The start of another week. Christmas is only 4 days away. I gave Victor a haircut before heading out to lunch in Shum Shui Po. Stopped by a street vendor and had fresh chestnuts roasted not on an open fire, but in a pit of sand pebbles. Yummy!
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| "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." |
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| How short did you want it? |
While wondering the streets of Hong Kong, we came across these real estate ads. Hong Kong is not a cheap place to live. Check out these prices!
Interpreted it is $850,900.00 Canadian for 534 square feet.
Which = about $1,600.00 per square foot.
As you can see by the photo, it is an older building and rather run down.
The newer building was $9,000,000.00 HKD for 686 square feet.
That's $1,636,400.00 Canadian or $2,385.00 per square foot.
Who can afford these prices?!
I guess living expenses in Lethbridge is pretty reasonable.
December 22 (Tuesday)
Another wonderful day at the Temple. We had so many Thai and Cambodian members come for the week to do temple work. They are such dedicated members and sacrifice so much to be here.
With the Ball's and Rancie's, we went out to dinner at Amaroni's Little Italy Restaurant. Let me tell you, nothing about this place was little! Pizza - huge. Salad - huge. Dinner- huge. I ordered chicken marsela with mushrooms. It came with 6 large full sized chicken breasts...enough to feed a small family. John ordered the grilled pork chops and got 3 huge pork chops. Left overs anyone?
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| Shrimp Caesar enough for 2 or 3 |
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| This is the left over portion of John's pork chops. |
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| Judy's left over marsella chicken. |
December 23 (Wednesday)
Tonight was our primary's night to do Christmas carolling on the steps at the church headquarters building. Because our primary only consists of 4 little girls, the parents and primary leaders pitched in to sing with them. It was a lot of fun. Fresh home made cookies were given out to the passer byers. Victor and Melisa had just returned from Macau, so they joined us. Victor didn't sing, but Melisa acted as our official photographer.
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| Colouring books and pencil crayons for singing so well. |
It's interesting to me that Christmas is such a big deal here...at least big commercially. Everything is so decked out in Christmas trees, snow, bells, snowmen, even Santa...sadly however, the most important part of Christmas is missing...the Savior, the real reason for Christmas in the beginning.
Well, we as a church are trying to get the real Christmas message out there, that Christmas is really all about Jesus Christ. One by one, we're making a little headway.
December 24 (Thursday)
It's hard to believe it's Christmas Eve. It just doesn't feel the same. We caught the Star Ferry to go to Aunt May Soo's for dinner at Maxim's. It's always fun to meet with Auntie. She's so full of life. She reminds me so much of my Mom, so being with her on Christmas Eve is extra special.
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| No turkey dinner, but chicken including the head! |
On the way home we caught the MTR to the TST station. We usually go through Exit E and then catch the shuttle back to our apartment. However, on this particular night, the only exit open was "A" so all the people in the MTR were crammed out onto the street at that exit. As we hit the street, we were in a sea of shoulder to shoulder people. I'd never seen anything like it. Ridiculous. We soon realized that there were no vehicles on the streets, no shuttle, no buses, no taxis, no cars. We would have to walk back to our apartment.
The police were out patrolling, and though we just wanted to cross the street, they wouldn't let us. Instead, we had to walk about 3 blocks in the opposite direction to cross the street, only to back track and walk up the street where we initially started from. So annoying! So many people all moving at snail pace. I was tired and cranky by this time. I couldn't see the point in not letting people walk on the road since there was no vehicle traffic. Instead, 8 million people were crammed on the sidewalk and no one could get anywhere! Meanwhile, the streets remained empty...what's the point???!!!
In my head my thoughts were, "I hate this! This is the worst Christmas eve ever! I just want to be home. I miss my family. I miss my kind of Christmas! This is so annoying!" I tried to be positive, but the negative thoughts were so overwhelming. Finally, after about an hour, we made it back to our apartment, which normally would have been about 15 minutes, but not without incident. Poor Victor, barely made it as his knee/leg was giving out on him. He had done about 24,000 steps that day, about 14 km. It was way too much.
Home safe and sound, but it still didn't feel like Christmas. And what Christmas spirit I held felt with Auntie May Soo were dashed because of the traffic congestion. I pondered about all the people out on the street "celebrating", but exactly what were they celebrating? They had no clue. Very few people understand the true celebration of Christmas.
December 25 (Friday)
Merry Christmas! It's here. but where was that Christmas spirit? No excitement of children opening gifts. No story of the nativity. No smell of turkey baking in the oven. No snow. At least we had some family here with Victor and Melisa.
Victor woke up and could barely get out of bed and walk. So John went out to get him some Chinese ointment to rub on his knee. We had him ice it last night, but it was still pretty sore and stiff.
We were to spend the day with our Branch Family. John decided he'd better stay with Vic, so Melisa and I headed over to the Church.
Finding Christmas
We were to go over to the seniors home across the street from the church to sing Christmas carols and present all the elderly tenants with the home made blankets we had made as a service project. Melisa was wonderful to come as our unofficial, official photographer.
As we entered the building and I got my first glimpse of the accommodations; my heart sank. How sad it was to see the cramped conditions. I had to turn away and try to compose myself and get control of my emotions. Each patron lived in a small cubicle about 6' X 4' at best. One by one, they brought the elderly out from their cubicle and sat them in the open area to hear us sing.
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| The small 6 X 4 foot cubicles the residents live in. |
After the singing was over, we presented each person with a blanket. I went around shaking hands with each of them, giving them a warm smile and in my "Chinglish" wished them, "Sing don fei lok", or in other words, "Merry Christmas". Some clasped my hand in theirs and gently shook it, not wanting to let it go and in their own way saying, "Thank You". I wrapped a blanket around one lady. With a big smile on her face, she pulled up her pants to show me she only had half a leg. We hugged. Another saying, "Come, we must have tea together sometime". So sweet. Another was also from Toisan where my family originated. Being from the same area, "we are kindred" she said. Yes, we are sisters! We are all brothers and sisters in Christ.
Blessed Christmas Morning! Finally, I had found Christmas! My heart was full!
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| Sister of Peninsula 3 Branch |
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| Perhaps not pitch perfect, but we sang with a lot of heart. |
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| A solemn assembly. |
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| Sister and President Smart and Elder Coffey |
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| This employee was singing along with us, so I invited her to join in. |
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| The clapping begins... |
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| The smiles break out... |
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| Feel the Love... |
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| A blanket for ME? |
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| I like my Santa hat! |
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| Merry Christmas...joy! |
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| Wrapped in Christmas warmth - my lady with one leg and one BIG smile! |
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| Sharing the Love |
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| Merry Christmas! |
I was glad that John was able to join us half way through the program since Victor was good on his own, just taking it easy and resting his leg.
What is Christmas without FOOD! The sisters in the branch are famous for their delicious meals. We ate, then ate, then ate more...followed by games. We showed our famous "Chan Chinese Chopstix Number Game". Got them all stumped except for a couple keeners. Then on to the "Cops and Robbers Scarf Game". We've got to do that one again. We all split a gut from laughing so hard!
I forgot that it wasn't a white Christmas. I forgot about presents wrapped under the tree. I forgot about a huge turkey dinner. Though I didn't forget about my family, I was blessed to be surrounded by my other family, the members of Pen. 3 (our little branch). Christmas had arrived, and this was my very special Christmas in Hong Kong! Hark the Herald Angels Sing...Glory to the New Born King!
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| Our Christmas Feast |
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| Merry Christmas from the Peninsula 3 Branch |
December 26 (Saturday)
So Christmas came and went. It was a Christmas like no other. We'll have such fond memories of our first Christmas as missionaries. Traditionally it is Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. Big, huge, sale day...but not here, just another day. The Temple was opened and was actually quite busy.
We were invited out to dinner with Victor's cousin. She never did give us her name. She just said to call her "auntie" which I thought was weird since we are both the same age. Her sister is Christine and she is younger, but was out of town. She is rather well off, and sent her driver to pick us up for dinner. We felt very pampered having our own "chauffeur". We enjoyed a marvelous seafood dinner.
"Auntie's" daughter Joely and her husband Peter, joined us for dinner. It was great to get to know them.
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| John's happy with his giant crab claw! |
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| Lobster with saucy noodles. I could have eaten the whole dish myself! |
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| Peter, Joely, Melisa, Judy, John, Victor, Auntie |
December 27 (Sunday)
Another full day of church. A lot of the sisters are still away on holiday, so our numbers were small. Since I was called as the Primary Advisor, I had to pick up the slack with our leaders away. Today I did the sharing time. We normally only have 3 girls, Michelle, Gillian and Megan. They are such sweet girls.
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| Michelle, Gillian, Megan |
Victor's cousin invited us out to dinner again. She wanted us to try this other seafood place to compare which one was better. Hard choice, they were both excellent each in different dishes. Auntie's husband joined us this night for dinner. Unfortunately, he had throat cancer and his voice box was removed, so he couldn't speak, but was such a nice smiley man. His name is "Siu" which means "smile". I found out Auntie's name is Yuk Hing Szeto.
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| Siu, Yuk Hing, and Victor |
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| Sweet and Sour Thai Pork Chops |
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| Squid on Brocolli Bed |
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| Deep Fried Oysters on Steroids (They were Huge!) |
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| Lobster with Saucy Noodles |
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| Tiger Prawns on Steroids (The clear winner this night) |
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| Looks like I am on Steroids too, haha... |
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!
