Christmas to Chinese New Year

Christmas lights at our local mall.

The family agreed to pose right before the tree was to be taken down!

More mall photos - Chinese New Year decor...

While we did go skiing for part of Christmas break this year (the last few posts covered that), we had time to spend with friends - some visiting from out of town and friends that live here, but due to busy lives, we only manage to get together a few times during the year... Friends are our family here and we enjoy the times we do get to spend together - hotpot, BBQ, hiking, meals out...

Picasaweb photo slideshow no longer available - click here to see the photo album
click here to see another photo album - Amah Rock

Reminiscing...and ski Niseko 2013

Friend's blog posts showing their children in matching pjs and about holiday happenings leading up to Christmas had me reminiscing about when my children were younger and happy to be in lots of photos and the fact we used to do the same thing. Most of that expat group has relocated or moved back to their home countries. 

We still check out the kitschy holiday decor...
 

...and do the baking. I miss those cookie exchange parties from the past...well maybe not baking dozens of cookies in my tiny countertop oven, but the social aspect.

After Christmas, I smiled reading in a friend's blog how they hid a gift in a pots and pans box - not so appealing for a youngster, right? My parents did the same thing, like the year they hid a watch in a bag of chocolate kisses... We took the gift at face value, but my dad urged us to open the bag and eat one (we used to hoard our sweets), then lo and behold, the watch revealed itself in the loosened packaging.

The second week of this holiday break has given me precious downtime to reflect and remember the childhood experiences of myself and my children and to ponder on how to create more memories that last in this new year. Yes it's a cliche, but time flies - it's hard to believe Maggie will be graduating from high school soon and off to college and adulthood!

We had a fun trip to Niseko the first week of Christmas break. Despite losing a day due to weather, we had three days on the slopes - Alex snowboarding for the first time, Maggie the second, and Paul and I on skis.

-6C/21F Brr!

We met up with friends traveling at the same time to ski a bit and for decadent dinners - wagyu beef shabu shabu and sukiyaki at the newly relocated/reopened Restaurant Sessa, Izakaya A Bu Cha 2, local seafood platter from Ezo Seafoods and Hokkaido sirloins from Steak Rosso Rosso, not to mention numerous bowls of ramen and soft serve ice cream cones! Oh, the food trucks - we got a chili cheese dog and fries from one and wood-fired pizzas from another guy who actually built a wood-fired oven in his little van - amazing!

Scallops at the izakaya

Wagyu beef sukiyaki

Crab legs, oysters, scallops, prawn, tuna, salmon, fried squid

Hokkaido steak, yum!

Wood-fired pizza oven built in a van

Ramen, ramen, everywhere...

Picasaweb photo slideshow no longer available - see the Niseko 2013 photo album here!

Snowboarding videos

Maggie made the switch to snowboarding in 2010 and Alex switched this time. Neither wanted lessons since they figured Ripstik and skateboard were similar - and both picked it up pretty fast - ah youth... Despite missing out on the first day due to snow-delayed flight, we had three great days on the slopes of Niseko!

From Ski Niseko 2013

From Ski Niseko 2013

My omiyage souvenirs

Omiyage are actually supposed to be shared with co-workers (and friends), but couldn't resist nibbling!

As a bonus for not having the room made or futons laid out, we received cash vouchers to spend in the hotel so picked up a couple boxes of Shiroi Koibito sandwich cookies - butter cookies layered with milk chocolate or white chocolate. We were introduced to these delights the first time we went to Hokkaido in 2005. We spent an extra night in Sapporo and went to the Ishiya chocolate factory Shiroi Koibito Theme Park (no rides, but exhibits, view of manufacturing, etc) as part of our own "group of friends tour" and we went to Osaka that trip as well - to the Aquarium Kaiyukan and Universal Studios (rides there!) This trip pre-dates my blog here - before I had one on Geocities that got closed down.

In transit at Kansai bought two kinds of yatsuhashi (made with glutinous rice flour and cinnamon) from Kyoto - one yaki (baked) and one nama (some people say it's raw, but it's actually steamed as part of the dough making process). The baked ones are cinnamon-y and pleasantly crunchy and the nama is soft and chewy with a light cinnamon flavor that complement the flavor of the filling. The traditional ones are filled with azuki red bean paste, but I bought the ones filled with shiro-an (sweet white bean paste) and yuzu (citrus). Tried these treats on a trip to Kyoto in 2007.

Merry Christmas from Niseko!

Finally Fall weather

It's finally cooling off and feeling like Fall here - low 60s (17C) at night, but can still reach 80F (27C) during the day. Mornings have been beautiful and breezy - for PE today we were out on the path along the nullah (stream) leading to the river. We often walk or ride this path to go to City One - a big estate (bunch of apartment buildings) where the big supermarket and lots of eateries are in the shopping center. We also walk along the river path behind our estate - it runs all the way from Ma On Shan to Tai Wai and you can go the other way along Tolo Harbour all the way to Tai Po. We've walked or ridden to all these places along the bike paths from our home.

We bought Alex a road bike for his belated birthday present and went for a ride after getting the derailleur adjusted and eating lunch at an outdoor dai pai dong near the bike shop. Lots of other cyclists eat here since you can keep an eye on your bikes.

Two road bikes, two foldables

Our school had its annual Walkathon and Post-Walkathon Festival recently and also walked along these paths. It was a beautiful day! Alex's grade had a ping pong ball bouncing game and Maggie's grade ran the Sponge Throw and sold drinks. Alex threw sponges at his sister all in the name of fundraising. The senior class performed a flash-mob dance to a catchy song, with lyrics explaining "What Does the Fox Say?"

I was asked to chaperone a camping trip for one of Maggie's friends. Joey and Jeremy came along to keep myself and Alex company. It was a lovely cool evening at Chong Hing Watersports Centre and we looked at stars from the adjacent Astropark. The next day we got out on the water in pedal boats and row boats before heading back to the city. The last time we went was for Maggie's 16th birthday.

Waiting for the shuttle bus...

We had another BBQ with the Siew family that evening with the leftover food but didn't take any photos until we were roasting marshmallows!

Thanks for editing out the amber glow from these photos Wai!

Alex's 13th

Alex is a teenager! We celebrated his birthday by having his favorite - sushi!

 

Since he didn't want to have a birthday party, we bought him a road bike 

and took him to try snowboarding on an indoor carpeted, treadmill-like slope in preparation for our upcoming ski trip. He picked it up pretty quickly and is looking forward to trying it on real snow!

We rode one of the old, former car ferries from North Point to Kowloon City, then took the bus home from there. It was nice to be on the water and see a different part of Victoria Harbour.