Trip to Hong Kong

Since the weather was a bit more promising we combined our trip to Shanghai with a few days in Hong Kong.
On the flight Mia tried out her new - used - camera - she had gotten for Christmas

In Hong Kong a family friend of Ji met us at the hotel and she gave us a tour of the city after some Dim Sum.
With a double deck bus we first headed from our hotel in Kowloon to Victoria harbor

View of the Hong Kong Skyline from the ferry

After crossing over we took a regular city bus to Victoria peak. Mia was so sleepy after the long flight that she fell asleep on the bus even though the road was twisting and turning. So a sip of coffee was okay for everyone on top

Back in the down town  area a fair with a big ferries wheel was set up on the waterfront

The views during sunset on the ferry ride back were spectacular

The Star Ferry terminal in Kowloon was quite the lively place with live music and other performers

The number 7 bus took us back to our neighborhood and we found a simple restaurant for dinner

After dinner everybody was more than ready for sleep

Christmas Eve

Like in the two previous years Mia participated in a nativity play on Christmas eve together with some friends from school. This time she was not a shepard but one of the three readers ,

After the end of the service we went home for dinner - potato salad and wiener sausages - and the unwrapping of the presents

There was no Christmas tree this year sine we were leaving the next morning for our trip to Hong Kong and Shanghai.

10,000 points on Antolin

Today Mia passed the 10,000 point mark on the Antolin website where one can collect points by answering questions after reading a certain book. Her teacher already promised her a gift for reaching that mark

Baking Cookies

We had promised Mia for some time to bake cookies and a few days before Christmas it was finally time to get out the cookie cutters

 Mia was very generous with the sprinkles

Third Advent Choir Concert

Mia practices once a week with the pre-youth choir of the music school and on the third advent the ygave a concert together with the other youth choirs.
First they all had to warm up

 Then the concert started

At the end every child got some Christmas cookie as surprise

Ice Skating Heddesheim

After the disappointment with the skating at the Christmas market in Speyer we decided to do some real ice skating at a nice ice rink in Heddesheim a 15 minute drive north of Heidelberg

It was cheaper and much more fun

Speyer Christmas Market

After visiting different Christmas markets in the region in the pat years we also went to the one in Speyer on Saturday.
It started at the 1000 year old cathedral

Set up along the main street it was quite busy

 A break with a cinnamon and sugar filled crepe

A pert of the marked was set up next to an old city gate

As it turned out what looked like an ice skating rink did not have any ice but was a hard white plastic that was note quite the same like real ice