Monday, January 9, 2023

Happy New Beginnings

The city has been busy dismantling Christmas decorations and putting up big red lanterns and plastering cute images of bunnies everywhere, in anticipation of it being the Year of the Rabbit.  For our part we did the same at home, bidding our trusty and adorable Christmas tree a fond farewell.
Chinese New Year falls on Jan 21-24 this year, early, so we all feel like we are living in a suspended lull during this period between the Western and Eastern holidays.
This Sunday we went on an adventure hopscotching around the city, first walking down to enjoy the scene at Lee Tung Avenue, then hopping on the tram to read books at Bookazine at Prince's Building, then walking through the Mandarin Hotel to my office and riding the lift, then walking to Pacific Place to have dimsum and ride the glass lifts.  

The dimsum at Tien Yi was very good.  The kids enjoyed the double boiled soup (and Teo even ate the liver, though in fairness he thought it was chocolate), the shrimp dumplings and barbecued pork rice rolls, and without a doubt the baked egg tarts were their unanimous favorite.  I loved the soup, the sticky glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf, and without a doubt my favorite was their baby pea shoots cooked in superior broth.

This weekend Michael and I took the chance to go out for a bit on our own, not once but twice, after the kids were asleep.  

The sky and harbor were an inky velvet cape, draped over a cityscape laid out like a dancing carpet of glass and light.  The effect was swoon-inducing.

How amazing is it that you get those views above in the same city where, a few streets over, you see an old mom and pop bird shop with live birds set out on the street like so?

The kids have been playing really well together, for the most part, and they have been enjoying all the amazing presents they have been gifted - the nonstop stream from Lola's birthday until Christmas until the boys' birthday and after.  Here, all three crowded onto Lola's bed, where they happened to spot their friends from across the street,
and playing ice cream shop together.

Here is a little snapshot of some various moments from end of December, to close out 2022.  

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