Wish you a Merry Christmas!

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
-- Isaiah 9:6

I felt like I kind of missed over the "Christmas feeling" this year... for the most part, the Christmas feeling in Hong Kong means being overwhelmed by huge Christmas lights that are displayed on the sides of buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour, as well as getting the feeling from the huge Christmas displays inside all of Hong Kong's malls. IFC Mall topped their amazing hanging Christmas tree last year with the first indoor ferris wheel:



Anyway, the main reason why I missed the Christmas feeling is because my office moved from Central to beside my house in Quarry Bay. :p Not a huge complaint from me. :p

But all in all, that is probably a good thing (missing the Christmas feeling) because that is pretty much all that it's about here in Hong Kong. However, despite the huge emphasis on shopping, Hong Kong, being a much more open place to Christianity, has thousands of groups of carollers in every MTR station, mall corner, street behind a mall, parks within residential estates, inside office buildings turned malls... HK has 1400 churches... they're everywhere. :p But it adds to the more meaningful side of Christmas, and carolling is quite an integral part of the Christmas culture here.

I missed the ramp-up to Christmas because I was in Taiwan, as it happened, there was a huge (Waterloo) reunion there this year. It was a great time to catch up a bit, enjoy 'normal Taiwanese life' there (morning markets, night markets), and go to Ali Shan (Ali Mountain), where Teresa and I experienced our age and the gasping of thin air 2200m high. :P



We also woke up early to catch the dawn of a new day -- which reminded me of the old grade 10 band song of that name with a decent trumpet part and solos, which I often screwed up. :p Teresa and I concluded that we preferred sunsets to sunrises, not only because of the timing.



So, Christmas was not too eventful for me here, though that is nice to just slow down and hang out with loved ones. [We didn't have Christmas Eve or Christmas service either... which peeved me.] But nevertheless... Merry Christmas! This end of December rounds up an eventful year on all fronts; hopefully 2009 will turn up from this one. :p

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.