Family love

I know my family loves me dearly. One knows this, of course, you know that your family must love you- they sort of have to, right? It's just that way. Unless you have extremely good reason to believe otherwise, you simply assume, on some level, that your family loves you. It's their job. And you love them back, even when they confuse the hand towel with the dish drying towel, and so on... :)

But now I really know that my family loves me. They flew half way around the world, enduring what I know from experience to be temporary hell, in order to spend a little over one week with me and Ryan. They wanted to see us, and see a bit of our lives in Hong Kong. Thankfully, we have a decent sized place- enormous by Hong Kong standards, thanks to Missionaries a long time ago, and so Mom, Dad, Olav and Corie all stayed with us. Any of you others are also welcome. Just some notice, please.

We had a great time together exploring HK. Not enough touring by my standards, but as they also wanted a vacation of sorts (if that is possible with severe jet-lag) so overall I can't complain. Ryan and I can can go see more museums on our own as time permits... or with other visitors...?

Highlights: a fun trip to a local Hong Kong theme park, Ocean Park, a must for families, where Dad, Olav, Katrina and Corie all got drenched together on a flume ride (oh yeah!) and preceded to freeze a bit in the chilly winter air (attempts at 'spinning' dry on the next ride, a puke-a-wheel without seat belts, were unsuccessful, but we giggled a lot); a late night meal at our favorite Indian Restaurant and sharing curries; the 'kids' exploring the New Year's Eve 'party' put on by the government in Shatin Park (in our area) and enjoying the family event- especially middle school students having a hip-hop dance off on stage and Katrina getting her picture taken with the Ice Fairies (Corie, can you send me that picture, please?); kitchen chats and Olav helping to feed the cats; Stanley market and french fries by the seaside during the warm weather we had the first few days... too many fun days! Well, you get the idea... not all Walton moments but a fantastic time. Thank you guys for making the trip and spending time with us. :)

And now we finish the clean-up... the laundry is almost all done (all that bedding can take a while with our little urban washing machine!)

Love,
Katrina and Ryan

Late Christmas and New Year's greetings

Hi Loved ones!

This Sunday we celebrate Epiphany and we have neglected to even wish everyone a happy Christmas! Not to mention hope and peace for the New Year! Dear me! Perhaps some of you can understand... maybe you are even in the same boat as we are... a little behind as a result of the seasonal festivities (and in our case, seasonal guests).

We had the great pleasure of having Katrina's Mom, Dad, brother, and sister visit us over the the holiday... they flew in from Fairfax, VA, but wait, I am getting ahead of myself...

We had a lovely Christmas... shopping in Hong Kong was crazy, as you might expect, with outlandish yet festive decorations EVERYWHERE. But it's not about shopping- although we decided last minute that we would get a few small gifts for each other and thus spent a few feverish days at a giant mall scrambling for the physical manifestations of our vague 'ideas' of the sorts of 'stuff' the other enjoys... not recommended for next year. On the bright side, it was an amazing success and Katrina now thoroughly enjoys that her tea remains hot throughout he duration of consumption thanks to both low and high tech options: a Japanese mini-tea-hot-plate-gadget and the local version which is a metal lid. Both are lovely. (I never meant to discuss gifts, but I really love them and use them several times a day, so I had to brag a bit... Ryan is so thoughtful!)

The services were satisfactory, we made a switch last minute as a result of seasonal fatigue and some sickies... and other options will be explored for next year. Enough.

We spent Christmas Eve just the two of us (for the meal) and did a Spanish tapas-inspired thing. Very good fruit cake had been made earlier from a Bon Apetit recipe and we had it with lovely Spanish manchego cheese... among our smorgasbord of veggies and dips and other fun delights. Our attempt at mulled wine was far too strong for my taste, Ryan, however, I believe out of guilt, drank. Too much mull and not enough prior breathing time for the wine in question... also not to be repeated next year (how many times must people think that over the course of the holidays...?).

Anyways, enough of my food musings... wait... Christmas day we celebrated with our neighbors and had many laughs...

On the night of Boxing Day the family arrived. We went to the airport to meet them and had a fantastic visit... but that story deserves its own post...

Peace, joy, and love to all of you in 2008!