I'm Back

I haven't been able to post in a while. We went to Hong Kong for Christmas, partly so we could do some American-style Christmas shopping in some American-style shopping malls. There are also restaurants with real burgers and other food that you can't find here.

We got back from Hong Kong 0n the 26th and had our official Christmas on the 27th, then on the 28th Mom's friend Chris got here. Yesterday (the 29th,) I started feeling sick, so I didn't go with them to the downtown or to the gardens today, even though I really wanted to. I probably have a cold or something, and I could hardly sleep last night. This morning I had a bad headache, so I took a bath and now I feel better.

There are some more things I'd like to say about Hong Kong, but I'm too lazy and I don't feel like it right now.

By the way, please try to comment. Many of you do comment, but I'd appreciate it if you were a little more specific, so, instead of just saying "I like it," tell me specifically what about it you like.

Tree Pictures

Tree Party

We just had our tree party today! We found a good tree (1.8m, about 5 feet) for $12 at one of the western stores, and we also got some good ornaments and lights. We still aren't sure whether the box of our favorite Christmas ornaments that we planned on shipping actually ended up in the shipment and is lost somewhere, or in the rush to get here it got packed in storage. We're hoping for the latter. It's the same with some of the ceramics that Allyne made in school and are completely irreplaceable.

We had some crackers and French cheeses, plus ginger ale, tortilla chips (with salsa and guacamole), potato chips, and various other treats. But we didn't have any smoked oysters...

Dad took a lot of pictures so expect them on his blog sometime soon.

Before we got here we put our favorite Christmas albums on Dad's computer, so we played them using a speaker that he bought. It actually has really good sound quality, considering that it's so tiny. Now Allyne's playing some of her favorite songs on it.

Somethingorother

I changed the colors of my blog now, partly because I was bored of the old ones, and partly because I was just plain bored. I put in a lot of red, because red is a very Chinese color. It symbolizes good luck.

Tomorrow we're going to put up our Christmas tree. We like to make a whole party out of it. Sometimes we call it Tree Party, and sometimes we call it Cheese Party because we have cheese to eat. Along with cheese, we have crackers, olives, smoked oysters, a few different kinds of potato chips, ginger ale, and things like that. We also play Christmas music. I doubt we could find smoked oysters here, and many of the chip flavors here are very strange (cucumber, litchi, and blueberry, just to name a few.) We were happy to find some salt and vinegar chips, but, alas, they were Lay's. (Poore Brothers' rules!!!) I think I saw some ginger ale in one of the western stores, though. (It was even Canada Dry.)

For Christmas I'm hoping to get a really nice violin, because I haven't been able to play in about two years and I'm going crazy. I also want my own iPod, because then I won't have to borrow my mom's and wish that she had a few more of my favorite songs on it.

It's also Allyne's birthday soon. Mom and John and I are going to go shopping for presents today, while she and Dad are at the school for play practice. She has a part in the school production of Oliver Twist, and Dad is in the set-building committee. Allyne is also happy because she gets to miss school on her birthday for dress rehearsals.