While I was baking and putting up the tree, Ken was traveling to India and Shanghai. But in between the trips he took some time to capture a bit of Christmas magic Hong Kong style.
IFC Mall was resplendent.
And the local stores all put on their holiday best.
The escalators were line with lights and poinsettias.
The evening light show was more spectacular than usual with many of the buildings turning into greeting cards.
And Tsim Sha Tsui was very colorful.
The mall at Times Square was quite festive.
And it even had a life sized Barbie Dream home for the guests to walk through.
I love it when everyone joins in the spirit of the season.
Once Thanksgiving was over, Ken returned to Hong Kong and I had a date with Christmas preparations. Tackling the tree as a one person job was a bit daunting. The tree is much bigger than I am but I finally found a way to erect the tree and put on the lights simultaneously. It worked well. Then I called Heidi and Sophie to come over and we all hung the ornaments and had a great visit.
While decorating we made plans for the next important item on our list - Christmas Cookies! Heidi and Sophie along with her friend Lauren joined me for round one of the cookie marathon. Having the girls puttering around the kitchen brought back fond memories of Shayne and Kyle and our cookie extravaganzas.
Round two took place a few days later with Kyle and Sophie making the traditional cut out cookies. After boxes were packed and sent home, we still had enough cookies to sink a ship. They all tasted wonderful and the best part is all the fun baking together.
And what better way to end a day of hard work than with a little dancing.
Since we had the family gathered together, we thought we would do our Christmas with each other over Thanksgiving weekend. Out came the small porch tree (already decorated and ready to go), sprinkle around a few gifts, throw in a cat for the cute factor and we were all set.
I got to play Santa...
...and before we knew it we were living out our own scene from A Christmas Story.
There even seemed to be a theme to the gifts this year.
What a treat to celebrate together. Following this Ken and I celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary at a brunch with the girls, Kyle's boyfriend Johnny and our good friends Gary and Vic. What a wonderful weekend we had.
This year we had a great crowd for Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday because it is simply about family and food. What could be better? We arrived back in GR on November 16th. Ken had a week of work and then a week of vacation before he headed back to Hong Kong for three weeks of travel prior to his Christmas vacation.
Our first house guest to arrive was May Lene from Kuala Lumpur. She was in GR for business and agreed to stay and experience her first ever Thanksgiving. Of course we put her to work right away.
After a well deserved rest,
we took her to one of our favorite haunts - Yesterdog!
We got her out of the kitchen and grocery stores long enough to see Frederick Meijer Gardens all decked out for Christmas.
By the time the big day arrived Shayne, Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Mark had all moved in for the festivities. We were also joined by Ken's brother Bob, my cousin Carol and Uncle Harold who was celebrating his 93rd Thanksgiving with us. What an honor.
The day before Thanksgiving May Lene made her first ever apple pie for the occasion. Due to the tropical weather in Malaysia, baking is not a common hobby in most homes. She did a fantastic job and on her first time out.
Mark brought home made mac and cheese and we had the first of our yummy meals.
Thanksgiving morning I found myself with plenty of kitchen help and lots of fun to be had.
Dinner was yummy and filled with laughter. The desserts were yummy, too.
The best part of all is realizing how very much we have to be thankful for.
Well, it has been quite a while since I posted. I was going to post from Grand Rapids. I had my photos all ready. I just kept so busy that I didn't manage enough time in front of the computer to get it done.
We have been back here since January 3 and that means a week has already flown by. We are settling back into our routines. Ken is in Beijing and tomorrow I am taking the train to Guangzhou to meet him for a few days. We even have a personal tour guide in our friend Rommel who lived there before coming to Hong Kong. It is a new city and a new adventure that I am looking forward to.
In the meantime, I am putting up some posts from our time in GR. It was great to see lots of family and friends. We just wish we could have gotten to see everybody. The holidays are always great fun and ours are not over yet. We are in the midst of readying for Chinese New Year and welcoming in the year of the Dragon. There will be more posts to follow on that. In the meantime, it's good to be back blogging.
