Well, we're back from Hong Kong where we spent the Christmas holidays with members of my family and Tony's college buddy-Tony. Matthew had a wonderful reunion with Uncle Tony and it was great to see a familiar face. It was our first holiday away from home. Usually, we're the ones who are hosting the Christmas bash at our home in Connecticut. Last year, we were preparing dinner for 25 guests, complete with turkey and all the fixings. This year, we spent it in Hong Kong. The weather was beautiful- a fabulous 68-70 degrees and sunny. We spent several days at Disneyland (a very small version compared to the real thing in Orlando, Florida) but, Matthew managed to keep himself busy by hopping the rides several times. 
We did the usual tourist things. We visited Ngong Ping Village, which is where the Big Budda is and watched Shao Lin Monks perform kung fu, rode the 360 Cable Tram (which is the longest cable tram in the world), visited Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, rode the tram to the Peak, visited Stanley Market, Repulse Bay and spent a day at Lamma Island. 
Lamma Island is where my father grew up and some of my relatives still live there. Matthew got to see the house where my father was born and together, we paid our respects to my grandparents. Even with all the constant running around, endless breakfast, lunch and dinner dates, we managed to even find time to visit Macau. It was Matthew's first experience on a hydrofoil boat and he did really well. The boat trip out was very smooth but the return trip, was an entirely different story. We dubbed the ride The Vomit Comet because of the continuous vomiting of passengers due to the rough waters. Uncle Tony had to leave his seat because of all the vomiting and we weren't sure if he was going to toss his fortune cookies as well.
We ushered in the New Year on Nathan Road with thousands of others. I doubt very much Matthew will ever forget where he was on December 31, 2006. We spent New Year's Day with an old family friend and took a boat ride to Sok Ku Wan, a town on Lamma Island for a seafood dinner. Matthew even had a chance to drive the boat and he was pretty excited about that. We ended our evening by watching fireworks off Victoria Harbor from the boat. 
The holidays drew to a close with a very sad farewell to Uncle Tony. We're really looking forward to seeing him again either in Shanghai or when we return to the United States for our home visit this summer. We returned to Shanghai reluctantly only to be welcomed back with a temperature of 45 degrees and rain. In fact, it's been raining every single day since we returned. Quite a change from what we had in Hong Kong. I'm now looking into our next getaway...... perhaps Sanya Bay. It's an island off of Guangzhou which is located in Southern China and close to Hong Kong. I heard it's quite beautiful and it's considered the Hawaii of the East. Surf's Up Big Kahuna! 
