Holidays!

It's that time of year!  Decorations are going up all around town.  It's hard to believe but the holidays are just around the corner. 

 The building where I work has put up some really nice decorations this year!  As soon as I saw the elaborate display I thought of the kids. We will have to do a little tour through all the fancy malls/ our usual favorites.  

[Side note: I have to confess, I buy into all of the hype of holiday decor and music and stockings and presents and the tree, but I do not understand the fervor around Santa.  The line to get into Pacific Place mall's Santa meet and greet was so long this morning they had to put you into queues, to wait for the wait.  I frankly find the image and idea of plopping little children into the lap of an unknown stranger, who happens to be old and white and hairy and fat, very perturbing.  No wonder all those poor kids cry and howl and scream.  Really, what year is it, why are we still forcing these antiquated and inauthentic cultural norms on our children...]

Back to regular programming. A quick rundown to the end of the year:

Only 7 days until Thanksgiving.  This year we are hosting a small Thanksgiving dinner with some friends in our building. I love the idea of a friends' Thanksgiving; taking the time out of our lives to contemplate and identify what is the good and shiny amidst the tattered or tarnished, and declare and share what you are grateful for.

Then our Christmas tree arrives in 11 days. 

Then I turn 39 years old in 12 days.

Then Lola turns five in 14 days.  Her fifth birthday party is in 15 days.

Then the kids wrap up school and we are out of Hong Kong on December 18.  We decided to spend Christmas overseas this year.  It will be Lola's first time on a plane in 3 years and 4 months, my first time on a plane in 3 years and 2 months, and the boys first time on a plane ever.  Oh boy!