Mom and Dad visit and ski trip

It has been a busy last couple of months so here's the big update! My parents came for their first ever visit from mid-Nov to mid-Dec photos here. Every weekend was booked and during the week we did some touristy things (Stanley, Sai Kung, the Peak) 

and went out to eat and shop at markets, local stores and malls as well as the normal kids' after school activities (including Thurs evening gymnastics and dinner, too). I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff we did, but here are some highlights... Over U.S. Thanksgiving weekend we went into China and drove around the whole Pearl River Delta from Shenzhen to Zhuhai. We went to where my father's ancestors are from - Tai Shan. 

We located the village and a cousin brought us to his grandfather's burial site. 

That is near where my mother's ancestors are from - Jiang Men, but we didn't go look for any relations there... On the way back to HK we went to the Splendid China attraction - famous sites in miniature from all over China. 

We found my father's grandmother's burial site in a local cemetery. On my mother's side, we got together with an uncle who lives in HK and ate at a restaurant he is part owner of for dim sum and dinner. That's all of the 'family' business we did. We went to Macau one Sunday and Paul took my folks through Sands while I took the kids around a new area called Fisherman's Wharf. After, we went to St Paul's ruins and a nearby fort. We walked through Leal Senado and ate at the Wynn before catching the ferry back. Long day! Maggie had her tap dance performance and school Christmas performance the same weekend and we went to Taipei together for our last weekend together before they returned home. Time flew by and then Christmas was fast approaching. School let out on the 22nd, had an all day fete the 23rd with lunch and gift exchange for some of Alex's friends and some families over for hotpot dinner. 24th for last minute shopping and packing and Christmas day we flew to Japan for the week to go skiing. 

We got back new year's eve and managed to stay awake to welcome 2007. Spent all this week recovering - washing clothes, etc and Maggie's friend came over for a sleepover and visited the whole next day. Christmas vacation almost over for the kids and then Chinese New Year right around the corner! Click icon to see more ski photos on