Christmas Day

Jen here. As promised, here are some details of our Christmas day.

I don't remember the exact sequence of events, but here goes. I made cinnamon rolls like my mom does, except I don't have her recipe (which uses a bread machine...don't have that either), so I improvised. I used Mom Almasy's recipe for rolls and transformed them into cinnamon rolls with some added butter, sugar and cinnamon. They turned out...all right. Roy said (and I agree) a glaze would have helped.

So we ate cinnamon rolls, drank hot chocolate and Roy read aloud the nativity story in Matthew. We're celebrating God's grace to us in coming to be human--God with us.

Next we opened presents. We got many prizes, and were sure to take photos along the way. It was fun. And there we were relaxing and looking at our presents...and we checked the time: 1:00pm. WHAT? Oh no! We have a guest arriving at 2pm and a supposed ham dinner to be served at 3pm. AH!

Roy cleaned up and helped me discern what food things to work on first (I had to wash dishes too!)...and I washed dishes and worked on the cooking. Long story short, dinner was an hour late (not to worry, for we had cheese, crackers and pickles out for snacks), and I forgot to make: 1. Rolls, and 2. Gravy. Oops. :) Good thing we had garlic mashed potatoes (butter already added), and a flavorful, moist pre-cooked ham. :)

After the lovely dinner, we chatted and played a few games with our guest, Virlu. She is from California and works for ActiveKids this year as well. It was fun having company and great to just chat the evening away.

That evening, as well as during the next day, we relaxed, snacked on leftovers and Skyped with family. How fun it was! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Christmas Eve

Jen here. Two weeks before Christmas, Roy and I intentionally planned for Christmas. This is our first year celebrating Christmas "away from home" (far from Ohio and Michigan, the base camps for our family). We didn't want it to slip by unnoticed or just doing whatever. We want to set a precedent for each Christmas to come, so that someday when we have a little Roy Jr, we'll already have God-honoring traditions for this awesome holiday.

So we made a plan: Christmas eve we would dress up and eat out at a nice restaurant (a romantic evening as husband and wife), a tradition we hope to continue even when we have kids and when we're old! After the meal, we planned to ride the Star Ferry to Kowloon side and look at the lights on the Skyscrapers, enjoying a quiet evening on the harbor. Aww...










Before I continue with our plan, I'll tell you how Christmas eve really played out. As the days until Christmas decreased, each check at a nice restaurant left us thinking, "What is up with HK at Christmas?" It seems that all nice restaurants throw their "a la carte menu" out the door and charge you mega $ per person for a set meal. Hmm... We decided to eat in (Roy offered to cook a delicious Jenny-meal). Roy whipped up an amazing dinner with broccoli, pasta and chicken. We had a candlelight dinner on the roof (lest I exaggerate the evening, I'll let you know that earlier that day I was grumpy and irritable toward Roy, which hurt him, but he still made dinner...and our candle wouldn't stay lit...so Roy had to tend to it to keep it going...but God is gracious, even in my sin, to reconcile us in time).







After dinner, we got ready and headed for the Star Ferry via a little green mini-bus. I wore a dress and a coat with flipflops...and later on had to take off my coat. The weather was warm! Near the ferry we encountered a Harmonica band comprised of six 20-somethings playing all different sized harmonicas to the tunes of Christmas music(see the first picture above). How fun!










From the ferry, we gazed at the lights on the buildings (see photos). Pretty neat...not as awe-inspiring as Richmond Beach Park's ocean and mountains in Washington, but it'll do. On the other side, we encountered thousands of people! Literally, thousands! We planned to sit along the quiet, peaceful harbor and gaze at the lights (notice I didn't say stars, but lights on the buildings), but it was swarming with people! See photo...and know it was like that all over. I guess that's what you get with 7 million people and two days of public holiday.

In short, we made plans...and deviated from some of them, but still managed to have a nice evening enjoying HK and the many people who live in it.
Ciao!

Signs of Christmas

Jen here. Christmas is coming. Crazy. I realized this a week ago, and decided to actively convince myself of that fact. Even though the weather is warm, even though it is not going to snow, even though I didn't drink my fresh apple cider all through fall, even though we didn't see beautiful leaves turning colors--Christmas is still coming. I spoke with one woman from Australia who lives in Hong Kong who said, "It just doesn't feel like Christmas. Our Christmas is during the summer, so we usually have a nice breakfast BBQ, a cold lunch and spend the day in the pool." Wow. How do I convince myself it is Christmas? We listen to Christmas music online. :) I bought two poinsettias (you always see them in churches at Christmas...and they are everywhere here too!). We put the wrapped gifts mailed to us on a shelf. We're buying gifts for other people. I'm drinking tea/hot chocolate daily. :)

The packages are arriving! Oh how fun it is to receive mail! The box Roy is holding is one package that we've received. Three others preceded this box of gifts. Thank you! :)













Here are just some of the many poinsettias everywhere. Beautiful. This is in Kennedy Town.




















And at a nearby mall, we are greeted by SpongeBob Squarepants! Happy Spongey Christmas, the sign says. Inside and outside the mall, SpongeBob and company are everywhere, making spirits bright. Ha.




















We have a plan for Christmas--Morning as a couple and in the afternoon a Christmas dinner with guests. It should be a fun time--I look forward to it! We are sad to be away from family, but this gives us a chance to establish our own holiday traditions. Should be interesting. :)

What's new in HK

Jen here. God has much in store for us in Hong Kong. I delight in seeing His working and leading in our lives. Being in HK has brought about some new things for me. Here are a few of them:

For starters, I am now a Chess student. One great way to serve Roy is to play chess with him (whether he is blindfolded or not) and to let him teach me. I am actually putting effort forth to improve and to learn chess, and I'm growing! Every Friday night Roy runs "Quads" which is a group of 4-person mini tournaments. What happens when 11 kids show up (11 kids= 4 + 4 + 3; one quad only has 3 kids in it)? Roy's wife steps in to beat the little kids! Ha! Actually, I have won all my games except two. Last week I played a boy, and he was beating me most of the game point-wise, but I was holding my ground and looking for checkmates. We took so long Roy put a clock on our game (which happens every time I play...ha)...and I lost on time. NO! My heart was pounding. He had two queens...I just promoted one of my pawns to a queen and began checking his king over and over so he wouldn't use his two queens to kill me off...but alas, it did not work. He won, on time. :( Boo. Next time...

I am now a Chess photographer. Yep, Roy's making a flier or homework assignment and he wants a chess graphic: "Jenny, could you take some photos for me?" It's sweet because I get to use my camera and flash...and it's helpful to Roy. And look at that handsome man I get to shoot photos of once in a while!

I am coordinating a Christmas tea for women. Kathy Hamilton, director of women's ministries at IECC, volunteered me to "help Phyllis with something"...I later received an e-mail thanking me for coordinating a tea with Phyllis. Hmm... interesting. :) I have enjoyed meeting with Phyllis and working out the details...and may God provide people and ready hearts and fun times. I'll be making Christmas cookies for it...so I look forward to that as well! Now to find some cookie cutters!

More later! Ciao!