Dao Feng Shan

Our home is on the side of a hill. At the top of the hill is a large white cross. I see the cross from the valley below all the time as I leave the Subway Station and start my short climb home. I had never been to the top of the hill where the cross is until this morning. I decided I would climb to the cross and have a quiet time.

 The cross says, "It is finished" in Chinese.

 This boulder says Huo zai Zhu nei or "Live in Christ".

 This is where I sat to have my quiet time. It was very special to sit here and see the cross while reading, praying, and journaling.

 Inside were pictures of familiar stories in the Bible from a Chinese perspective. This one was Jesus feeding the 5000.

 The Cross is located on a Lutheran seminary and retreat center. All the architecture is old Chinese style. This is the chapel.

Have I mentioned before that I don't like monkeys and that we see them from time to time? On my walk I saw this sign. It tells people how to be safe from monkeys. It looks as if I have a valid reason to be afraid!

Gecko

Look what I found in my shoe...

I don't mind. I think geckos are cute!!

Flower Market

A few weeks ago Niel and I visited the flower market in Mong Kok. This was the second time I had been there. I love walking the streets with Niel and looking at the flowers and plants.

We ended up buying herbs like cilantro, parsley, basil, sage. rosemary so that we could grow them and use them when we cook. We also bought two tulip plants to hang on our fence. Tulips are my favorite flower. It makes me smile every time I come home and see them.

Wet Market

The other day I stumbled upon a building in the area of Hong Kong where we live that I had not noticed before. I decided to check it out and this is what I found...

A wet market! It made my day. I love shopping at wet markets and did not know there was one in Shatin. We are able to buy fresh fruits and vegetables as well as meat and fish from various little stalls. The market also includes flowers, goldfish, chinese medicine stalls, cheap clothing and slippers as well as other odds and ends. :)

We Moved!

We moved in on New Year's Eve Day and were able to welcome 2014 in our first home together.

Before we moved, our landlord had the house painted and said we could choose the color based off of some samples he gave us. We chose a color and thought it would be a light gray. This was what was being painted on the wall instead...

Not exactly the color we were looking for....

We frantically called the landlord to see what we could do about the PINK (yuck) paint. Niel and I went to buy the paint ourselves and it turned out MUCH better!

Niel saw a group of travelling monkeys walking in front of our house yesterday...

We will post more pictures of our home later, once we are a bit more settled in.

Christmas Baking...Hong Kong Style

I made Christmas cookies yesterday. Sounds pretty easy, right! Here is the toaster oven I had to work with...

Still think it sounds pretty easy? I was able to bake 8 cookies at a time.

It was worth it! Yum!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

How lovely are thy branches...

I know you may be thinking, "Lovely? That is a very small tree." Yep, it is very small and it is artificial but to me it is very lovely. You see, Niel and I are about to celebrate our first Christmas being married and this is the first tree that we picked out together. :)