DIY: Gingerbread Christmas Tree

Christmas is only a week away!  A few days ago, while down in Central, I stopped by City Super to pick up a gingerbread tree decorating kit.  I thought it would be a great addition to the Christmas traditions that my family (here in Hong Kong) and I could do together.  Plus, it is another great way to integrate my culture into theirs…and make me feel more at home during the holidays.

This gingerbread tree decorating kit was 100 HKD, which I thought was pretty reasonably priced.  There were other decorating kits:  gingerbread men, gingerbread variety cookie packs, gingerbread houses, and gingerbread villages.  They were all around the 100 - 200 HKD mark.  And all came with pre-made gingerbread!

Our kit came with a bunch of star-shaped gingerbread cookies, bigger ones for the base and smaller ones to be stacked.  It also came with pre-made icing, some sugar baubles, and a sugar star.  Besides the edibles, the kit came with some piping bags and nibs.

It was pretty self explanatory, but we basically just stacked up our tree from the biggest stars to the smallest stars.  We got some icing and put a dot between each layer to secure the tree.

Then we went at it!  At first, we were trying to be nice and precise, but then we decided to just drench the icing all over the tree.  Either way, it still came out looking impressive and tasted like Christmas.  The icing sooooo reminded me of Christmas.

After slathering icing all over our tree, we then dotted it with our sugar bobbles, sprinkled some sugar granules  all over … and topped our tree with our yellow sugary star.

Our final results!

Back in the day, I remember making a few gingerbread houses with my family.  I think it was my aunt who really organized it.  But, my cousins, my siblings and I would gather around at my grandmother's house and decorate the gingerbread houses that my aunt had made for us.

Such wonderful memories…I hope to keep this tradition up…because who doesn't need more sugar during the holiday season!?

Landmark Decorations

This year, I'm on a roll with visiting the shopping malls.  I haven't actually been doing anything but window shopping because I bought most of the things on my Christmas list online during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales.  But, I am just liking hanging out at the malls and comparing all of the Christmas decorations.

Today, I found myself in Central's Landmark Shopping Mall.

I was just passing through the mall, stopped to gawk in awe of the amazing display at the center of the mall.

They had out a huge display of Santa's workshop…only his elves were replaced by cuddly teddy bears.

The theme of this year was called Santa Paws and the Wishing Machine.  It really is such a great name for such a beautiful display.

The entire thing is quite steam-punk-esque.  I just loved it.  It is definitely one of the best displays I've seen this year.

The even more amazing thing is that, when making a wish through the Wishing Machine, all donations are given to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  I only found out about this after the fact, but it makes me love The Landmark even more for their generosity during this holiday season…makes me wonder if the displays throughout the year are all charity-based too.

This was definitely the place to be today, with everyone snapping shots of the teddies in their workshop.

Above the atrium there were also a couple of flying machines!

The counters around the display base are the number of wishes that were made since the end of November…supposedly.  So, as of today, there have been over 200,000 wishes made in the Wishing Machine.

What a wonderful surprise to find such a wonderful display on a day like today!

Day with Dogs and Christmassy Malls

Today, I went to spend some time with a friend at the dog park next to the Macau Ferry in Sheung Wan.  I am more of a dog person than a cat person…and I even look forward to getting a little puppy in my future, but being around other people's dogs sort of makes me feel uncomfortable.

Even so, my afternoon at the dog park was pretty nice.  The weather was lovely, there were so many dogs that were just craving to socialize with the dogs at the park.  The owners were also quite nice and sociable.  It was a nice little place to meet people and make friends (for dogs and owners).

The great thing about this dog park was the fact that it was pretty frequented.  The bad thing about it was that you could smell the exhaust or fumes from the ferries when they passed by…but the view out to the Harbour was lovely!

This was my first time at a dog park.  I think it totally opened my eyes up to another aspect of Hong Kong.  I mean, people keep some pretty gigantic dogs in their small apartments.  Most of the dogs at this park were huge!  Also, there were winter dogs, like that husky, that made me wonder how they survived the Hong Kong summer. 

It was nice to see how friendly most dogs were.  I mean, they just went up to everyone, sniffed around, and waited for a little pat on the head.  How sweet!

Afterwards, I journeyed over a few minutes by sky bridge to the IFC Mall to check out the Christmas decorations…and to get in some exercise.  Who doesn't love walking the mall?

Normally, I'm not much of a mall going person.  I usually dislike the crowds.  But, I actually don't mind the crowds or the craziness around the holiday season.  I think it is because it reminds me of home…it's like when I visit a Starbucks when I get homesick.  It is just something a bit therapeutic??

I haven't been down into Central for awhile.  So, I was excited to see what the Christmas decorations would be like.  When I think of the IFC, I think that things will probably be classier and more sophisticated than some of the other malls…which have a cutesy more character-driven display (like Yuen Long!!!).

The theme for this season was "Grow and Glow."  The main display is at the middle of the IFC Mall, but when I walked in, I was greeted with a display of a cut-out Christmas Card.

I wasn't so impressed, but then I continued on with some window-shopping until I came to the main Christmas display area.  The main display area was so lovely!  It was like I was approaching a really awesome magical forest.  I don't mean to hype things up, but it was really a welcoming surprise from the cut-out Christmas card display I had seen earlier.

There were hanging Christmas trees that moved up and down when the holiday music played.  The trees were gorgeously colored and beautifully delicate.  They were truly up to par with my idea of the chic and sophisticated IFC-esque decor.

One of the center trees was actually an interactive photo booth of sorts.  Basically, people stood in the middle of the tree base, they looked up, and their photo would be taken.

Simple and elegant…

On my way down to catch the trains, I also caught a glimpse at another Christmas decoration, which seemed so randomly put!  It was basically I-F-C written out in golden bells.

My next stop of the day was to head into Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) for dinner and Cantonese lessons.

I decided to take a walk over to the 1881 Heritage Building to see what their decorations were like…since I was in the neighborhood.  I thought a little compare and contrast to the IFC's decor would be nice.

Again, I was pleasantly surprised!  It's actually quite romantic to visit the TST shopping malls in the evenings…when the lights are all up, people are dressed for winter…and the holiday music is streaming out of the speakers.  It creates such a lovely environment.

***Images of the 1881 Heritage Building Christmas Display***

The theme of the display was quite Royal.  There were some sleighs and a gazebo where people could take photos in/under.  There were also loads of ice skaters and palace guards whom you could take photos next to.  It was quite fitting of what I would expect from the 1881 Heritage Building…though a bit gaudy!

TO TOP OFF all the festive viewing of my day, I was lucky enough to catch a mini performance at the K11 Mall.  I really dug the live music.  Everyone was in such a great mood and dancing to the music.  It was quite a fun experience.

I think I Christmased myself out today!

Overall, while coming home and thinking about the day…it was nice to take a mini trip into Central to spend some time with a friend, drink some warm Starbucks drinks, and then take a walk through the IFC Mall.  It felt like a proper December day for some reason.  And I can't even express what a proper December day is.  It just felt like home.

It amazes me how Hong Kong is feeling more and more like home, especially when I'm spending the holidays so far away from my family.

But, ending the evening walking around TST was lovely as well, but I felt more like a tourist.  I guess that's one of the differences between Central and TST…I can feel more like a tourist in TST because it caters so much to tourism.  It's a nice feeling!

ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS until CHRISTMAS!

The Gold Coast

Tuen Mun's Gold Coast Piazza is one of my favorite places to go during the summer months because of the nearby Gold Coast Beach.  Since it is still sunny and a bit warm, we headed over to the Gold Coast to soak up some sun and to also catch check out if anything had changed over the past year.

One thing that changed, which might be old news to everyone but me!, is that the Gold Coast Piazza doesn't have their independent handicraft sellers along the promenade anymore.  They do have some kiosks within the Piazza, but it doesn't seem as lively as it used to be,

Like most of the public spaces around Hong Kong, there are Christmas decorations displayed to welcome the holiday season.

One of the great places to soak up some sun and also catch the sunset is along the Gold Coast Piazza's promenade.  It overlooks a yacht docking lot, which is pretty amazing to view.  Ever since I moved to Seattle, I would look out at yachts and wonder what cool things they had inside, where they had come from and where their next destination was.  So, it's really nice to sit and just view the yachts in the lot and day dream about going around the world in one of them!

Another wonderful thing about the promenade is that there are benches to take a rest on.

The sun, nowadays, seems to begin setting around 5:30 pm, which is right before dinner time.  So, it was perfect to just sit and watch the sun set and then have a romantic dinner somewhere in one of the eateries in the Piazza.

While we were watching the sunset, I also spotted a hummingbird, which I tried to capture with my camera.  Impossible.  If you can spot it, you have a wonderful eye for detail.

This was actually the second time that I had seen a hummingbird up here in the New Territories.  The first time I ever saw one was when I was walking along the waterway.  I actually thought a huge wasp was buzzing around one of the flower pots along the path.  But, then I realized that it was the smallest bird I'd ever seen.

Also, it seems like it must be graduation season because there were a lot of people along the promenade that were taking photos dressed in graduation cap and gowns.  It definitely was quite a picturesque time of day.

Though the Piazza is quite small, there are quite a bit of places where you can eat.

Because I was craving some Ebeneezer's again, we headed over to get some lamb briyani, mango lassis and palak paneer.

For dessert, we got some cotton candy from one of the vendors nearby, which totally took me back to childhood.  I can't even remember the last time I had a cotton candy.

I would classify today as one of the best days of my week.  It was lovely spending some quality time with my husband…especially up at the Gold Coast.  It sort of felt like we were on holiday, just wondering around and enjoying life (though Tuen Mun is not too far from Yuen Long).

And the loveliest part was ending the evening enjoying some people watching around the Gold Coast Piazza's Christmas tree.