The year of the horse is upon us...

January, 2014

Family & Friends - Happy New Year!  Hope all of you had a great holiday season and a terrific start to 2014.  We had a memorable Christmas in our Hong Kong home.  Mary (Moma) was here for the tree decorating and we had a little Christmas before she returned back to the states.  We had another great visit with her.

Noodles!

Moma and Patrick at Hong Kong Disney (Geez, Patrick - have fun will ya?)

Mary learning all about gliders on her hike on Dragon Back

Visiting Patrick's school on Thanksgiving to share a story on the holiday!

Climbing the stairs to the Big Budda

Mary & Budda

Cable Car ride to the Budda

The beach swings with Evan

Family Thanksgiving photo: Mary, Eli, Zheng, and Tom

In the beginning of December we celebrated Evan's first birthday.  I still can't believe how fast he has grown up.  He is a cool kid - has lots of energy and spark - adores Patrick - and is healthy and happy...He is our little (big) guy!

Sock Monkey Birthday Boy

"Really?  For me!!"

"Hmmmmm - not too sure about this sugar in my belly, is it safe?"

It was the first year that Sparky, the elf, visited our house.  We got such a magical and mysterious elf from the North Pole.  Patrick enjoyed finding him each morning and getting ready for Christmas.  However, he did take a week vacation to the North Pole in mid-December to help out with wrapping presents and we took a week and went to the Philippines.  It worked out perfectly that Santa needed him in the North Pole for some overtime work, so he wasn't lonely in our house while we were gone on holiday!

We all traveled down to Davao Province, the region where Norlie is from. We took her daughter, NJ, with us and spent time with her family.  She has two children (Rain, age 9 & Johyme age 4) and her husband, Jose. They opened up their home to us and welcomed us with a welcome party with many of their extended family for our first night. They had prepared a wonderful meal for us and Patrick and NJ's children got along immediately.  The next day we took the ferry over to another island where our resort was.  It was great to experience the culture first-hand with NJ's family.  They were familiar with the area and took us to all the great spots.  We had two great days at the beach and in the water.  The kids enjoyed looking for crabs and racing them.  NJ's husband taught us some sign language and we all enjoyed happy hour!  The water was crystal clear and Tom went snorkeling and said it was some of the best coral he's seen!  Once we were back in Davao City, we went to her nephew's birthday party - it was army themed so Patrick obviously loved it (as did Tom).  Our final day, Tom and Patrick went to a family farm and prepared a pig roast, ate from mango trees, and played with a goat and chicken!  Preparing the pig roast means from start (live pig) to finish (edible pig).  We had such a memorable time with our Filipino Family!  So lucky to have Norlie and her family in our lives.

Morning walk in the neighborhood :)

At Pearl Farm resort - looking for crabs

Has anyone seen a starfish?

Pool time!

Pearl Farm Resort, Davao - Philippines

I learned some sign language at Happy Hour!

Ferry ride back to Davao

Jayden's army themed birthday party!

Getting the fire started...

Preparing dinner on the last night at the farm

Tom, hard at work!

Rain & Patrick taking a break from playing with the goat

For Christmas and New Years we were in Hong Kong.  We had a very quiet and relaxed holiday.  We visited Santa at the mall, we went and saw the Hong Kong skyline over at TST harbor decorated for Christmas, we celebrated Christmas Eve mass, and of course Santa came!  We celebrated with two families that we have gotten to know over the past year (Marie/Dane & Nicole/Adam) - we had great food, company, wine, and beer!  Who could ask for anything more!  The boys loved Christmas - they got a kitchen from Santa along with some other toys.  Patrick was all about the magic of Christmas this year which made it extra memorable and fun for us :) 

Annual visit to Santa @ Pacific Place

Christmas Eve Morning - Sparky wrote us a note and brought a present!

Our tree at night!

Christmas in Hong Kong - December, 2013

A family day in TST

Santa came!!  Patrick - Christmas morning

Evan investigating his cleaning set - Christmas morning

Christmas with NJ and Norlie

So far 2014 has been great! Tom and I went to Shenzhen for a weekend day and night away.  We went shopping and out to dinner.  We've been hanging out with Eli and Zheng since they've moved here... I've got Zheng also addicted to Funky Dance so we take class together often.  We often have 'family night' on Sunday with dinner and a catch-up at our house. 

The kids have been busy.  Patrick switched classes to a bilingual class.  He is also involved in swimming lessons, soccer, and musical theater (dance/singing).  In his spare time, he enjoys a relaxed playdate and playing with trains and cars.  Evan has just started 'My Gym' once a week - which is kind of like gym class for babies.  He loves it!  He is also involved in various playdates/lunch dates in Bamboo Grove and continues to enjoy tormenting his older brother.  Rereading the last five sentences makes me wonder if I'm becoming a Tiger mom.  I'm not starting the musical instruments yet nor do I have college visits lined up, so I think I'm okay still.  The boys are really starting to play together and it's so fun to watch.  This morning they played ball for at least 10 minutes and were running up and down the hallway giggling the entire time.  It was awesome!

Tom was in Toyko last week and he may have a trip in the spring to Bentonville that he is looking forward to.  Four of his friends from high school are coming soon to invade Hong Kong and they are going on to Taiwan for a long weekend.  I've been good - been busy with being mom.  I'm really enjoying our time here and not looking forward to saying goodbye to Hong Kong (I know it's still a bit away, but it's sad to think our time is half-way through). 

This weekend starts the Chinese New Year.   We are going away with Val to Cambodia and Thailand.  Cannot wait to do some site-seeing.  And Val promised me one afternoon by the pool!  Next blog will have some good travel pictures (hopefully).  The year of the snake was a good year... can't wait to see what the horse brings us!  Kung Hei Fat Choy (Happy New Year)!!!

XO,
The Alessi Family