roll cakes," so that's going to be my alternative name for them. For a sweet dessert bread, I was able to make them pretty healthy. They turned out TOO good so we ate too much, but I'm glad I was successful. I didn't top them with icing (though I want to make one with cream cheese icing or filling); I just put a little powdered sugar on top for that tinge of sweet without being overkill. Tonight or soon I'm going to make my sister's carrot bread recipe. She says she and her husband love it. If I don't have all the ingredients on hand for it, I'll just make us a fresh loaf of regular sandwich bread.

The Sunday school class (Health series) is going well. This week is Week 6 (of 8). We're still talking about food and elaborating on the key principle: "Eat what God provided, and not what man has concocted." In Week 4 David covered what the Bible says about our diet; in Week 5 (last week's lesson) he discussed (and answered) the typical objections to the Biblical passages about diet ("But we're not under the law!") and also covered some top "superfoods" -- incidentally, all fruits and vegetables (and nuts and seeds), not meats. (We think meat has a place in our diet, but is not a major source of nutrients and shouldn't be a HUGE part of our diet.) Now in Week 6, David will switch to the "not what man has concocted" part of the key principle and talk about some man-made modern foods, pervasive in the modern American diet, but are best avoided (though it's difficult to strictly do so).

I'll be doing a good bit of traveling next week: Sunday - Tuesday with David to Tyler; Thursday - Friday with a group from school to Baton Rouge for a presentation to the Board of Supervisors of the University of Louisiana System, and Saturday to MS to meet some of my extended family for lunch. Oh! And I found out we're being treated to P. F. Chang's Thursday night before the presentation. I'm excited! I've been wanting to go for a while. I hate that David's missing out, but we'll go next time we're in Little Rock.

Let me go check on that carrot bread recipe and get Joshua to bed. More later!

Monday morning it was back to work! We got up and out pretty well, all things considered. David and I had pretty good days; the kids' days were both a little rough. The reports from both were that they were fussy. Jayden took a long nap and didn't want to wake up. Monday night we went out to WM to see David's parents and visit with them. We stayed up too late and got home late, but it was still really nice to go. And luckily, by Tuesday the kids both did pretty well at school. They both had much better days. All their days since have gone well, too. Jayden's been sleeping well now, so I think she may be adjusted back. So I guess it just takes about a week. Tuesday night we stayed at home; David went on to bed early. Wednesday night was church, and last night we had "Christmas" with Mom and Dad and Neill. It went really well. We had a nice supper (chicken and vegetables and salad) and a good time exchanging gifts. I was really tired when we got home, though, and crashed. Tonight we're doing Christmas with David's family and then tomorrow we're going down to Alex to have Christmas with my grandmother and sister/BIL. I'm looking forward to seeing them. So we've pretty much been in a whirlwind and have been able to get little accomplished since we've been home. We've been through our stack of mail but haven't done any of the things that require responses or action; if it weren't for David we'd have no laundry done (okay, I started one load, but I'm not sure that counts for anything); and I've got to update our checkbook; that hasn't been done since before we left. Boy, that's going to be a bear, I'm afraid. I'll be glad to get settled back in again. I guess it will take a few more weeks. The semester starts back up on Tuesday, so all that class preparation is on my mind, too. But the start of a new semester is always exciting, like the start of a new year -- it's a new beginning. Oh, and we start the health class over again on Sunday morning, this time in the auditorium class at church, so that should be a lot of fun. I'm excited about that. I think that catches us up. Now I just need to post the new pictures from Christmas last night, and I'll have new pictures after tonight and this weekend.

Thursday morning Jayden and I headed out to find some baby wipes and snacks. First we walked to a little convenience store not far from the hotel, but since they didn't have what we needed, we caught a taxi and rode to the Walgreen's a few blocks away. We got some quick oats that we "cooked" in our hotel coffee mugs with water heated in the hotel coffee pot -- ha! I had salt and cinnamon from our HK trip to season our oatmeal with, and one morning we even put raisins in. It was a good little "improv" breakfast, and cheap too! In fact, I think I'm going to copy myself on that and bring a little dish of quick oats up here to my office so that I can fix me a hot breakfast on these cool winter mornings when I'm having trouble getting the chill out. I've been pretty chilly up here at work this week. Thursday afternoon David took a taxi to Dallas to go to the Cooper Institute to take his test. He feels like it went really well. He has one more requirement to complete for them to grade his test and then hopefully he will have a nutrition certification through them. Very neat. Thursday evening we got to meet two good friends for dinner along with their son who is only two months younger than Jayden. We ate at Bennigan's, which was in walking distance from the hotel, and got to have a long visit, which was really nice! Thursday night was rough; Jayden was wide awake and David and I were worn out. David let me sleep some since my conference began the next day, and finally the two were able to sleep around 5am. My conference presentation Friday was not until afternoon. I skipped out on breakfast Friday morning and was late to the first presentation, but then went to the second morning session which lasted until noon. By the end I was struggling to stay awake, so I figured I needed a nap more than I needed lunch. I went back to the room and slept through lunch and most of the first afternoon session, and then went back down to the conference to present during the second afternoon session. I could tell I wasn't nearly as awake or alert or prepared as I would have liked to have been, but I got some positive feedback and I think it went okay. After my presentation, we called mom and dad and they were almost there. So they found our hotel and came to the room; we visited for a few minutes and then went to get some supper. We decided to eat at Uno's Pizzeria (Chicago-style pizza) which was right across from the hotel. David and I have talked about Chicago-style pizza since the pizza we got in Detroit at Pizza Papalis back in the Fall of 2003. It was good, but not quite what we were expecting based on Pizza Papalis. We definitely want that again next time we're in Detroit -- whenever that will be! After supper we walked to the Starbucks (we had been there Thursday night with our friends, too) and laughed at Jayden playing with all the mug-type things they had on display. Then a couple with another little boy came in; we could tell he was a little younger than Jayden, but walking, and so about her age. As it turned out, we got to strike up a conversion with these guys; the little boy's name is also Jadon (so spelled differently), the couple is from Germany, they're in Fort Worth for him to attend seminary at South Western, he's getting his master's degree in pastoral leadership and counseling .... it was so neat! We enjoyed visiting with them so much. We got their email address but I haven't written yet. I've got to do that. Saturday morning I did get up early enough to attend the breakfast and got to visit with some other conference attendees, which was nice and went well. I skipped out on the first morning session to relax and put the final touches on my presentation, which was in the second morning session. Mom and Dad got to the room during that time so I got to visit with them for a little bit before going down to the conference, plus I got to help David gather our things for check-out a little before I left. He would checkout while I was presenting and we would all meet up again after my session, get some lunch and head home. My session went well. I was the first presenter. I got some really nice feedback. It was very encouraging. We decided to eat at a sandwich shop nearby, within walking distance, called Potbelly's. Mom and Dad had eaten at one before, but we hadn't. It was fine. Kind of like a Subway model -- you choose white or wheat bread, and choose your sandwich, and then tell them which "fixin's" you want on it; they're all toasted, and Dad likes to add they're all the same price ($3.99). We also got some soup, which was good. It was fine. Now I can say I've heard of and have eaten at a Potbelly's. Then we left for Monroe! We made really good time. I thought it might be 8:00 or after before we'd be in West Monroe, but we were at Pueblo Viejo before 6:00. David's family was going to meet us there so we could visit. We had a nice supper -- I was disappointed with my order, but that's another story -- and it was good to see more family. Finally we got home in time to go to bed, pretty much, and start another day on Sunday. Sunday morning getting ready, and in particular fixing breakfast, was kind of weird. Where do I keep my measuring cups? And I kept trying to start the gas stove (I have electric). It's funny how new routines are picked up in only a month. David said getting into the van to drive to church felt weird. It was nice to see everyone at church Sunday morning. We had lunch after church with Mom and Dad at a Chinese buffet (!) -- but it's actually what I wanted, to compare "American" Chinese food with "real" Chinese food while it was fresh on my mind. Our conclusion: the two are hard to compare. They're similar, but also very different. When we got home, I was really tired, so I slept all afternoon. Sunday night was our new kids' clubs kickoffs at church: GEMS for the girls and Pioneers for the boys. They both went really well. I am working primarily with the younger girls. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

The long flight to Newark went smoothly. The kids did even better coming home than going over -- I didn't think that was possible! We all slept some, and Jayden stayed very content. She especially slept hard at the end of the trip. We saved some of the last meal they served us -- noodles and fruit -- but we couldn't wake her up enough to feed it to her. She just missed out! We were worried about our timing in Newark because we only had a quick layover, and we knew we'd have to get our checked bags, and go through customs, and probably through security. It really helped us that our flight from HK arrived about an hour early. Going through customs was not difficult at all; we spent longer with the guy who checked our passports than the actual customs. In fact, we just handed our card to the guy and were waved on through. We rechecked our bags and then proceeded to security. Here was the second boo of the trip. First you stood in line to get your passports checked again. Then the guy waived us to Line #2 for security. After getting up to the part where you start to disrobe and place all your carry-ons into the bins, I start hearing, "Ma'am, ma'am..." They tell me that Joshua has to go through Line #1. That was frustrating! So he and I get out of Line #2 and go back to Line #1, past the stern-faced passport-checking man. We have to wait in line again, now in Line #1, to go through security. But then it wasn't too bad after that. David and Jayden were finished before us, of course, and waited on us. We all went to the gate and made it there with time to spare based on the departure time -- and then we found out the flight was a few minutes delayed. They were waiting on a flight attendant to reappear. So we ended up waiting at the gate maybe 20 minutes or so, maybe even longer, before getting to board. But at least we weren't late, which is what we were concerned about. Joshua was fussy on the trip to Dallas. He was by me, and I was really wanting to sleep, but didn't get much sleep. David and Jayden were able to sleep some though, I think. We arrived in Dallas, finally claimed all our luggage, and went to find a shuttle to take us to the hotel in Fort Worth. The shuttle driver ended up charging us $17/person, including Jayden! I thought that was a little steep. But oh well, he took us where we needed to go and dropped us off first. It was about 8:30 when we got to the hotel, and I think I was asleep by around 10:00. Jayden didn't sleep very good that first night, but we were able to keep her pretty quiet by putting her in the bed with us, so at least we rested.

We stayed up most of the night Jan 2 getting ready to leave Hong Kong. Our van arrived at 7:30 am Jan 3 to take us to the airport. There was a light rain when we were leaving, of all things, after almost no rain our entire trip. We got to the airport with no problems (but with more traffic than I expected for so early). It took us about an hour to get there. We checked in without incident, went through the passport check and security without any problems, and made our way to the gate to wait. We had brought breakfast with us, so we sat there in the gate and ate our pancakes and manderin oranges. We had brought some fresh fruit with us, because we figured (correctly, as it turned out) that we could have fresh produce with us on the flight, we just couldn't bring it back into the States. That was nice. I was going to miss our apples if we couldn't have them on the flight. David got us two bottles of water and a bottle of oolong tea. This is where the first of two boos of the trip happened. We figured since we were past security we could take these drinks with us on the plane -- we figured wrong! We hadn't even opened the tea; one water was gone but the other was only half finished. Once we were allowed to board (and we were allowed to board first), there was a final security check of our bags there right before we got on the plane. And they confiscated all liquids. Boo! Well, it could be worse. Gotta go, more later....

Our time in Hong Kong is just about ended. We are mostly packed, and for now everyone is asleep but me. David fell asleep beside Joshua, but I figure he'll wake up again shortly. Sunday morning we got up early and went to church. Our original plan was to wake up by 6:30 and leave by 7:30 to make it to the early service in Kowloon Tong (Kowloon International Baptist Church) at 9:00. Well, I couldn't figure out how to set the alarm clock on David's cell phone so it ended up being 7:00 when I woke up. We rushed around and made it to the bus stop a few minutes before 8:00; and then discovered that on Sundays the bus doesn't start running until 8:00. So we really weren't late after all. We ended up catching the bus at 8:15, caught all the MTR trains and lifts perfectly, and were at the church at about 9:20 -- we made really good time. Then, we found out I was wrong -- that church started at 9:30, not 9:00! So we weren't late at all. The early service at KIBC is a little more contemporary with a praise band and worship choruses rather than hymns and an organ. The pastor wasn't there, so the youth pastor preached. He's from Germany, I believe. His name is Maik -- it's pronounced like "Mike." He seemed very nice. It is very interesting and neat to be exposed to a truly international church like this one and the one in North Point. It is a very different experience for us. At the Christmas party we went to with the home group from the North Point church there were several Chinese, of course, and a few Americans, of course, but also a guy from Firenze (that's Florence, Italy) and one from New Zealand -- probably other nationalities, too, but that's all I can remember right now. On our way back to the MTR station after church, the heel on my shoe broke off! We were planning to go to a museum and walk around, but instead we headed to the mall at Kowloon Tong, called Festival Walk. It's a pretty nice mall, but also pretty upscale. We walked around for what seemed like forever to find me an affordable pair of shoes that I liked. We ended up back at Marks & Spencer, where we started, and spent about $40 on a pair of black flats. Well, they'll have to do. Then we decided to watch Happy Feet there at the cinema in the mall. We got some lunch at the Delifrance bistro -- a panini and pasta and then went to the movie. And we got some more Chinese-style popcorn, it was so good! Happy Feet was okay; I hate that we spent so much money on tickets for an "okay" movie. But you never know until you see it. It's one I may rent to see again, but not buy. I didn't like it that much. After Happy Feet we did a little more shoe shopping in the mall and then decided to leave. We went to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) -- pronounced (something like) Chim Sha Choy -- which is the station on the harbor on the Kowloon side. We walked around a little bit, found the Avenue of the Stars, bought some coffee and some bakery treats, and walked along the harbor until we found the Star Ferry. Then we rode the Star Ferry to Causeway Bay and caught a bus back to North Point. Oh, and we lost Jayden's cup; we brought two sippie cups with us and managed to hang onto both the whole trip -- even Jayden did great keeping up with her cup while we'd be out -- until Sunday. David had it and set it down rather than putting it in the bag, and we left it. Oh well, there are more important things. I just think it's funny that we were so close to making it through the trip with both of them. I knew at the beginning we were taking a big risk that we wouldn't be coming home with them. It's okay too, though, because she really likes drinking like we do rather than from a sippy cup. So I may not even try to replace it. We walked around in North Point, did a little more shoe shopping and just window shopping and looking, and we ended up eating at a little restaurant/cafe-type thing called Congee Wonderland. Congee is a rice soup, very popular here. David got his with beef and mine had fish balls (like meat balls, but with fish rather than meat). We also got a "turnip cake" to try (very hard to describe) and some rice noodles. It was all very good. Very cheap, and good. I brought my congee home for later and actually just ate it tonight. We were home around 9:00, I think. David and I stayed up until past midnight but the kids of course went to sleep. We were curious about fireworks, but we could only see the ones from Disney, which is pretty far from here. We could see a countdown on one of the big buildings downtown and we could hear the people at midnight. On the news we got to see a little more about ringing in the New Year in Hong Kong. I'm glad we were up here and not out in the craziness, especially with the kids. Monday we slept in and worked for a while around here, but after lunch we decided to get out and enjoy the sunshine, knowing it would probably be our last time out. We just went to North Point; we walked around the markets, did a little more shopping (but not much buying), got some final bakery treats, and ended up getting a supper snack at Yoshinoya again, the Japanese fast food place. We tried something new, the salmon flakes bowl. It was different, but fine. There hasn't been anything I just haven't liked. But I'm not a very picky eater, either. Today we were up at 8:30 and we worked at home all day. I worked on grading and David worked on packing. We had some visitors; Dr. F. S. Hu (Miranda's husband) stopped by to say hello and goodbye and wish us well; Alex, also from Shue Yan, came by to visit and say goodbye; we got to exchange addresses with him and I do hope we'll keep in touch. We were able to arrange the Rehabus service to pick us up in the morning; the Toyota van was already booked so they're sending a tour bus to get us! It will cost more, but still be cheaper, or about the same, as two taxis. And we can all ride together. We should have plenty of room! They said it will seat 23. It's a blessing that worked out. Tonight I had my last class. The students gave their final presentations and then we took some pictures. Two of the girls brought gifts for Joshua and Jayden. Jayden was still up when I got back up to the apartment so she got to open them and I took pictures. She liked both of them (well, all of them, even Joshua's socks) very much. We ate supper and now everyone's asleep. I'm going to fix me a last "homemade Starbucks" -- that's what I'm calling my coffee with leftover eggnog and a dash of nutmeg on top; which is not good for the caffeine but I will enjoy the taste. I'll read a chapter or two in the Bible for today, since I haven't read yet, and then work on finishing packing up, I guess. Oh, and I'm going to make us some pancakes that we can eat for breakfast in the morning. We also have some other snacks to take with us and have in the airport and while we travel tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. Please pray for safety, and for the kids to travel well (they were awesome on the way over and I know it was because you were praying), and for our layover -- timing and customs -- to go smoothly in Newark. That will be a little after lunchtime your time tomorrow. And then we should arrive in Dallas at 6:30 (your time) tomorrow night. We'll be in Dallas until Saturday, and then home in Monroe! And with that, I guess our Hong Kong trip is over. I may get a few more pictures of us heading out and travelling home, but there may not be anything left to post about. I don't know if we'll have Internet access in the hotel in Fort Worth or not. So now this can go back to being our health blog. And we can go back to being much more diligent about eating the way God wants us to eat! It's like we've been on vacation for a month, and our waistlines feel it. Pray for David; he's taking his nutrition certification exam on Thursday afternoon. He's been studying hard and this certification would mean a lot. It's very neat that he'll get to take this exam while we're in Dallas already for the trip and conference. And my conference presentations are Friday evening and Saturday morning; I would appreciate your prayers that those go smoothly. I still have some work to do on my slides for my presentations. We don't get a break -- there's still lots of work to do! I'll shift my work to conference presentations until Saturday and lay off class work until Monday. Then I'll have one week before classes at ULM begin, with more than one week's worth of work to do. But I know the Lord will provide as He always does. I guess the kids start back to school on Monday, too; they won't remember what that's all about! And Jayden will have a new teacher and everything. Hmm, never a dull moment. But that would be boring! See you all soon. With love from Hong Kong, Aleecia

Wednesday we decided we would be tourists. We left here mid-morning to go to Aberdeen, on the southwest coast of Hong Kong island. I had read that there wasn't much to do or see in Aberdeen except ride in a sampan, which we didn't figure we could do (little boats driven by ladies who take you around the harbor) because of the wheelchair -- and eat at the Jumbo floating restaurant. So that was our plan; see the boats and find the restaurant and eat dim sum at what's supposedly the world's largest floating restaurant. We rode the MTR to Central and then had to find the bus to Aberdeen. The only one we saw and were told about when we asked was Bus 70 -- which unfortunately didn't have a wheelchair space and had stairs to get up into the bus. We weren't sure what to do, but ultimately decided to make do. We're getting pretty good at stairs, so that wasn't a problem, but there wasn't really space on the bus for the wheelchair. He took up most of the aisle, but the other passengers didn't seem to mind. The people here seem very, very friendly. We have been very impressed. So Bus 70 took us to Aberdeen and let us off at the harbor. Then what? We weren't sure what to do. While we were trying to get our bearings and figure out which direction to head -- because we weren't dropped off at the Jumbo floating restaurant -- a lady came up to us soliciting us to ride in her boat. We asked if the wheelchair could ride, and she said yes (all of this was in broken English, mind you); we asked how much and she gave us a card with information in English -- which said about $60 (HK) a person. We told her we wanted to eat first, then we'd come back and ride. We determined that she was telling us they would take us to the restaurant, and since we didn't know where to go, we decided to take her up on the offer. We got the wheelchair and stroller down the stairs and into the boat. David gave her $200 (HK) -- that's $26 -- and off we went. It was pretty neat. We probably could have bargained her down a little, but we didn't try. And David may not have realized that. Bargaining is not as much in our culture, so we're not as accustomed to thinking about it, and I was the one who had read that about Aberdeen and the boats. So the boat took us to the restaurant; it was only about a 5 minute ride, but I took pictures and just enjoyed it. When we got to the restaurant they directed us to the second floor, which here is actually called the first floor. We couldn't tell if there were three separate restauraunts, and what the difference was. Also, there seemed to be another restaurant off to the right. I'm not sure about what that was; if it was a separate restaurant or what. Our plan was to eat dim sum at the floating restaurant. My guidebook had said the restaurant was kind of expensive, but the dim sum wasn't too bad cost-wise, and that was the cheapest way to go. Plus, the dim sum menu was in English -- definitely a plus. So we could accomplish two things at once -- eat dim sum in Hong Kong and eat at the floating restaurant in Aberdeen. Dim sum, by the way, is difficult to define. I think literally it means "little snack." We ordered four different ones; one was kind of like a spring roll with mango and cream cheese inside; one was like a soft cake with a sesame-honey paste inside (it was our favorite), one was like a dumpling, and one had a very soft and kind of slimy outside -- those two weren't sweet but I'm not remembering what it was on the inside. One had some chicken; the other must have just been vegetables. We also ordered Chinese tea. I took pictures. After taking the sampan over we were low on cash and I was worried that we would be stuck at the restaurant with no way to get back to the harbor! But we found out there's a free shuttle ferry from the restaurant back to the harbor. So note to all future Hong Kong visitors: ride the sampan if you want for the experience (and I don't regret that we did) but you can get to the restaurant for free if you want! After lunch we found the bus to take us to Stanley Market to do some shopping. We probably got there around 2:00, which ordinarily would be enough time, but we apparently enjoyed shopping too much. The market shuts down around 6:00, although a few stay open until closer to 7:00. We did a lot of shopping, but not enough buying, because we still had several to buy for when we left Stanley at the end of the day. But we did buy some more of the pants that I had hoped to buy and a jacket for Joshua, all for $10HK each. David got a new pair of jeans for about $15US and we did buy a few souvenirs. Oh, and we bought Joshua a suit, a 3-piece black dress suit, for $25US. Jayden got a new outfit, too, because she had soiled her clothes and we forgot that I actually HAD packed her a change of clothes. The good thing about Stanley closing earlier is that you get home sooner than if it stayed open late. We stopped at the grocery store and then came on home. Thursday was a class day for me, so in the morning I stayed in and worked, but in the afternoon we got out and first went to Kowloon to pick up the shirts from the tailor and bought a few more souvenirs. Then we came back to North Point for a little while. Mostly we just walked around and looked and enjoyed being out. We decided to pick up some Yoshinora for supper; that's Japanese fast food. That was very interesting! It was very similar to our idea of fast food, with the menu up front up on the board, up high, and you place your order at the counter and then wait to pick up your order, just like if you were at McDonald's or KFC. We selected two items: chicken (w/ vegetables and rice) and a combo beef and chicken (w/ vegetables and rice). Both meals were also served with miso soup, kimchi, a jello-type dessert, and japanese tea. We got all that -- a ton of food -- for like $10 (US). We enjoyed it and may have it again before we leave. Friday we went back to the Ladies' Market, in Kowloon, to try to finish up shopping. We weren't able to quite finish, but we got close. I bought a little jewelry and David got a belt, and we bought some souvenirs and gifts. We took a picnic lunch and didn't end up staying there too long. Then we came back to North Point to find the post office and walk around a little more. David did find the post office, eventually. We got back home early, watched the end of Ladder 49 (we had brought it with us on DVD, the CleanFilms version) and then caught some of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney version) which was playing on TV. It was a fun evening. This morning David got up early and headed to the post office with our box. He was able to send it off, but I don't know if we did something wrong -- it cost us $150 -- US! I can't believe it was that much. I don't know if it was because it was big or heavy or what. I had no idea it would cost that much. But oh well, it's done now. Now we'll just have to see how long it takes to arrive. We still haven't received our boxes from our parents, and they were sent a week before Christmas. Everyone pray that they come on Tuesday (the mail won't run on Monday). At 1:30 we were picked up by two of my students to have lunch with my class. They took us to a nice restaurant in Causeway Bay in Times Square. We were treated to a wonderful, traditional Chinese lunch. They said everything was usual Chinese food, all Cantonese style, except for the Udon noodles which were Japanese. Also, one dish had broccoli, and they said broccoli wasn't really traditional, that it was more Western. I thought that was interesting. Lunch lasted almost 2 hours. Then the same 2 students, Conrad and Angel, took us up to the Peak. We took pictures and then went inside to warm up and feed Joshua. We ended up ordering ice cream at this fancy restaurant. It was very tasty. I was still pretty full from lunch. We had tried a little bit of everything. But David, Jayden and I shared an ice cream, which was just right. Then we went inside one of the souvenir shops there in the Peak Galleria and I think we finally finished buying the gifts we wanted to get. We even got a new game, a traditional Chinese game that we'll have to learn how to play. That's a nice souvenir. Then they took us home. We decided to order Pizza Hut again; we had wanted to have it again before we left. We decided to try the Thousand Island sauce rather than the tomato sauce. It's not my favorite, but I'm glad we tried it. Our pizza was the Fisherman's Favorite, with tuna, pineapple, onions, and green peppers. It was good. Different, but good. We also ordered the sole fillet rice side item and pumpkin soup. I thought we did good in that we ordered all things we can't get back home. Okay, I think that gets me caught up on posts. Tomorrow is church; we're planning on going to the early service at Kowloon International Baptist Church (we'll have to leave here about 7:15) and then spend the day sightseeing. I found a museum I'd like to check out on the Kowloon side but near the harbor, and then we can ride the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island and then come home. That's one of the few things we really want to do that we haven't done yet. Now I'll try to post some pictures!

We slept in a little later than we have been Christmas morning after being up so late after the movie. Jayden has been getting up every morning about 7:30, but she slept until about 8:30 Christmas morning. Joshua had stayed up VERY late, so he was still asleep. Because of that, we modified our original plan a bit. I started on breakfast -- blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs -- and David got his shower. We ended up both getting our showers and eating breakfast before Joshua woke up. David got to talk to his family on the computer, and we read the Christmas story and let Jayden open two presents -- they were two CDs from Miranda, one for us and one for Joshua, but we hadn't opened them yet, so we let her open them. Miranda had given her a cute pink Santa which I really like, but she had already opened it. Jayden also got to open some gifts at the Christmas party Saturday night. Then we finished getting ready and headed to Disneyland. We left the house about 11:00 and made it to Disney by 1:00. We were inside the park in time to see the parade. We got good seats right at the park entrance, which was the end of the parade route. Jayden really enjoyed it. She danced to the music and waved at the characters. I don't think she wanted it to end. I got good pictures and video of the parade and of Jayden. Joshua slept; he fell asleep sometime during the trip and didn't wake up until a few hours later, well into the Disney day. I'm not sure he was feeling all that great. He's okay; maybe he just needed to catch up on his rest. He did stay up WAY too long the night before. After the parade we went to find the Lion King show. We had heard it was good, and we agree! It was probably one of my favorite things of the day. It had a circular theater and the action was all in the center -- so it was really neat. It was a very well-made production. Definitely worth it. However, this is where we believe the bad thing of the day occurred. At one point I was juggling with Jayden and trying to keep her contained, happy, and safe, and the camera fell. I checked it out but of course was distracted with the show going on and the kids, etc. Fast-forward to an hour or so later when we got on the carousel and I wanted to take a picture of Jayden and David on the horse -- and discovered the memory card was not in the camera! I figure it must have fallen out when the camera was dropped. We went back to the theater and asked, and at the end of the day filled out a loss report, so MAYBE it will be found and returned to us. It has to be somewhere in the park, because I know I had it during the parade and didn't have it at the carousel. And it doesn't come out easily, so I figure it had to happen when it fell. The good news is I had spent time Sunday night cleaning off the memory card, so the only thing I lost was the pictures on Monday. The bad thing is, not only do I not have any pictures of Disney, I don't have ANY pictures of our Christmas Day. BOO! But things could be worse. And the Lord knows the desires of my heart; I won't give up hope yet that the card will be returned. That would really mean a lot to me. We got some good pictures of the kids Monday morning, and of course I had taken lots of pictures of Disney to capture and share the experience. I do have video, which is better than nothing. But I like my still pictures. It also is interesting because we had already decided to buy a new digital camera and have been shopping to decide whether we should buy one here or wait until we get home. Now this happens; David says he hates to buy a new memory card for a camera we're planning to replace very soon. (The new cameras apparently don't take this same kind of memory card.) Well, in the meantime we're able to use the internal memory of the camera, which gives us about 100 pictures on low quality and about 15 on medium. For most things, low quality is fine, and it's easy to switch to a higher quality if I'm doing a posed shot that I might want to make prints of. So I was able to take a few pictures of our day today that I'll be able to share. So we did the parade, then the Lion King show, then we walked to Fantasyland and rode the carousel. Then back to Adventure Land to ask about the memory card; then back to Fantasyland. We rode the Winnie the Pooh ride (kind of like the Snow White/Mr. Toad rides) -- it was the longest wait and my least favorite. There was another show, a 3-D show with Mickey's orchestra and Donald as conductor -- kind of like in Fantasia, and then with a medley of songs from the different movies. It was good. And towards the end of the day we saw another show, The Golden Mickeys -- set up as an awards show with characters and songs from the different movies. It was live-action, like Lion King (and not like the 3-D show); it was good, but I liked Lion King better. The last thing we did was in Fantasyland; Jayden and I rode Dumbo. She did good. I'm not sure she knew what to think. But she didn't seem scared. She did like the carousel; she didn't want to get off! We could have/should have ridden it again. Around 5:30 we made it back up to the front to Main Street to catch the tree lighting. There was a bakery nearby so we were able to get a little something to eat without spending a whole lot. We ate our supper while we waited on the tree lighting. They played carols and then Mickey and Minnie and Santa came out in a sleigh, did a few more songs, and then the tree lit up. I think David got it on video. It was pretty neat. And then, after the tree was lit, there was SNOW! The "locals" especially thought that was neat. They don't ever get snow here. They've told us it's never even reached freezing. The lowest it's ever been is 6 degrees Celsius. So it was neat to watch them react to the snow. I think it really was snow, too -- not bubbles or confetti. It blew for a while, maybe 10 minutes or so. We spent a total of about HK$100 on food, so $13. Not bad for a theme park. Well, actually that doesn't include our water; we bought 3 bottles of water for $34, so that gets us up to about US$17 or so. That's for 3 bottles of water, two little mini chicken pizzas, a sandwich and a turkey pastry, two little custard pies, and two boxes of popcorn (caramel corn, like at the movie -- it's very good). I don't think that's too bad for a theme park. We spotted the little carts earlier in the day when we were buying our water; they were selling fish balls (we're not 100% sure about those), soya chicken legs (not quite sure about those, either), hot dogs, maybe some other kind of pork, I don't remember, and corn on the cob. The people here seem to really like corn. My guess is it's a Western thing that they've adopted into their food culture. I wouldn't think corn would be part of traditional Chinese cuisine. We saw a lot of people eating corn on the cob. Oh, and when we got there, they were selling turkey legs at the carts. But when we were ready for one later in the day, we only saw soya chicken legs. I don't know if they switch over at supper time or ran out of the turkey legs. Hong Kong Disneyland only has four areas: Main Street, Adventure Land, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. We never even made it to Tomorrowland. But we got to do everything we wanted. We were only there from 1-8, but it was plenty. And we were plenty tired, too. It was fun, though, and even though I don't have any still pictures (maybe that will change!), I got some good video which I'm glad about. Today we went to a Christmas party at Jamie and Rachel's for the home group at ICA. There were a lot of people crowded into their "flat." It really reminded me of Paris. The big city culture is just different than what we're used to. Jamie and Rachel had prepared a big spread for all of us: turkey and ham and stuffing, peas and carrots and potatoes, cheese and crackers, asparagus dip and baguettes, and hummus. And for dessert, mini pies (maybe mincemeat, I wasn't sure), two types of cake -- I tried both and both were good, and chocolate ice cream. It was all delicious. After the lunch we sang Christmas carols, accompanied by Jamie on guitar and another man on cello. It was really neat. Then Jamie read the Christmas story and we exchanged gifts. We were given a cost limit of HK$25 (a little more than $3). We cheated on one and took the magic set that David ended up with from Dirty Santa at our Christmas party and bought one -- I found a cute little travel cosmetic kit and nail polish at one of the beauty stores on our way to the party. One of the little boys ended up with the magic set, and we think he liked it. He wasn't sure what it was at first, but some of the guys were showing him and we saw him playing with it. I don't know who ended up with the travel kit -- hopefully a female! My gift was a toothbrush -- I'm sure Jayden will be excited -- and David got a back scratcher and roller massage thing. That's pretty neat, I guess. When we got home I was pretty tired so I took a good nap and now am staying up to work. I have one task down, several to go. Tomorrow we're going sight-seeing and shopping. I'm really looking forward to it. Everyone's asleep but me. David worked some while I slept, so I'm glad he's sleeping now. And I'm definitely glad the kids are sleeping. I'm thinking I'm going to vote that we don't try to go to Ocean Park and save it for next time. One theme park may be enough for this trip. But we may still decide to go. It's not that expensive and it's also not that big, so it may not be a full-day outing. But then again, it may be like Disney, where it wasn't a full day but it was; we were only at the park from 1-8, but it took us until 11 to get ready to go, then until 1 to get there, and then when we got home we were wiped out. I'm not sure what David is thinking about Ocean Park. Let me get back to work. More later.

Watching the evening news a little while ago, we learned that Hong Kong experienced an earthquake tonight. And actually, David felt it; I was sleeping at that time. He said he could feel it in his feet, but he didn't know what it was. The washer was running, so he thought maybe he was feeling it vibrate. I wanted to write because I knew you'd be curious or concerned if you saw the earthquake news back home. So David felt it, but not enough to know what it was until we learned about it ourselves on the news. Needless to say, we're fine, and according to the news so is everyone else. I need to post about Christmas; I'll do that soon. We had a good day.

Merry Christmas, everyone! It is actually already Christmas Day here. Santa gets to us earlier over here! ;-) We got up and went to church at the Baptist church in Kowloon. We left here at 9:15 and arrived at 10:35 -- church started at 10:30. So once again we were late, but not TOO bad. It was a nice service with carols and a Christmas message and gifts for the kids. We left right when it was over at noon because we wanted to see The Nativity Story. However, they began at 12:05 and 12:15; there was no way we could make it. So we walked over to the mall near the MTR station -- it is called the Festival Walk. We found the movie theater in the mall and checked on the show times, and saw that the movie was playing tonight at 11:40pm. Since we really wanted to see the movie for Christmas, and we're having a hard time matching up the movie times with our schedule, we decided to do the late show and usher in Christmas with the movie. So we had our own version of midnight mass, I guess. We went ahead and bought our tickets and walked around the mall a little bit, but didn't stay long; we got back on the MTR and went a few stops to the Prince Edward stop, which is one stop north of Mong Kok and the Ladies' Market. We wanted to find the flower market, the bird garden, and the goldfish market. We had no problem finding them between our map and the good signs they put up for the tourists. We also saw another street market; we like those! There were many people there today, though, with it being Sunday. It's better to go on a weekday. The flower market is exactly what it sounds like -- a street with flower shop after flower shop after flower shop. That was neat. So pretty. Then the bird garden was nearby; you just walk through and see all these song birds. Some for sale, and some that are just there visiting with their owners. Then we wanted to find the goldfish market; first we found something to eat. We had real Chinese food; beef and vegetables with noodles (Jayden especially liked) and chicken with mushrooms and rice. It was not expensive and the portions were very large. The goldfish market is shop after shop with fish and pets and reptiles, etc. We didn't spend much time there, but we did get to check it out. Then we headed home. We got home a little after 5:00, and all took a nap. David washed dishes and I made a little progress with laundry. The dryer seems to be giving us a little trouble. We left again at 9:40 to go back to Kowloon Tong, the stop where the church is and the Festival Walk mall, to go see the movie. We rode Bus 25 (which we catch here at our Braemar Hill bus stop) to Central -- because we know where the lift is at Central to catch the MTR, and we weren't as sure where the lift to the MTR is at Causeway Bay (but we came home that way, so we think we know now). From Central we caught the MTR and rode it to the Kowloon Tong stop; the Festival Walk mall is right there. We were actually early! We got to try "another version" of Starbucks, called Pacific Coffee Company. We shared a gingerbread white mocha -- it was good. Pacific Coffee Company is very similar to Starbucks. But since we had already had Starbucks once this trip, and now we even have a Starbucks in Monroe, we wanted to try something different. We walked around a little more and found the Toys R Us on the top floor; it was still open so we got to walk around just a little. Then it was time to go to the movie. We bought some Chinese popcorn, which is sweet rather than salty (kind of like caramel corn). It is really good. We also bought a bottle of green tea which we had been wanting to try. The movie tickets are more than at home; we had to buy 4 tickets and the total was $27 -- I think the adult tickets were about $8 each. Then David said our popcorn and two drinks were as expensive as our lunch! That figures. The movie was really good. We really enjoyed it, as we thought we would. It's definitely one to buy. They messed up with the wise men, having them come to the manger -- but many make that mistake. But they did a good job with it. I thought the casting and acting and costumes and music were all very enjoyable. Now we're home and David's listening to the Saints game while I'm typing this. Jayden's asleep and Joshua's resting. He seems to be feeling fine; he's still a little bruised and his eyes are running and mucous-y like mine and Jayden's were earlier. I don't know what's causing this, but at least it doesn't hurt. Tomorrow (well, actually today, but morning) is Christmas! We'll read the Christmas story together, fix a big breakfast (pancakes and scrambled eggs) and then go to Disneyland. We got the details about the Christmas party with the home group on Tuesday. So it looks like we'll get to do that. We have to find a gift to exchange and find out for sure what time to be there. But we're looking forward to it. We only have a few days left here. Our time is winding down very quickly. I'm looking forward to the things we're still planning to do. I think I'll go work on pictures now. Aleecia

Today went really well. This morning I worked while David fixed us blueberry pancakes, yum. Then we got ready and went to the Shue Yan Christmas party. It was very nice. There was a long table filled with food. I took a few pictures. As you would expect, there was lots of pork and shrimp; the fried rice had both ham and shrimp in it that I know of for sure. Then there were several dishes to choose from -- a "real Chinese buffet!" It was all very good, even the spaghetti -- I'm sure my Dad will get a kick out of that one. It was different from our spaghetti, though; not nearly as tomato-ey. There was also satay, which we've learned is chicken on skewers -- they are either Indonesian or maybe Indian or Thai, but I don't think they're Chinese. But they're good and they're popular here. There was also a dish with vegetables -- cauliflower and carrots and some other things I wasn't as sure of, but good. And some things kind of like vegetable spring rolls. And a salad of some kind; I tried it but couldn't quite figure it out. Maybe kind of like a 7-layer salad with lettuce and green peas and mayo -- that basic idea, I guess. For dessert there was a chestnut layer cake and a mango pudding (but firm like Jello) and a gelatin/Jello type thing -- they said orange, but I don't think orange; maybe papaya? It was all delicious. We tried almost everything (we tried to stay away from the obvious pork) and wanted to go back for seconds, but were too full. Oh, and Jayden had her first juice box today; they are very popular here. She figured out how it works with no problem and drank almost the whole thing by herself. It was an orange one. I chose a lemon one and David got chrysanthemum -- very interesting! I tried a sip of his and it was good. Jayden lost the straw down in mine so I didn't drink very much of it. The other choices we didn't get were apple and chocolate milk. It was 2:00 before we got back up to the apartment after the party. Then Candy came by and we visited for a few minutes, which was nice. She brought me flowers and a Christmas card from Dr. Hu. I need to take a picture of the flowers; they are beautiful. Then I had last minute class and party stuff to take care of. But it all came together. Class went fine and the party was a lot of fun. We had 14 here -- all 12 students and 2 guests. They oohed and aahed over the food and tried it all. The meatballs probably went the least; they liked the cheeseball and the devilled eggs and the cheesecake and the celery (I thought that was funny), and the punch all went -- I could have used more of that. There's plenty of hot chocolate and egg nog left, though they did drink some of it. There's still fruitcake and sandwiches and fudge and cookies, and plenty of apples and grapes and carrots. They liked the Doritos and salsa. They liked Dirty Santa and had a good time with that; David talked about the first Christmas and what Christmas is really about for a minute, and then we played mafia. I think they liked it but by the end some needed to leave, so we only played one round. Then we took some pictures with those who were still there. They had the best time playing with Jayden. She had taken a great nap this afternoon so she did really well with it all. She was very good the whole time. They took pictures of her and played with her. Oh, and they brought presents: a Mr. Potato head and a worm stuffed toy and a bear that reads stories (the cute one that's popular this Christmas). And for us some candies and a candle which changes colors! We'll have to check it out. It does feel a little more like Christmas now. Joshua is sleepy tonight and perhaps a little feverish; if so, just barely. I hope he'll rest well tonight. I hope I do too! Tomorrow is church and walking around in Kowloon. I'm looking forward to it. It's hard to believe it's as late as it is, especially with how little sleep I've gotten lately. I'll get pictures added soon, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow. More later. Aleecia

The movie times for tomorrow and Sunday don't look good for us. And Monday we're planning to spend the day at Disneyland. So hopefully they'll be playing the movie at a good time for us to go on Tuesday. I do really want to see it. I guess it looks like it will "end" our Christmas rather than begin it. Joshua's camping out in the living room. He's been asleep for a while. I know he's wiped out. I've been working on party preparations this evening. Here's what I'll be serving tomorrow night: Chicken salad sandwiches and apricot sandwiches; meatballs; fruit tray and veggie tray; devilled eggs; Doritos and salsa; pretzels; spinach dip; cheese ball and crackers; fudge, sugar cookies, cheesecake squares, and fruit cake; hot chocolate, egg nog, and punch. I have had the best time putting together this menu and doing the cooking. It's kept me busy, but I enjoy it. I've sampled as I went and now I'm feeling it! I know I'm just tired, too. I munched to keep going and stay awake, and now I'm past the point where that will do any good. The caffeine I drank is still keeping my mind going, but my body is beginning to fade. Maybe I'll be able to go to bed and rest soon. I have a ton of work still to do for class tomorrow as a result of our crazy day today. But, I'll just do my best; that's all I can do. More tomorrow. Aleecia

Well, we made it. We're home -- all 4 of us. He's okay. The x-ray and CT scan all looked fine. He just has some bruises and swollen lips. David says by the time we come home you won't even be able to tell anything happened. So a crazy day comes to an end. We didn't see The Nativity Story tonight after all, obviously, but we'll try to do that soon. So I guess Christmas for us starts tomorrow, rather than tonight! More later. Aleecia

David just called and gave me the name of the hospital. Jayden's sleeping, but she and I will try to head out in a little bit. We'll probably take a taxi. David says he thinks Joshua's fine, but they're wanting to watch him. That's reassuring.

Candy just stopped by with the update. She said Joshua seems fine and not to worry, but they are going to keep him overnight for observation. I'm not worried, but please keep him and David in your prayers. I'm not sure how far away the hospital is or how we would get there for sure. David just called. Alex, Candy's fiance, is there with him. He said there is no phone in the room but he was able to call me on Alex's phone. Alex said we could take a taxi. Jayden is asleep; I will work on getting things together to take to David and Joshua and getting ready so that in a little bit we can go there. David is going to call back to let me know what I need to do. They are admitting Joshua so they can do a CT scan. They did an x-ray already and it didn't show anything to be concerned about. I'll keep you posted. Aleecia

Well, we began this morning with a bang -- or really a bump. Joshua fell out of the bed. He hit pretty hard and he's banged up; his lip is swollen and his cheek is bruised. He cried for about 10 minutes and then was acting like he wanted to go to sleep, which concerned David so we called Miranda to ask about talking to a doctor. I only talked to Miranda's daughter who gave me a telephone number; then I called the doctor's office but had only limited success speaking with the woman who answered the phone. Apparently Miranda called someone, though, because the next thing we knew our doorbell rang and two women were here to see what happened. Then they called an ambulance -- we protested and said we didn't think it was necessary, but they insisted, and about 5 minutes later a medical team was here checking him out. We believe, and even they said -- keeping in mind they've never seen Joshua before, so they don't know his "normal," -- that he's fine, but just wanted to be sure. So now David and Joshua are off to the hospital, and Jayden and I are here. I was very impressed with how quickly the medical team arrived and they seemed very professional and prepared. I'm not worried, so please don't be! Do pray for him, but don't worry. I think he's bruised up but fine. I'll keep you posted.

I'm sorry I'm behind on posts and pictures. I'm trying to catch up tonight. Yesterday was Wednesday. I worked in the morning and around lunch time I was at a stopping point that we could get out for a while. We decided to go to "The Peak." This is the major look-out point where you get an awesome view of the harbor and all the skyscrapers. It would be hard to come to Hong Kong and not have gone to The Peak. We guessed -- and ended up being right -- that the view from the Peak may not mean quite as much to us as most visitors, since we get the luxury of enjoying this gorgeous view from our apartment every day. But still, I wanted to check it out, and I'm glad we did. Our plan was to take Bus 25 from Braemar Hill to Causeway Bay and then catch 15B to The Peak. We got online, researched the bus route, saw the stop we wanted, and headed out. Well, we knew we were in Causeway Bay, we saw a bus stop that had 15B on the sign, but from the information we read online we expected another stop a little later in the route that also interchanged with 15B. So we stayed on the bus. The bus was supposed to turn on to Hennessey Rd and then onto another road (I'm forgetting now the name of it), and then it would be our stop. Well, the bus did turn onto Hennessey Rd, and then did turn onto another road -- but it was not the road we were expecting! We ended up riding 25 all the way to the end of the route and then riding it back into town into Causeway Bay. I think we ended up getting off at the stop we saw originally. I'm still confused as to how we managed to mess up, but oh well. We did get to see some new things and I took some pictures -- which I'll post soon, I promise! So now we're off the bus and we're hungry. This trip has taken much longer than we anticipated. It was already almost lunchtime when we left the apartment, and the Frommer's book had described one particular restaurant at The Peak that sounded good and a good fit for us, so we were going to eat lunch there. There happened to be a bakery near the bus stop, so you know what we did. Let's see, we got a chicken pizza (a little larger around than a bagel), a tuna roll, a chicken danish, a Japanese cheese stick (it was spicy), a pineapple roll, and two egg custards. Then we walked back to the bus stop to wait on the 15B. Except that when we read the sign, we saw that the 15B only runs on Sundays and holidays! Now what?! We figured we'd just take a taxi. It took a few minutes to catch one; there seemed to be more traffic going the other way than our way. But eventually we signaled one, and it turned out to be the nicest driver who spoke pretty good English -- a blessing! The taxi ride to the Peak ended up costing us almost $10 (US). But I guess that's not terrible. One thing that's nice is that the taxis charge only by distance, not by time. That's a really nice fact when you're sitting in traffic in Central. But it's a pretty good ride up the mountain to The Peak. The way most people get to the Peak is to ride the "Peak Tram," a neat tram/train-type thing that goes up the mountain. But we were pretty sure that it couldn't accomodate us with the wheelchair. So we were going to take the bus -- and you know what happened there. Well, eventually, we got up to The Peak. We went up to the viewing area first. It was a sunny, fairly clear day (about as clear as they get here) and we got to really take in the view and take some pictures. The wind was a little cool, but it was nice. We even asked someone to take our picture and got our first family picture in Hong Kong. I hope it turned out well. I haven't even looked at it yet. Then we went back down into the other floors of the Peak Tower, where there are shops and restaurants. We walked around just to see what was there, mostly, and then walked next door to the Peak Galleria -- more shops and restaurants. We looked in the shoe stores and the book store, but mostly just window-shopped. Then we decided to get something to eat. The bread had really tied us over for a while. We checked out all the restaurants; first we went back to the Peak Tower to look at the menu at the Chinese restaurant, but there weren't many choices for us (lots of pork and shrimp). The Japanese restaurant right across from the Chinese restaurant didn't look much better. We ended up back at the Peak Galleria at a Thai restaurant called L16. I have to admit, it was delicious. And they also had a high chair for Jayden, which was nice -- she was contained much more than she's been at several restaurants! But I also have to admit we've now had our most expensive meal in Hong Kong. To be fair, it wasn't entirely our fault; we knew it was not going to be cheap, because the things at The Peak are pretty classy. But we thoroughly checked out the menu, both before we decided to eat there and then while deciding what to order. We selected two items: a beef dish with basil and peppers which was marked as spicy (3 chili peppers!) and a half chicken grilled "Thai-style" with vegetables. The problem came when he asked us -- and keep in mind, broken English, we're having to interpret here -- if we wanted rice or noodles. We assume that rice or noodles comes with the main dish (you know about assuming!) and say we'll try one of each. Then we think he's asking us which with which -- and we're not sure how to answer. In fact, he's asking us what meat we want in the rice and noodles. We order Chinese tea to go with our meal, and they bring that first. Then they bring out the beef dish. Since we're hungry and we're waiting, we go ahead and try some. It's not THAT spicy, and it really is good. But we're wanting to wait on our rice to really dig in. Then they bring out a second dish, which we assume is our chicken, but it's nothing like we thought it would be. It turns out that this is the noodles. They were really good. It also turns out that there was pork in them -- we discovered this when David read the bill at the end of the meal. Oh well, we didn't do it intentionally. That was part of that miscommunication. The noodles were more like fettuccini noodles than spaghetti noodles like they serve at the Chinese restaurants at home. And they weren't nearly as greasy as those noodles. They were really good. If only they hadn't been pork! Then they bring out a huge bowl of fried rice. It was also very good. There was chicken in the rice. It was not greasy, either, like the fried rice on the Chinese buffets tend to be. It was whiter, too; it was fried rice but seemed more like steamed rice than what we have at home. It could be a meal in and of itself, especially if you like rice. THEN they brought out something else -- our half chicken! It was crispy -- we thought it was going to be grilled, but I'm not sure it wasn't deep-fried. Well, we enjoyed it and ate every bite (Jayden liked it, too; Joshua slept during supper). Then we got the bill; it was a whopping $519! (HK, not US, but still, that's expensive.) I couldn't figure out why it was so much. Well, where we went wrong (and you've probably guessed) is with the rice and noodles. They charged for the tea, too, whereas most of the restaurants we've eaten at included the tea. Plus they charged a 10% service charge; but that's pretty standard. In hindsight, we definitely wouldn't have ordered the half-chicken, and we would not have ordered the noodles with pork. Probably if I had to do it over again, I would have ordered the beef, the rice, and the noodles. That would have been plenty of food. So, for everyone who will be coming to Hong Kong: I do recommend the L16. It was delicious. But the rice and noodles aren't included, so expect to pay for them -- and they're about as much as the main dishes. Also, they offered several "set" choices (I need to explain that more in a bit) which were a very good deal, but the only choice which wasn't pork or shellfish was spaghetti! And I didn't want spaghetti, especially not at a Thai restaurant. I hated that, but I wasn't willing to eat pork (but I guess I ended up doing that anyway!). Okay, about the sets: this was something that I couldn't figure out at first. Almost all the restaurants advertise a "lunch set" and a "tea set." It seems that a set is like a combo deal. Maybe it will include a main dish, a soup, some noodles or bread or maybe even dessert, and coffee or tea -- something like that (of course it's different at every restaurant). These are almost always a good deal, and sometimes an extremely good deal compared with their regular menu prices. Even Pizza Hut has "sets." So I don't know if that's a British thing or just what. You'll have to fill me in if you know. Then we were ready to head home. We bought some Italian ice cream at the stand there -- I might as well tell on myself -- and it was also good, but expensive. So, note to self, the Peak is expensive! We were able to catch the 15 Bus (the 15, not the 15B) back to town. It took us to Central to the ferry piers. It wasn't a bad ride; we got off the bus and easily found the sign for the Bus 25. Well, we waited and waited; after about 15 minutes we saw a Bus 25 coming. It had been warm during the day, but it was pretty chilly! And we were dressed for the warm sunshine, not for the cool night. So we were glad to see the bus coming. Well, one thing that was confusing it there were TWO Bus 25 signs, not very far apart from each other, and we weren't sure which one to stand by. We chose one; other people were standing there too (although we weren't sure they were there for Bus 25). So Bus 25 pulls up and keeps going to the second bus stop sign, the one we're not standing by; so we start walking that direction to catch the bus. Only the "on" doors never open; only the exit doors open, and everyone gets off; first I'm thinking the driver just needs to be sure everyone gets off before letting anyone on. But then he closes the exit doors and drives off! David and I just look at each other and shrug. So we head back to the sign where we were before. We wait a few more minutes; David decides to walk further down the bus exchange to see if there's another Bus 25 sign. We're not entirely sure what to do, but we figure if nothing else, we'll catch a taxi home; there are plenty of them coming through this area. Well, as David's walking back after looking for another sign, here comes a Bus 25. And this time it does stop at the sign we're standing by, and does let us on. Hooray! So the rest of the trip goes off without a hitch. (Finally!) We get home and I'm pretty wiped out. I sit with Jayden for her to go to sleep but I end up falling asleep too and going to bed. I needed to work; but sleep was nice, too. I ended up staying in bed until 9:30 this morning. Except for our next adventure -- Around 3:00 this morning I was awakened by an alarm. I had no idea what it was. David didn't hear it, so I woke him up. He wasn't too concerned, but I needed to know what it was. He was willing to go check it out. It turns out it was the fire alarm; there were emergency rescue vehicles here and firemen in the building. But apparently, no fire (good news!). So I'm not sure what happened, but it was a little scary there for a little bit. Then I was worried that I would have trouble going back to sleep, but I was tired enough that I didn't. In fact, I chided myself all during the night about spending all that money on a meal. There have been several suits I've passed up for even less than $500 (HK), and here I spent that money on a meal. Imagine that logic! But, then I reminded myself -- several times -- first, it's in the past; you can't change it now; second, it wasn't intentional. We would not have chosen to eat there if we thought it was going to be that much. So, you just have to chalk it up to a mistake and a misunderstanding, and keep going. And focus on the good -- it was a very tasty meal. Today I worked all day. David and Jayden went to town around lunch time and stayed gone probably about 2 hours. David did a little shoe shopping, bought us some peanuts in the market in North Point and some bread at a bakery (including a whole wheat walnut roll of some kind that I especially enjoyed) and some groceries. Then, it was almost supper time. I had in mind to make us a pot of chicken soup, but David had pizza on the brain, and since we've talked about ordering Pizza Hut since we've been here, we decided to do that. But first we had to figure out what in the world we would order! We went to the website -- you can check it out, too -- www.pizzahut.com.hk and the choices were a little overwhelming. It's a good thing I had looked at a brochure before to get an introduction to all the things they offer -- it's very different! You'll have to go check it out. One thing that's interesting is that they offer two different sauce choices, regular tomato sauce and a thousand island dressing sauce. Weird! Since we don't eat thousand island dressing, we didn't try that one; we stuck with tomato sauce. If it weren't for health reasons, we probably would try it; our adventurous spirit is always up for trying new things. We ended up choosing the Countryside pizza without the pork -- so chicken, mushrooms, and corn (the students thought it was strange tonight when I told them we don't eat corn on our pizza in America -- speaking of, be sure to check out the "American Adventure" pizza choice), the Portuguese chicken rice (it was good; it was yellow curry and a tad spicy, but not so much that Jayden wouldn't eat it), and pumpkin soup, also very good. I told the students tonight there was nothing like Portuguese chicken rice or pumpkin soup at our Pizza Huts. It was delivered right to our door, and quickly too. It was $171, so what is that -- $22. That's probably about like at home. We have 3 pieces of pizza left and most of my pumpkin soup; we finished off the rice. Then the four of us ran down to the Park n Shop to try to get the rest of our groceries and to let Joshua and I enjoy at least a few minutes of sunshine. Besides, Joshua is our water carrier; it's very easy to put two big jugs on the bars of the wheelchair; it's not so easy to buy water without Joshua. We were able to get everything except vanilla extract, corn syrup (for my peanut brittle) and limes. So Jayden and David will have to go hunt those things down for us tomorrow. I may go or I may stay here and work on cooking and class and just let them go. When we got back from the Park n Shop it was almost 6:00 so time to finish up getting ready and head to class. Tonight we had two topics: Managing Meetings and Personal and Corporate Ethics. We ended up finishing a little early, which was nice. We don't have many chapters left. At the end of the term they have assignments to complete but not new material to cover. It is a very hectic pace. Everyone was still up when I got out of class, and Jayden and I got to play a little bit. She likes to play Ring Around the Rosie; she says, "down!" But she wasn't "falling" tonight. And Joshua just laughs and laughs at us. I also got her on video saying most of the words she says now. Oh, and she prays -- it is so adorable. If you ask her to pray or tell her it's time to pray (like at mealtime), she bows her head and starts talking. She does say Amen, and it's clearer now than it used to be, but she usually doesn't say it until after we do. She and David were ready to go to bed before too long; Joshua did his now-usual protesting. So now he's asleep in his chair in the living room; for some reason that's what he wants these days. I'll move him to his bed when I go to bed later. While I've been up tonight I've made my fruitcake and meatballs for the party; my cheeseball is softening so I can stir it up and make it into a ball; my chicken for my chicken salad sandwiches is cooked; my eggs are boiled (devilled eggs) -- and I guess that's all. I'll get a few more things done tonight and probably finish up everything I can tomorrow. We're expecting two boxes, one from each Mom; hopefully they'll arrive today or tomorrow. If not, we'll still get them, just not before Christmas. I know both Moms will be disappointed if that happens. But when it's not under your control you just go with whatever happens. We received a Christmas card today from friends in Alabama; it was postmarked Dec 9! Hopefully the boxes will arrive quicker than the card did. So today will probably be a "home" day, at least for the most part; there is much to do to get ready for Saturday, and not much time on Saturday to do any of the preparation. We are getting out tonight, though, to see The Nativity Story. I'm really looking forward to that. This will kind of begin our Christmas celebrations. We will have something "Christmas" every day between tonight and Tuesday night. I think this will be a great way to focus on Christ this Season. Then tomorrow is the Shue Yan Christmas party at 12:30; class from 3:00-7:00, and our Christmas party from 7:00-9:00. Sunday morning we'll head to church in Kowloon for the 10:30 service; then we plan on spending the day in Kowloon finding the bird market, the goldfish market, and the flower market (sounds interesting!). Then depending on how things are going, we may go back to the church for the 5pm candles & carols service. Monday morning we'll get up and read the Christmas story in our pjs, fix a nice big breakfast, and head to Disneyland! Very cool. We've been told it may be crowded, but I think we're going to take our chances. We've also been told they're very good at crowd control here. I think it will be special to spend Christmas Day at Disney. Tuesday will be a "home day," except we've been invited to go to the home group Christmas party Tuesday night. Rachel has to email me though with the details, or we won't be able to go! There's still time for that, though. So that's our upcoming plans. I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while. It's been close to 70 degrees during the day and dips down into the 50s at night. It's funny, though; the people here are bundled up like it's freezing. We see people in coats and boots and scarves -- everyone, it seems. (I haven't seen gloves or mittens, though.) The students have asked me several times if I'm cold because I don't dress all bundled up like they do. I did wear my coat to class tonight, though; my new $10 coat I bought at Stanley Market. The classroom is not heated or air conditioned, so it's pretty much the same as the outside temperature. I ended up keeping my coat on the whole time. I think I'll go work on pictures now. Aleecia

Let's see, what happened today. We got up around 8:00, I think, and fixed oatmeal for breakfast. I pretty much worked all day; we all stayed home today. A little before 4:00 I walked next door for a press conference at Shue Yan announcing their new status as a university! It was a very exciting day. They told me they had worked for this day for 20 years. A momentus occasion, indeed! The students were especially excited, which was so neat to see. I was there for about an hour, and was disappointed in myself that I couldn't get more out of it, since I didn't understand what was being said. There was one speaker in English, but the microphone was giving her problems, so I couldn't hear her, either. So I was pretty much in the dark. Still, it was exciting to be there. I'm behind on posting pictures, but I did take some pictures, so when I post, those will be included. The event was on the news tonight, and David got to watch, but I was in class. I hate I missed it; I also wish I could have recorded it, but I didn't have a way to do it. By the time the press conference was over it was almost time for class. Class went well tonight. We talked about listening and giving feedback, two very practical and relevant topics. I have a lot of work to do for our last few classes. We only have 13 days left here and we're trying to plan out how to spend them. There is still a lot to do! We fixed Chinese versions of black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes, and greens for lunch today. It was different than at home, but still very good. I made another loaf of bread today with coconut cream and banana. It's good. The coconut and banana aren't really strong, so it's mostly just a normal loaf, but it is really moist. I'm wanting to make tuna rolls soon. I also have to start working on the party food. And there are still a few things to buy. I'm excited for it to all come together! I'll try to post those pictures soon. Aleecia

This morning we slept in a little bit and then got ready to go to the store with Miranda. We had a good time browsing and buying. We got a few new things to try, but mostly stuck to our list, which was mostly for the Christmas party -- which is only a few days away! When we got home we put a frozen pizza in the oven and ate it for lunch. Then Jayden took a good nap, Joshua watched his Christmas songs video, and David and I worked. Then Joshua and I ran down to the Park n Shop to buy a few more things that we purposefully didn't get with Miranda -- you can only get so much at one time here, plus I waited on eggs thinking they would be easier to get home, etc. On the way back, who did we meet on the sidewalk -- Jayden and David! They turned around and we all came up to the apartment together. We wanted to go somewhere and decided to find the Santa's Town setup in Central. We left the house at 5:45 and made it to Santa's town about 6:30/6:45. And it only takes one bus to get there -- but by the time you wait for the bus, ride the bus (and it's going through the middle of downtown, so there's lots of traffic) and then walk to where you're going once you get off the bus -- it takes about an hour. It's a quick hour, but still, an hour. The Santa's Town was nice. It wasn't quite what I expected, but I'm still glad we checked it out. Then we were hungry and wanted to find a restaurant. Central is mostly downtown shopping: Marks & Spencer, Armani, Louis Vuittion (?), Prada, etc. But I felt surely there'd be a restaurant suitable for us. We did have to walk a little bit, but then off the main street was a little narrow street with about 6 little restaurants. We chose one and had a nice Chinese meal; we ordered two things to try, fried rice w/ chicken and pineapple (it was VERY good) and curry beef -- except we're not sure it was really beef. We didn't eat much of the meat. And the curry was very spicy. It was good -- but we liked the chicken and rice dish better. Jayden ate that one well, too. We didn't give her any of the curry. It was just under US$10. Right across the little alley from the restaurant was a neat little store I just had to check out. It was a little hole in the wall, not a fancy store at all, and inside they had all kind of imported foods -- lots of things I recognized from the US, but some things were from other countries as well. It was a real smorgasboard of things they offered: SPAM, Nestle Quick, Snickers bars, Quaker Oats (including Old Fashioned, yea!), Folgers coffee.... you just looked around and see what they had to offer. We bought some oats and some coconut cream. (I'm discovering this coconut cream and I'm curious if I'll be able to find it at the Asian market at home. I had been wanting to check out the Asian grocery store anyway; now I really want to!) Then we went back out to the main road, and crossed over to the other side where we saw a sign for a Bossini outlet. Bossini is the store we really like here. They have cute casual clothes at good prices -- and the clothes fit us well. We were curious if "outlet" here means the same thing as in the US; and apparently it does. I got a pair of pants (dressy casual) and this time Joshua got a few things! We got him 3 pairs of pants and a shirt. Everything was on sale. There was a "ULM" polo shirt I wanted to get for Dad, but they didn't have his size. I was disappointed about that. I think he would have liked it. Now we were ready to head home, but we had to find the bus stop for the return trip. We ended up wandering around for a bit and never did find it. Instead we made it back to where we had been a few days ago when we changed busses in Central to go to Stanley; there is a lift to take us down to the Central MTR station. So we rode the MTR to North Point and then caught the last #27 Bus to Braemar Hill. Oh yeah, before that I went into the "$10 store" (I call it) and got a few misc. things for the party. And while I went in there David picked out a few treats from the bakery next door. I like the bakery goods, as you can tell, but I've decided I really like the heartier wheat and rye breads better. At the Park n Shop with Miranda today we bought a hearty German rye loaf -- it's very good -- and a raisin walnut loaf of some kind (whole wheat or rye, I can't remember) -- we had bought it before and liked it. Plus we really liked my loaf of homemade bread. I've started another loaf tonight to bake in a little while. We've decided we really like toasted bread with peanut butter -- what a nice snack or dessert! David's got me hooked on it. Today at the Park n Shop we bought a cheese spread with apricots and almonds which is really good, too; we put it on the rye bread. It's yummy. Now everyone's in bed but me. I'm going to stay up a little longer and get some work done. Aleecia

Well, it's only Dec 17 for a few more minutes -- I'm up late again. But not for too much longer. David's up watching TV and I've been working on some things online. My eyes are getting sleepy and I'm going to bed soon. But I thought I'd write first, since I'm behind. Yesterday in the middle of the day David and Jayden went to the tailor's in Kowloon to pick up his suit and order some more shirts for gifts. If I'm remembering correctly, David also went into our new favorite store here, Bossini, and got a pair of jeans. When they got back, Jayden fell asleep and took a really good nap. We waited on her to wake up to leave for the church and for us all to get out for a while; we hated to disturb her she was sleeping so good. Barney came on TV while Joshua was watching; it was a Christmas episode and he was apparently so excited to see it. He laughed and laughed. It was so funny. Then some other kids' shows came on (British, I think), and the next thing I knew he was asleep in his chair. After Jayden woke up we left to go to the Baptist Church in Kowloon for their Christmas program. It was close to 6 before we were able to get away, and the program started at 7:00. We got there right at 7:00. They had already started, but just barely. It was nice; I would describe it as a traditional Christmas cantata. It reminded me of something Rowland Road would have done a few years ago, except there was a song or two in Latin, and Bro. Wayne wouldn't have done that. There was a handchime song; I enjoyed that. There was no drama or children's choir; just singing. There was a ladies' ensemble on two songs. In the middle the pastor, Harry Lucenay, gave a brief message. Towards the end I had to leave with Jayden, but I got to see most of it. Afterwards we stayed in the lobby and visited for a little while. We got to meet the pastor and his wife; they have ties to "our neck of the woods" -- not Louisiana, but Texas and Mississippi, I believe. Actually, his wife may be from Louisiana. They are probably 50s. We also met a young couple about our age, Leah and Aaron. They've been in Hong Kong 3 1/2 years; she teaches English (1st-4th grades, I think), and he is beginning a photography business (landscapes and city views). Maybe we'll get to visit with them more before we leave. One of them is from South Dakota; the other is from Minnesota. We left the church about 8:30 and decided to go to Mong Kok (still on Kowloon side, but on the way home from the church) to do some shopping. This is also where the Ladies' Market is, but last night we didn't go to the Ladies' Market. We had a good time shopping, but we didn't buy anything; the only thing we bought all night was some bread at the bakery near the MTR station for the church. We were thinking the busses to Braemer Hill stopped running at 11:30, so we got to the bus stop at 11:00 -- but read the sign and it was 10:30! So we took a taxi from North Point home. The busses from Causeway Bay run later, so next time we should get off at Causeway Bay and take one of those busses home. Oh well, no big deal, and now we know. So we were home late and then got to visit with David's family on the phone. Then I was up early, before 7:00, to start getting us ready for church. I decided to make the banana pancakes for breakfast again. They turned out better today; I used our other skillet and put a little more butter in the recipe. We got to the church a few minutes after 9 -- so still a little late. But better than last week. We went back to ICA, the A/G church in North Point, to see their Christmas program. We figured we'd get to go to both churches and see both Christmas programs if we did it this way. The ICA Christmas program was very upbeat, very modern, very nontraditional but yet included mostly traditional Christmas songs. In fact, I think I knew every one but one, and it was one that was pretty easy to pick up. There were several solos, drama, interpretative dance, etc. It was very different than the one last night, but that was neat, too, to see two very different programs and enjoy both. I think ideally my personal tastes are somewhere in between the two programs. But I guess that's nice, too. Jayden made it until the message began and then I had to leave with her. I took her to the cry room behind the sanctuary, and Rachel and Ethan (I know the baby's name now) were in there already. So we got to visit again. I gave her my email address and she invited us to the home group Christmas party on the 26th. I think we'll be able to go. After church we found a little restaurant; it was early but we were already pretty hungry. We were a little disappointed because they were still serving breakfast food, not lunch, so we didn't get "real Chinese food" for lunch. I ordered oatmeal and tuna fish bread; it was actually very good. The oatmeal was very runny and milky, but good (we usually make ours thick); the tuna fish bread was like two pieces of sandwich bread grilled together with tuna fish in the middle. David ordered an egg and toast served with a piece of chicken. It was also served with "sausage" (there was a pork choice with each, so David just picked one to leave on his plate) -- but the "sausage" was basically what we would call a hot dog. Ha! I thought that was funny. Then we walked around the market in North Point. We did a lot of looking, and a little bit of buying -- we all ended up with something except Joshua. We looked for him but never saw anything we liked enough to buy. David got two pairs of pants: a pair of jeans and a pair of casual, around-the-house type pants for US$4 each. I found a pair of pants and a skirt; my deal wasn't quite as good -- US$13 each. For Jayden, I saw the cutest Christmas outfit -- and I'm a sucker for Christmas stuff. It was just under $10 -- but it will make a nice hand-me-down or we can sell it and probably get our money out of it. I guess she needs to wear nothing but Christmas this next week. It's hard to believe it's almost Christmas! It both feels like and doesn't feel like Christmas at the same time. I'm excited about our Christmas parties, though; I think that will help it feel like Christmas. Right about now Dad and the RR choir are preparing to sing their Cantata. I hope it goes well! I'm thinking about you all. Let me know! And tonight David's mom and brothers and youth group are doing their Christmas program. We're thinking about you guys, too -- hope it all goes well! Let us know! I guess we'll have four more days of Christmas, the 23rd - 26th. I'm looking forward to it. Tonight I've been working on my grocery list. Miranda is taking us all to the big grocery store in the morning. It seems like it's just a few more days and it will be time to go. That's a bittersweet thought to me. This is a really neat place and we're having a good time. Not getting much sleep; not eating really well; and doing a lot of shopping -- but having a good time! I'm planning on baking another loaf of bread tomorrow. I would have tonight, but I was missing two ingredients. So I have to wait until after going to the store tomorrow. For some reason I'm not being able to check my email tonight. That's frustrating. Maybe they're just working on the system and it will be up again soon. I hope so! (Mom, if you're able to call and let me know, please do. And hey, when do Adam and Angela get home?) Merry Christmas! Aleecia

We must be adjusting to the time difference, because we're sleeping later now. Granted, we're also staying up late -- at least I am. The kids seem to be sleeping pretty well. We got up this morning and I fixed breakfast -- scrambled eggs with bell pepper and onion and whole wheat banana pancakes. I had a little trouble with my pancakes sticking, but they tasted good. I'll make those again. (I got the recipe from hillbillyhousewife.com, if you're interested. Though I think she forgot the oil -- I think the pancakes need some oil. I'm going to try to add some butter next time.) After breakfast I worked on grading my exams and David got to visit with his family on the phone. Jayden took a little morning power nap and Joshua watched his Cedarmont Kids Christmas DVD. Then we left; we decided to go to Causeway Bay. There is so much to see and we had only seen part of it so far -- we still haven't seen it all, but we did see more today. We took Bus 25 straight from Braemar Hill to Causeway Bay and spent the afternoon there shopping. First we found lunch; we ate at an Indian buffet. It was about $25, cheaper than our Natural Gourmet. It was very nice and we were the only ones there since we were eating a late lunch. We tried a bit of almost everything. I can't tell you what it all was; there were several vegetable dishes and I tried two chicken things. They brought us Indian bread (it's like a fried flat bread, I guess) and I tried the vegetable soup, which was really good (Jayden liked it, too). For dessert, I tried both -- I can't tell you the name of the one, I think it started with an R. It was pretty sweet and had cake-like things in the middle, like the size of oreo cookies. The other one was rice pudding; not as sweet, but good. Surprisingly, Jayden didn't seem to care for it. After that we started shopping. We found a market right there in the middle of Causeway Bay. It was very narrow so a little hard to get through, but we managed. David got a watch, and I got a lightweight coat and shirt for a total of HK$100 ($13). Then we went in this other store David had seen and got several things; David got a jacket, three pairs of pants, and a sweater for US$88; I got two pairs of pants and a skirt for about US$40. Then we went across the street and I got a dressy suit and a casual sweater for the same price (HK$310, US$40). We shopped in some other stores but didn't buy. By this time we were ready to start finishing up, but we did need to buy some groceries. So we went to the Wellcome store in Causeway Bay and bought all kinds of things, mostly produce. They have a deli-type counter with take-out food; I thought that was neat, and can tuck that information back for later. Up at the front of the store they had some hot food items for purchase (like the chickens and things at the front of Walmart) -- noodles and steamed rice and chicken wings and several things with pork and seafood. We bought a container of noodles for HK$15 (two bucks) and ate them outside the Wellcome store. Jayden especially enjoyed them! We got so tickled at her. I took some pictures. Then we headed to the bus stop, but we did stop in the bread store before catching the bus. We selected three: a peach pastry, a walnut raisin pineapple loaf (it's very good!) and a strawberry jam loaf. You can tell which one we've already dug in to. Speaking of bread, I made my first loaf of "real" bread today. I started it this morning first, before making breakfast, and let it rise all morning, then I baked it and it finished right before we were ready to leave. It looks really good, but we haven't tried it yet. We won't be able to resist long. I'm thinking a slice with some peanut butter.... We did buy some more peanut butter tonight at the Wellcome store; it does have hydrogenated oils but no sugar. At least it's not a double evil. On the bus ride home, Jayden was telling everyone "hi" and "bye." She was the little bus greeter. "Hello, we hope you enjoyed your ride this evening...." She made everyone on the bus smile, and us too. I think she brought a little bit of joy to their evening. She is such a blessing. David and I are going to try to watch a movie tonight. We haven't done that since we've been here. I'm guessing Jayden will crash pretty soon; she only had two short little naps today. Tomorrow we apparently won't have water from 10am until 6pm. We may try to hang around until lunch and then go out; we know tomorrow night we're going to the Christmas program at Kowloon International Baptist Church. I'm looking forward to that. Obviously, we didn't make it to home group tonight, and I don't know how much more home group they'll have now with the holidays. But I guess we'll be able to ask Jamie about it on Sunday. There was a Christmas card from Magdalene under our door when we got home tonight; they left for England today. More later. Aleecia

Two days and another class down already. Yesterday morning we ate breakfast and did a few things around here but left around 11:00 -- we decided to try to find Stanley Market. We took our umbrellas with us! We figured we better chance it and get out in case the weather kept us in the rest of the week. It did rain on us some, but not too bad. Mostly we were under cover during rain. We caught the 25 bus here at Braemar Hill and rode past Causeway Bay to Central. We wanted to catch another bus to take us to Stanley, but we had to find the bus stop. It was raining at this point, and we weren't sure where to go. I took some pictures of the kids while David figured out our plan. Eventually we found the bus -- Bus 66. It would take us to Stanley Plaza, and then we'd have to figure out how to go on to Stanley Market. It was about a 45-minute ride to Stanley Plaza. The ride was really neat; Stanley Market is located on the exact opposite side of Hong Kong Island than North Point. I'm not sure if the route we went was up and over -- there is a mountain in the middle of the island -- or if we went around. But we saw lots of pretty hills and apartment buildings, and even a few houses (I'm sure for the wealthy, up in the hills) -- the scenery was nice. It was about 2:00 when we got to Stanley Plaza. We decided to go inside and look around and find something for lunch. We picked a floor, almost at random. There was a "bank" (I think just ATMs), a photo shop, a makeup shop, a few other shops, and a restaurant. It was called The Natural Gourmet. We checked out the posted menu and decided to give it a try. It looked a little more pricey than the places we had been eating, but not terrible. Plus, we're always game for trying new things. I'm not sure about the "Natural" part, but it was definitely gourmet -- but still casual, too. It was a neat mixture. I did not feel uncomfortable in my jeans and tennis shoes and having the kids -- now, we did stay outside on the terrace rather than going inside -- but it seemed fine. We decided to try a salad that looked really good -- salmon with corn and feta cheese and some kind of curry dressing. And for our entrees, I ordered the roasted duck with green curry and coconut sauce served with steamed rice; David ordered the Australian Beef Medallion and Salmon with steamed (grilled?) vegetables. First the waiter brought out the plates and forks and set the table for us. He brought us cold water in glasses -- which seemed strange, because the Asian restaurants give you hot tea in little cups. He brought us two rolls -- they looked like little loaves of bread -- in a basket. It was cool, so we requested tea, which he asked if we wanted now or later, and we asked to have it then. It was the Twinings English Breakfast Tea, which we've bought at home. He brought it in a cute little teapot, and two cups and saucers, and a dish of thinly sliced lemon. We decided to try the lemon in our tea, and we enjoyed it. Then he brought our salad -- you'll have to check out the picture. It was so pretty. And very delicious. I really liked it. It was all kinds of vegetables and greens, plus the salmon. Very yummy. (Jerold, figure out a clone recipe for us! Except David didn't care for the salmon in the salad.) Then he brought our soup, which was a surprise, because we didn't order soup. I had asked what the soup of the day was -- cream of broccoli. I just nodded, as in, okay, I understand -- and then the waiter brings cream of broccoli soup. Later I figured out that it was included in the "set." It was very good. Thinner and not as creamy as in the States, and no broccoli chunks, it was a very fine consistency, but it was good. Jayden wouldn't eat it; I was hoping she would. She woke up about this time. He cleared away our soup and brought our entrees. I had a lot more food on my plate than David -- that's what tends to happen when you order two meats like that. He got the two meats and not much else (only a few vegetables). My duck and vegetables, with the rice and sauce, was absolutely wonderful. I ate every bite -- except what I shared with David. It was spicy and delicious. I couldn't taste the coconut, and I'm not familiar with green curry vs. regular, but regardless, this was good. I drank some more tea for dessert. We were full, but in a good way. That meal really stuck with me, too. It was a little more expensive than what we'd been paying for a meal, but we figured a splurge was worth it. Plus, it was our "last meal" before beginning our fast day, so we needed a good balanced meal. But the total bill was only $36US. Unbelievable! There is no telling what that meal would have cost us in Monroe. Well, for our anniversary year before last David took me to Canard's, and that was $60, I believe, which I think was just garden side salads and a main dish -- and we didn't get much food for our entrees. And isn't Tokyo like $40/couple? I may not be remembering right. Regardless, I feel like we got a really good deal. (And for future ULM Hong Kong travellers, I left the brochure they gave us in the drawer in the apartment so you can check it out when you're here, if you want.) We took our time and really enjoyed ourselves. Then we withdrew some money from the ATM right there beside the restaurant and decided to head on to Stanley Market. We saw that we could catch Bus 63 there at Stanley Plaza to take us to Stanley Market (originally we didn't know if we'd have to walk, but there were several busses and mini busses going from Stanley Plaza to Stanley Market). Bus 63 is a big wheelchair accessible bus, PLUS we saw that it goes back to North Point! So we decided to go home another way. It's not far from Stanley Plaza to Stanley Market. Stanley Market was a LOT of vendors selling all kinds of things -- souvenirs, art, jewelry, clothes, bags, toys, some at very good prices. David bought 20 (TWENTY!) ties for $25US, all 100% silk. We took a picture today -- they'll be in my next set of pictures I post. He also got two Ralph Lauren polo shirts ($8US each), a linen blazer ($60US) and linen shirt ($25US), and a casual jacket ($8US). I got three things at the same place David got the little jacket -- a pair of casual pants and two tops -- each $10HK -- that's like $1.30US each. One dollar!! I'm wearing the pants and one of the tops right now. I got David to take a picture of me so you could see (tomorrow). We also bought two oil paintings (not original, but pretty) -- one of Hong Kong (this was on my want list going into this trip) and one for our room that's of part of a sculpture -- it's one I feel like I should recognize, but I don't know off-hand. Maybe if I think about it and it's not too much trouble, I'll take a picture of it to see if you know what sculpture it is. Or maybe it's just a copy of a famous painting. I'm not good with my art. Maybe my sister will know. Anyway, we got both of those for $110HK -- so less than $15. It's going to cost us much more than that to get them framed. Oh well, we'll deal with that later. I got two other clothes: a red Asian-looking jacket and a similar blouse -- I don't remember how much, but not expensive. Maybe $25US for the jacket? I also got some souvenirs I wanted: a Christmas tree ornament, and some Chinese dishes (a teapot and teacups and spoons). And we were able to get a few souvenirs for others, too. Speaking of, Nana, we found a monkey -- not in Stanley, that was the other day when we went to Kowloon and shopped. We were able to get a monkey for your friend ($6.50US) and a dragon for Daniel. We also got us a coffee mug (I like to have those) and me a spoon for my collection (my tradition, which is cheaper than David's -- chess sets!). I also got some Chinese table linens with chopsticks. We got Jayden a little Chinese dress; I'll have to put her in it and take her picture. We got some postcards and some playing cards, and I don't know, maybe a few other things I'm forgetting about right now. Oh, Joshua's t-shirt: "I survived Hong Kong!" What about DeWayne, is there something in particular he requests? We saw one idea in Stanley Market but we weren't sure if he would like it or not. It sure makes it easy when we know of something specific to look for. I saw some cute little Asian dolls I thought about getting for Jayden, but when I handed her one she didn't react to it. So I didn't get it. I have been thinking about that Chinese food play set in that variety store and am going to think about getting that for her. That might be a cute thing to have. We finished up our shopping about 6:30. The market closes at 7:00. We were getting tired, anyway. It felt later than it really was. We had a little trouble finding where to catch the bus to go home. We had decided we would take Bus 63 all the way back to North Point, then catch Bus 27 to home. Finally we saw someone to ask and he was able to tell us where to go. We were the first and almost the only ones on the bus. It took about 45 minutes to get us back to North Point. Originally we thought we might do a few things in North Point before heading home, but by the time we got there Jayden was asleep and we'd been gone so long, we just crossed the street to the bus stop and waited for the bus to come. We did have to wait a while, but once you get on the bus it's not a long ride up the hill to the Braemar Hill stop. We're getting to know that route pretty well. We're not as familiar with the Bus 25 route; yesterday was my first time to ride that bus, and only David's second. Getting around Hong Kong is very easy. There are so many options. Ours are a little limited because of the wheelchair, but even so, we don't have any problems getting around. So just think how many ways an able-bodied person can travel! There are so many it's almost overwhelming. We got home and didn't do too much, as I recall. This morning I worked and we all stayed inside. About 4:00 David decided to go down to North Point with Jayden. He had fixed us some yummy stir-fry for lunch around 2:00. He used the wok and we ate on Chinese dishes and everything -- but we did use forks. I think he went into some shops in North Point. He brought back two breads from the bakery for us to try. They were good. Jayden liked them, too. David's been talking about the bakery more than me, lately -- he says I've got him hooked! Speaking of bread, I bought some flour and yeast Monday when Miranda took me to the Park n Shop (yeast is very cheap here!) and I also have some baking powder. Miranda let me borrow a loaf pan. So now I'm eager to make us a loaf of bread -- maybe tonight or tomorrow. David also mentioned pancakes, so I think we'll have pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow, yum! Class tonight went well. I feel like the students are responding well to me. I could be reading them wrong, but I hope not. It has been a very enjoyable experience. I do have to grade their exams, and they're giving group presentations on Sunday which I'll have to grade. That's the worst part about teaching -- the grading! I'm sure all the students wouldn't mind if I gave up that part, right? Jayden's asleep and Joshua and David are watching TV. I'm going to finish this up -- I had a lot of catching up to do -- and work on something else (bread, maybe?). Tomorrow I have some work to do but we'll also plan to get out, I'm not sure where. We can go to Kowloon to pick up David's suit or go somewhere new or go back to somewhere we've already been. We don't know anything about home group yet, and I don't know if Magdalynn has already left town. I guess we may try to check in with her tomorrow. We could go to WinterFest in Central tomorrow and check out Santa's town. I would like to go in the early evening so we can enjoy the lights. Also, when we drove through Central on the bus, I saw the Ruth's Chris Steak House. We have never been and always talk about going every time we see one. I wonder if this will be the trip.... (I doubt it, but it's nice to think about.) I still want Pizza Hut while we're here. It's just something neat to me to say we tried Pizza Hut in Hong Kong. I had it in Paris, so it would be neat to add to my list of international experiences. More later (please keep those emails coming!) Aleecia