Have you ever seen...? (sixteen)

...a mountain of Ferrero Rochers?

Reasons why I like winter in Hong Kong

Reason Number One:

I can wear my lovely green winter coat.

Reason Number Two:

Have I mentioned my green coat yet? I did, huh? Well...um...I guess that's it...

New Games

Lately we have been trying some new games during our Family Games Nights. Here are some of our new favourites:

We first played Sequence  with the Peets in Wellington last July.  This edition of the game was bought by a friend on the Central Coast of New South Wales and hand-delivered to Craig at a conference in Korea. (Thanks, Paul!)

Sequence is a board and card game. Players compete to create rows, columns or diagonals of 5 connected checkers. The box says it is for ages seven and up, but Keegan thoroughly enjoys it at six.

This game, Pictureka, we bought here in Hong Kong. It's a fun version of hide and seek.

How many alphabet letters can you spot? What about things with wings? First one to spy a strawberry shouts, "Pictureka!"

Jemilla's teacher lent us this game called "Scene it".

It's a DVD game with an accompanying board that quizzes players on all things Disney.

Do you recognise the Disney movie on the screen?

Wordless Wednesday (eighteen)

Some photos from Keegan

Keegan likes reading to his little sister before bedtime.

This was ICS Elementary Sports Day last month. Keegan was on the blue team.

One night Keegan's teacher Mr Tan came to our house for tea. Keegan really liked showing off for him on the drum kit.

Then they played with the Lego together.

Here's Keegan with his good friend Elliot.

Last Saturday we went into Kowloon to watch some under-11s and under-13s play cricket. Keegan enjoyed batting and bowling on REAL GRASS, a rarity here in Hong Kong.

Wedding

Today was the very special occasion of the wedding of Craig's boss. Gail Maidment and Ray Warhola tied the knot at Union Church before a cocktail reception at The Helena May Club. Our children were with us to see "Miss Gail" get married, but then they went home with Celine before the reception (one of the benefits to having a domestic helper!) This was the first wedding we attended in Hong Kong. It was also the first time I travelled First Class on the MTR. Enjoy the pictures!

Disney on Ice

Jemilla's Christmas present from us this year was a ticket to Disney on Ice "Worlds of Fantasy" in Macau. She had been excitedly counting the sleeps until January 2nd. Here she is on the bus leaving Forest Hill the morning of the show.

What could be better than going to see Ariel on ice skates? Going with a friend of course! Jemilla's friend Jane and her mother Sarah booked tickets for the same show as us.

After taking several trains, we boarded the Cotai Strip Jet ferry for Macau. The last time I had been in Macau was September 2009.

The girls found brochures for the performance which added to their excitement.

We then took a shuttle from the ferry to the Venetian Hotel.

The Venetian Macau is a casino resort owned by the Las Vegas Sands hotel-casino chain. It is absolutely enormous, like a whole town within one building. Supposedly it is large enough to hold ninety Boeing 747 jumbo jets. 

One of the highlights of the Venetian Macau is the replica of the Grand Canal in Venice. Visitors can take gondola rides to the accompaniment of Italian opera singing. 

The shopping area and food court has a fake sky ceiling, reminiscent of "The Truman Show".

Visitors to the casino have no idea of the actual time as there is perpetual daylight inside the Venetian. It's so surreal.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch together in the food court. We were not, however, impressed with the number of smokers around us. Apparently it is still legal to smoke inside hotels and restaurants here.

I was thrilled to find a Boost bar here in Macau and had my usual "Strawberry Squeeze" for dessert, my first since July.

It was a good thing that we weren't pressed for time as we got quite lost trying to find our way from the shopping centre to the entertainment arena. I believe I may even have commented, "These canals all look the same to me!" Finally we found our seats in the hall and waited for the show to start.

The first characters on the ice were Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.

Then some famous "Cars" did some zooming around.

Of course "The Little Mermaid" was our favourite part of the show. CL, eat your heart out!

Next it was scenes from "The Lion King"...

...followed by Tinkerbell and her fairy friends.

We had such a great time! I hope Jemilla will remember this special day for the rest of her life.

This is not my video, but you can get a better picture of the whole show by watching this clip from YouTube.