CHRISTMAS (again?)

Hello dear friends and dear family.  How do you like our real Christmas tree?  It smells wonderful, too.  We really like to walk through the lobby of our apartment/hotel as we can always see "our" tree and smell the beautiful pine smell.  We have no idea where they got it but it had to be shipped here.

Also, do you like these beautiful poinsettias that are planted everywhere around our apartments?  They are really beautiful.

As you can see, it's still Christmas time here in Hong Kong.

I (Carol) also had a birthday this week and I want to thank you for your kind birthday greetings! One of the sister senior missionaries made up this photo frame with my favorite things to do; walking, traveling, making cookies, crocheting, knitting, traveling, and especially, loving the grandchildren! (How about that walking "photo" looks just like me, wouldn't you say?)

This was one of my favorite parts of the photo as I've never mastered chopsticks- isn't that a better idea- if you can't eat with them- knit a scarf with  your chopsticks!

If any of you are our "friends" on Facebook, you'll think that all we do is party around here which isn't far from the truth this week.  We had two big Christmas parties with the Filipino sisters. We celebrated on Thursday with the Thursday sisters and we celebrated Friday with the Friday sisters. Here are some of them decorating.  Now keep in mind they only have one day off a week and so everything has to be done in one day; shopping for themselves, handling their finances, sometimes immigration issues, etc, etc, etc.  How did they ever find enough time in a short while here to make these decorations from scratch?

There were so many stars completely made from magazine pages, wrapping paper and colored paper.  All of the decorations were 'homemade'.

Here's Thursday's traditional Christmas dinner which also included sticky rice; my favorite.  There were many beautiful dishes.  The chicken wings were a big favorite, too.  We don't know how they were able to make so much in such a short time.

Friday wasn't quite as elaborate but the missionary sisters made some great sandwiches to go with the cake and other goodies.

Here's Elder Chandler getting ready for the big balloon popping contest.  We had to play lots of games everyday and we had a great time but we did get worn out. Here's a link to some of the photos, videos of games we played: Fun Times.  Here's Thursday's stuff if you are still interested: Thursday groupWe only have one more Christmas party to go with our Sunday branch which won't be for a week.  Earlier each day, we had wonderful sacrament meetings where we were able to read beautiful scriptures and sing the wonderful Christmas hymns.  I played the piano and that was a stretch for me but I was happy that I was able to do a pretty good job accompanying the singing.

It wouldn't be Christmas without Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus! We think Santa has been on a diet, though.

We hope your Christmas time is as happy and bright and wonderful as ours has been.  MERRY CHRISTMAS! (again!)

Don't forget to check out #LIGHTTHEWORLD this holiday season!

Hong Kong Christmas

This is the new St. Regis Hotel under construction across the street from our building.  It is a Starwood hotel which is owned by Marriott.  The reddish colored building in the background is our office/church building.  You might see Gary looking out the window from our office on the 9th floor.  The picture below is the state of construction as of today.

We saw this Pizza Hut advertisement in the Subway.  I was particularly interested in the pork knuckles (bottom right).  All the restaurants have lavish diner offers for Christmas eve and Christmas day but the cost starts at $500HK per person (about $65US)

This is in front of a bank building by our office.

This is the largest fake tree we have ever seen.  And you have to feel it to know is's fake.  This picture and a few that follow are in a super nice mall by the International Finance Center which is the tall building you will see below.

Looking from Central back toward Wan Chai where our office is right by the building with the orange colored lights.  On the right side of that building (called Central Plaza) is the measly 50 story Marriott Renaissance Hotel.

The International Finance Center where the mall is.  This area of Hong Kong is called Central.  The tall building in the distance is in Kowloon where we live and is the tallest building in Hong Kong and the 9th tallest building in the world.  In the evening there are light displays all up and down the building.

The Hong Kong ferris wheel in Central.  In the middle it says "Happy Holidays" but you can't read it because it is too bright.

Some more Christmas lights on the buildings in Central.

The International Commerce Center building mentioned above.  It houses the highest hotel in the world on floors 102-118.  It is a Marriott Ritz Carlton hotel and very expensive.  Those little shrimpy buildings to the right are 70 story residential towers.

Not a clear picture but this is the same building as above with Hong Kong written in lights all down the side.  I don't know how they do this but it's pretty cool.

We took the ferry from Central (free to us old folks) to TST on our side of the harbor and walked home along the promenade which is a very pleasant walk on a cool evening.  It was about 70 degrees outside.

Some more buildings along our walk.  We often take this walk which is 1.1 miles.  Sometimes we'll walk there to get an ice cream cone and then walk back.  That way we don't feel guilty for eating ice cream.

Looking back at Central from our walk.

Part of the evening light show every night but hard to see.

More lights along the way.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You probably noticed the absence of any reference to the true Christmas in all the lights and decorations.  Of course, we always want to remember the true meaning of Christmas.  This is the manger scene in the entrance to our office building. Click on the link below to see some really good videos about Christmas: Short Christmas videos

Christmas time

Before we get to Christmas, here's a little of our last Saturday late Thanksgiving celebration.  We got together with the couples from the Area Office and had a great American Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey and the trimmings.

How about this a great relish dish?  It looks like Mr. Turkey himself!

This looks like a pretty nice horn of plenty, too; wouldn't you agree?  (Yes, it's all real.)

Now on to CHRISTMAS! Here's a big Christmas tree in the lobby of our building. We're really enjoying it as we don't have a tree at our apartment.

This is Sunny, one of the guards at our office building.  It looks like maybe he didn't want his photo taken.

This manger scene is right by the front door of the office building--it is nearly life size.

This scene and a few of the following ones are taken from the internet and show the many Christmas scenes here in Hong Kong.  Some of the lights have been on for a few days and we believe the rest come on today--December 1.

This is very close to where we live.

The Christmas decorations are hung from the tops of these 40-50 story buildings.

Here are some of the sisters from our "Friday family" branch enjoying the "little tree" on the 6th floor of the office building near the chapel.

This is Sunny again and this time he isn't covering his face.  His name is fitting because he has a very sunny disposition.

We hope you will enjoy this website because every day before Christmas they will be showing a new video:#LIGHTtheWORLD  #lighttheworld    https://www.mormon.org/?cid=HP_FR_25-11-2016_dMIS_fmorg_xLIDyL1-A_

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!