easter in tianjin

I'm making good on my promise to post photos of the kiddos. Here's a link to an album I created on Facebook... an album that even stubborn, non-FB users will be able to see. ;)


Happy Easter everyone!

visit from sharon and roger

I just realized that I had this post-in-the-works that never got published. Oops.

Back in February, we had a visit from my dad's second cousin, Sharon, and her husband Roger. They were taking a cruise from Shanghai to SE Asia, and HK was one of their ports of call. I had the pleasure of visiting them in Wales last summer, but my parents hadn't gotten to meet them yet -- so we all had a great time catching up while seeing some of HK.

We took the Star Ferry over to Central, and then had dim sum at City Hall.


Then we took a minibus up to Victoria Peak. It was windy and a little hazy, but still a wonderful view!
From the Peak, I took Sharon and Roger to Stanley (though none of us ended up doing any shopping!), and then to TST for dinner. Here's Roger showing off his chop sticks skills.
Then we went back to the harbor to catch the light show. There was a beautiful light display out for Chinese New Year.
It was great to see you again, Roger and Sharon! Till next time!

templeton-inspired cozy

Two of my favorite things finally meet:

This is a Templeton-inspired cozy for my mom for her birthday. My mom doesn't go out for coffee much, which is why I hadn't made her one earlier. But then the other day when we were in Macau, a few of us went to Starbucks for some holiday-inspired caffeine, and my poor dear mother had to use a cardboard coffee sleeve. I'm glad that the cozy situation will now be rectified.

handmade christmas: gifts

Gifts for my nieces and nephews. Monogrammed coloring cases for the older kids, and a bib for the smallest.

And here's my labor of love for my brother. I got the pattern from The Domestic Scientist.

And here's everything wrapped and ready to take over to my parents' place. I bought the ribbon in Sham Shui Po at the last minute, and am very happy I did.

sophie and other thankfulnesses

My sister and her family came down for Thanksgiving. I finally got to meet my newest niece, Sophie. She's a cutie. Here are a couple photos from today.

I had a lot of fun playing with the big kids, too. They've grown up so much since I saw them last Christmas. Anna especially. She's a very small two-year-old (so small that I wondered briefly about the possibility of her being a primordial dwarf... but no, she's not), but listening to her talk, she could probably pass for four or five. She's very precocious and talkative -- a delightful conversationalist. Here's a conversation we had tonight, before she went to bed. I think we were talking about how she's a big sister now...

Anna: Sophie has a big sister just like you had a big sister.

Me: Do you know who my big sister is?

Anna: I don't know.

Me: Your mommy is my big sister.

Anna: I don't know. I don't think so.

Me: No really, she is.

Anna: I don't think so.

Of course, I then showed her photographic evidence that Amy and I grew up together, and finally she believed me. Makes me wonder who she thought I was, and why her family was making the effort to see me. But I guess she does have a lot of unrelated "aunties" and "uncles," so maybe she thought I was just another one of those.

The Sonnichsen six are all heading back to Tianjin tomorrow morning, but will be back for Christmas. I'm really looking forward to more hang out time with the kids. I attended a conference that my school was hosting this weekend, so that sucked up a lot of my time. Aaron attended as well, which was one of the reasons they all came down in the first place. I wasn't originally planning to attend many of the workshops -- figured I'd go to a couple things and then leave early each day. But the sessions far exceeded my expectations, I found the workshops helpful and enjoyable, so I ended up going to most everything. It was a strange experience, though. I actually found myself feeling disappointed that the conference was so good, because it meant that I wasn't skipping out more to be with family. Well, just a few more weeks until Christmas!

two-eight and one more cozy

I turned 28 today, which feels a lot younger than I thought it would. My birthday falls on Father's day this year, just like it did the year I was born. Happy Father's Day/Birthday to Dad/me!

I'm having a good day. It started with my brother arriving home from college early this morning -- the "ultimate birthday present," as he puts it. Then I joined some good friends on worship team at church this morning, had a joint Father's day/birthday lunch with the family, and finally came home for what else -- cozy-making. I hadn't planned to sew today, but then just felt compelled. I had a friend in mind to make a cozy for, and suddenly had the realization that she might not be crazy about appliqué. Yes. You read that correctly. I've accepted that appliqué might not be for everyone...

So here's the plain cozy that came about after that realization... and I've got to say that I really like it! Part of the draw for me is the pearly snaps. Sal and I bought them the other day at Sham Shui Po, and I realized while hammering them in yesterday that they pearly part shatters easily. But I've found a way to put them in with minimum breakage, and really like the way they look.

I'm about to meet friends for Indian food and [fingers crossed] karaoke (I haven't told anyone else about this, but that's where I'd like to see the evening end up...), so all in all, today is turning out to be the best birthday ever.

introducing olivia jean sonnichsen!

My niece is officially adopted! Though my sister and brother-in-law had been fostering her since she was a few weeks old, they couldn't start the formal adoption process until Amy turned 30 (bizarre adoption policy -- go figure!) last year. They finished the paper-work months ago, and today finally received the formal letter making it all official! Woohoo!

Here's a picture I took of her when they were visiting over Christmas.
I love you Livy! You've always been my niece -- I'm just glad the Chinese government finally knows it! :)

_____________________________
A correction: It looks like they'll have to make a trip to Guangzhou for the adoption to be finalized -- but that seems to be just a formality.

my brother the metal worker

I just helped my mom download some photos from her camera. Here's a picture she took this summer -- Steve at his summer job.

anna's jeans

Anna modeling her belated birthday present from moi -- her first pair of jeans!
Funny face.

monday fun-day

We went for brunch at The Flying Pan this morning. Yum!
Then we made our way back home. I volunteered my babysitting services so that Amy and Aaron could go see Oceans 13.

I had fun with the kids. Anna had a bit of a hard time though. Amy called after the movie was over, asking how the kids were, and as I was speaking to her on the phone, I looked over and noticed that one of the cats was right next to Anna. The next thing I knew, Anna was pulling hard on his fur. As I was yelling for her to let go, Jock (the cat) started biting. His biting didn't seem to produce the results I assume he was hoping for -- Anna started screaming, but continued to hold on tight. Finally they separated. Anna cried for a couple minutes, but was soon following Jock around again. Not sure how much his bite really hurt. He's about 11 now, and missing a lot of teeth. But still, what a fearless little girl.

Here are Anna and Jock about 10 minutes after their face-off. I like these pictures. They're pretty retro, what with Anna's orange rick-rack outfit and the yellow kitchen cabinets. Very 70's.

poolside

Amy and I took Olivia and Gabe to a pool today. Here's a pleasant sign near the entrance of the ladies changing room. Check out the second piece of advice: "Ensure that you are not suffering from diarrhoea ." I don't even want to think about what kind of event led to the necessity of this rule...

I couldn't bring the camera into the swimming area, so have no pictures of today's pool experience. But, I do have some good shots from yesterday, when the kids got to hang out in their own private pool.



Gabe tried to convince me to get into the pool with them a couple of times, which led to a little lesson on volume. I had to explain that if I was to get into that tiny pool, there would be no space for anyone else, let alone any water.

turning twenty-seven

I turned 27 last Friday, but the celebrations were saved for last night. Here's Olivia and Anna playing "Happy Birthday."
What talented nieces I have!

Olivia and me with possibly the best cake I've ever eaten -- Irish Cream bundt cake (recipe here). Yumm! Thanks Amy!

piano lessons with mommy

A mother-daughter duet.

my day

My day started with a pregnant woman on the KCR telling me I looked tired. I noticed she was looking at me, and when I made eye contact she pointed below her left eye and told me mine was black. My first thought was that I'd accidentally smeared something on my face, so I immediately started wiping frantically... but then she said, "You need more sleep." Thanks.

The KCR was the first leg of my trip to HKU... my classes have been over for a while, but today was the day of reckoning, so to speak, because papers were marked and ready to be passed back. Well, I passed my courses! Yay!

After getting our feedback, my fellow biology classmates and I went out to lunch with our professors (or "tutors" as they're called at HKU). Then some of us continued the celebrations at a little German place in Lan Kwai Fong. It was fun, even though you wouldn't really know it from the way most of us look in the photo below...

After the festivities had come to an end, I headed over to St. Theresa's hospital, where Aaron is scheduled to have his knee surgery tomorrow. Since his surgery will start pretty early, they decided it would be better for him to check into the hospital this evening than to have to show up at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Here he is with the kids before they, Amy and I said goodbye.
They'll be able to visit him tomorrow, and he should be out of the hospital by Sunday, which very appropriately happens to be Father's Day.

Amy, the kids, and I took a taxi back home, and one of the highlights of the trip, for me at least, was the argument that ensued between Olivia and Gabe when Gabe noticed a "fast race car" parked on the street. Their conversation went something like this:

Gabe: A race car is faster than a car.
Olivia: Yeah, but it's not faster than Jesus.
Gabe: Yes, it is. It's the fastest.
Olivia: No, because Jesus can do anything, so he's the fastest.

As the debate became more heated, Olivia asked me to back her up, and said something about Gabe still having a lot to learn about Jesus...

lunch at burger king

My sister and her family arrived today from Tianjin. Aaron is scheduled to have knee surgery at the end of the week, which is the main reason they're here, but we should be able to squeeze in some fun things as well. Amy and the kids will be here for two weeks, and Aaron will stay a few weeks longer, so that he can do physiotherapy here.

I met them at the airport this morning, and we decided to stay for a Burger King lunch (I was surprised that the airport McDonalds has been replaced by a Burger King -- one of only 2 in HK -- big news!).

The kids' meals came with stuffed endangered species toys. Here's Gabe giving his parched aye-aye a refreshing drink of fanta.
And here's Olivia letting her jaguar nibble on her cheeseburger.

Anna and Olivia with their mommy.

Olivia making a jaguar face. I love this picture!

not so scary..

Well, Facebook doesn't seem so scary to me anymore... and I'm beginning to think that "feeling exposed" is probably the least of my worries. A more fitting concern should be not wasting hours and hours writing on other people's "walls," and deciding which groups to join. So far, I've only joined one group -- one that I think my brother started -- The Pardini Club. There are a total of 34 members, and yes, you have to be a Pardini to join. Sorry all non-Pardinis.


One thing that I find funny/interesting about Facebook is how you're asked to tick a box to explain your relationship with each "friend." I guess with most people, you can think back to how you met them (i.e. at school, work, through a mutual friend, etc), but I find that with quite a few friends, I have a hard time fitting them into any of the categories. In fact, I don't like the idea of defining relationships by how I met someone... it just seems too cut and dried. Especially for people that I've known for a long time, it doesn't seem right to just say that we met at church or school. Maybe I'm just making this more complicated than it needs to be, but I think that I am not alone in finding this mildly frustrating/annoying. I guess it does leave lots of room for creativity though. I noticed that one of my Facebook friends filled in the info in an interesting way, so that when I view our friendship status, it says that "you dated for a short while from 1979 and 2007 but now you aren't speaking." I like the fact that that isn't even possible. And why would "aren't speaking" even be an option? Why would you add someone to your Facebook if you weren't on speaking terms?! hehe.

I don't think I've fully worked through my feelings about Facebook yet... I'm sorry to say that I might be blogging about this for a while to come...

gabe does the robot

I just watched these videos posted by Amy and Aaron on Youtube -- hilarious! They're of Gabe doing the robot and some other yet-to-be named dance moves (as part of a children's dance session at McDonalds). He's on the far right in both videos. I love the way he's sort of off on his own, gettin' down...

saturday excursion

My mom and I went to an RAS lunch at an old 1920s house in the mid-levels. To get there, we took the Peak tram up to May Road, and then walked up a footpath. The track is so steep at May Road that we literally had to climb up the tram to get off... it was a very strange experience.

After a 15-minute walk up the footpath, we made it to the house. The path is the only way to get to the house -- no road access!
This is the view from the roof, where we ate lunch (all 60 of us!). The house was supposed to be demolished in the early 90's, and developed to be part of the housing complex you can see on the left. Thankfully, the "green path" that leads up to the house is protected by the government, so developers had no choice but to leave the house as it is. Unfortunately, I don't have any good photos of the outside of the house, as there were no good vantage points from the path. But it was a very beautiful example of colonial architecture.

The man who lives in the house is quite an art collector. Most of it is modern Chinese.
This painting was one of my favorites.

Each room in the house was exquisitely decorated... I felt like I was walking though the pages of an interior design magazine or a museum -- so much art to look at! I wasn't going to take any photos, but then noticed lots of other people doing so, so I decided not to miss out on the opportunity to document such an inspirational experience. :)

This is a cool room. I like the bookshelves and the fireplace and the paintings. The men in the main painting have blindfolds made of Y100 bills... very insightful...
One of the sitting rooms downstairs.

One of the guest rooms. I love the color-scheme. This was one of the only places in the house with non-Asian artwork -- the pictures are all old European political cartoons.
The resident of the house also has an extensive modern Chinese sculpture collection.

I love this one -- everything from the dazed look on her face, to the minimalistic (but very effective) use of color, to her platform shoes. So realistic! I can just picture her standing among a crowd in the Beijing train station...

"Urban Peasants"
"Melting"

"Horse"
"Existence"
"Flying Hippopotami"

Me with the dog, Kaluch (sp?). (I thought it was time I balance all the cat pictures with a good canine photo... though the black dog sort of blends into my clothes...)
My mom and me on our way out.

We walked down to Admiralty on a path that runs next to the tram. On our way we came across this huge camphor tree.

And here are some shots of interesting buildings that I hadn't noticed before.

This is the foundation stone on the Masonic Hall. I find the inscription quite creepy. "Right worshipful brother... district grand master..." I'm getting goosebumps!
St. Paul's Primary School. I like the gate and the ivy.
Wasn't sure what this building was, so I went in for a closer look.
Found out it's the Office of the Former Chief Executive of the HK Special Administrative Region. Not sure why Tung Chee Hwa needs his own special building... any ideas?
A view of the Bank of China building through the trees at HK park.