Disneyland Hong Kong

It is a bit funny to think that we promoted to the kids that there was a Disneyland in Hong Kong when we were trying to get them excited about moving here and yet we finally got there for the first time this past week. We are lucky enough to live relatively close to an "amusement park" called Ocean Park that the kids really like. It is only about a 15 minute (or less, depending on which bus you choose) bus ride to get there. Getting to Disneyland is a bit more of a time investment. It involves taking a bus and two train rides and took around an hour to get there.

Similar to back home, we maximized the use of the "fast passes" which helped, but Disneyland Hong Kong is nowhere near what Disneyland California is so the lines weren't necessarily that bad to begin with. We had a fun day at the park, but at the end of the day I think the kids would unanimously agree "been there, done that" on Disneyland. After experiencing Disneyland California a couple years ago, they weren't necessarily all that excited to go to begin with for fear of the endless lines...so thankfully that wasn't an issue for us.

Kyra, Trey, Craig and I went on Space Mountain, which was enjoyed by all of us! The entire family went on a Buzz Lightyear ride a couple times, which we all liked...brought out the competitive nature in all of the Sandness family as you try and shoot targets throughout the ride to get points. Trey was the big winner amongst us, not for lack of my trying to beat him though. We also did the Jungle Cruise as a family and a few other things before calling it a day. It was a great day of family togetherness and fun was had by all!

Thought I'd share a couple photos from our day...

Christmas in Hong Kong

Well...Christmas definitely had a different feel this year. We obviously missed out on a few things such as spending time with our family, our friends, no snow!!! but would have to say that the Sandness family had a wonderful Christmas. Given our circumstances, we were not bustling around to make sure we were at every Christmas gathering, but instead had some great family time enjoying our new gifts with each other. We went to church and opened presents on Christmas Eve...the whole family slept in the living room that night in await for what Santa may bring while we were sleeping.

Among a few other things, Santa brought the family Guitar Hero World Tour, which provided hours of family time for us on Christmas Day. What a sight and an earful our apartment neighbors were getting with two guitars, drums and someone singing on the microphone nearly all morning and afternoon. There is a song called "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5 that is one of our families' "car songs"...some of you might know what I mean by this...we have a cd of songs that we ALL sing along to in the car (before we moved to Hong Kong and have no car). Well, this song happens to also be on Guitar Hero World Tour. If I could have frozen the moment in time when every member of my family was singing that song at the top of their lungs, along with all the "instruments", it was truly priceless and brought a smile to my heart and my face and made it worth the $120USD that Santa spent on the game, plus shipping (to Hong Kong) :)

We are so fortunate to have made some wonderful friends here in Hong Kong and were blessed to have one of our closest over for dinner on Christmas Day. It was a wonderful dinner and, of course, Trey organized a "football game" on the tennis court between our two families after dinner. Simply...it was a great family Christmas!

A Visit from Santa

Our building management staff arranged for Santa to visit for the kids this evening...Santa looked a bit scary for Keely and looked a lot like one of the front gate guards to the older kids...hmmmm...

Weekend in Vietnam

I was so fortunate to have a chance to travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, for three days a couple weeks ago. I traveled with a small group of women through the American Women's Association here...although we traveled as the Hong Kong Women's Group. It was a very interesting weekend for me and thoroughly enjoyed capturing some of the day-to-day life in Vietnam through my camera. I have posted a couple of pictures here with this blog, but they just don't do my experience justice. Even though it is just under a 2 hour flight from Hong Kong, life there seemed a world away from life even here in Hong Kong...and listening to our young guide speak from the heart about life in Vietnam for him and his family really drew me in to find out more about this country. Enjoy the photos...I only have about 250 more :)

Among the many new things I learned about and experienced, I do have to make one comment about the "getting around"...when I first arrived here in Hong Kong I remember commenting that crossing the road here is sometimes like the video game, Frogger...well, I'm not even sure how to describe Vietnam except to give you the directions that we were given in order to cross any road safely..."huddle together very closely and cross VERY slowly, no sudden movements". The reason for this is that they primarily travel on motor scooters at very fast speeds with no real traffic rules, lines, signs, lights, etc. So, the idea is that they will just swerve around you as long as you move at a slow pace and as a large group, you are not spread out in a long line across the road. On occasion we would run across a stoplight, however, by no means can you assume that everyone will stop, but perhaps the majority will. One still needs to use the same philosophy of crossing because of this. Luckily, the one evening that we ladies decided to enjoy a few beverages after dinner, we had only one street crossing to get back to our hotel. Phew!!!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Although Thanksgiving had a different feel here given that the kids were in school all day, it felt more like home once we had the turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, corn, green beans, stuffing, etc. on the table...I don't think any of us have eaten this large of a meal since we moved here. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are extremely thankful for our family, our friends, our health and so much more. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone as ours comes to a close and most everyone else that we know is just beginning theirs.