We've spent the past week celebrating Chinese New Year and welcoming the year of the dragon. Nate had the week off from work, and we really enjoyed having him home (but unfortunately MSU does not celebrate CNY and I still had all my class work to do). We kicked off the week with a lovely potluck with friends and ended the week with a BBQ in the country park with friends. In between, we had lots of great family time.
The first couple of photos are from the CNY fair they had at our apartment complex. There were lion dancers, so this is Finley checking out one of the lions.
This is one of the employees dressed as the god of wealth, handing out lai see to everyone (with chocolate coins, not real money). As you can see, Finley was not sure what to think about the costume. This is by far my favorite photo from CNY because Finley's face cracks me up.
The next several photos are from the flower market in Causeway Bay. Part of CNY is cleaning your home and decorating it with flowers and plants that have various auspicious meanings.
A sea of citrus.
Lots of beautiful orchids.
We got some for our house, too! (And Nate decorated them with lai see packets.)
Finley got these safety glasses with his hand-me-down work bench from Nate's boss. He will finally wear them, and it is just too cute.
Funny story about this photo. One night around 9:30pm, Nate closed the door between the kitchen and the living room and it stuck. The door knob broke and it absolutely would not budge. Had to take the entire thing apart to get the door open again, which wasn't easy because the part you can see in the picture was completely stuck. Meanwhile, Finley was sleeping about 15 feet away while we were banging around on the door. Eventually, we got the door open. Funny thing is this is the second door this has happened to! I just hope Finley doesn't get trapped alone anywhere because of one of these door knob incidents!
The next two photos are of CNY decorations at one of the malls.
We made our own pork dumplings for CNY...yum! There are plenty of leftovers in the freezer, too!
We went to the HK Zoo one morning. It's not much of a zoo, especially compared to the NC Zoo, but there are quite a few birds and monkeys there. I found it hilarious that they also had a raccoon on exhibit in the monkey area. It was a great outing-- free and very toddler friendly! There was a big playground, and everything was stroller-accessible (a rarity in HK).
These monkeys were swinging all over the place!
Another morning we went to the Museum of Coastal Defense in Shau Kei Wan. Another great outing. Only 10HKD/person ($1.25) and also very toddler friendly. Most of it was outside, and there were great views, as you can see in the first two photos below.
One of the bunkers we went in.
Tromping around through the ditches. (Look, there's grass...in HK! That alone was worth the price of admission.)
The indoor exhibits.
Soldier Finley.
1940's Tank
And to top it all off, here's a short video from Nate's iPhone that we took at the CNY fair at our apartment complex and at the zoo. Click here. It was a great week!
