Christmas is coming!

We had a nice little weekend and spent some time on Saturday marveling at the Christmas cheer happening around Hong Kong. 

I was clearly at the wrong stores for my shopping this year and should have been in these lines instead.

 Can you believe the queues just to get inside?

I finally found the Christmas tree stand in Hong Kong!

 There were probably 8 trees in the bunch, but it was so nice to see (and smell!) Michael wouldn't let me come home with one, and honestly, we have nowhere to put it...

 So I opted for a real wreath, poinsettia, and some orchids instead. 

I did talk him into a small tree...

I call it my "Dr Seuss" tree and I love it. 

It's not much, but at least it feels a bit more festive.  Oh, how I miss all my Christmas decorations...we'll have them back one day though. 

Saturday night we experienced our first Swiss Raclette. We have some Swiss friends, and they invited us over for one of their favorite winter meals. 

 You basically heat a special cow's milk cheese until it's bubbling, and then pour it on top of potatoes, gherkins, pickled onions, and prosciutto. 

The Swiss love to eat this after a day of skiing. 

It was a really fun night and neat to experience a dish so unique to the Swiss. 

Today I got to hang out with a couple of my favorite babies: Austin and Tallulah (and of course their mommies too!) 

Hope your weekends were filled with some Christmas cheer! Is your shopping done yet?? 

MINE IS!!!!!

xx,

Lauren

Whew!

It has been quite awhile since my last post...apologies for my long absence! 

We had a great Thanksgiving this year and it was so wonderful to be at home. Lots of time was spent with family, and it was really hard for me to board the plane to come back to HK this time around. Michael and I both love HK, but being so far away from home is really difficult. We'll just have to start making our trips home more frequent. 

 (any frequent flyer miles you'd like to donate to the Phipps family would be much appreciated. wink, wink). 

This this guy was patiently waiting on his mama though. 

I couldn't be happier to be back with my 2 guys. 

I had a busy week of work, and we have a few things planned for this weekend. Not a single Christmas decoration is up in our apartment (sad), and I'm hoping to find a few things this weekend to bring a bit of cheer to our crib. 

I don't think we'll be getting a tree this year, as we'll be here over Christmas.  

Any guesses???

xx,

Lauren

See you....

State-side!

I'm so excited to be heading home!

Can't think of a better way to be spending this Thanksgiving...

xx,

Lauren

While the cat's away...

The mouse plays?!?

Or, however the saying goes....

I had a nice little weekend and kept busy.

KC's birthday was this week, so we had a party on her roof Friday night to celebrate.

This is the most perfect time of year in HK, and now is when we want to spend lots of time on the roof. 

While we were in Tokyo, Hayley had her baby!

Tallulah Belle Strange was born on November 4. I couldn't wait to get my hands on her. 

Hayley and Mark are just smitten, and I couldn't be happier for them. 

Just the sweetest little family!

I had dinner with the girls last night, and afterwards we ran into this guy.

 Look familiar???

Andrew Zimmer is the host of "Bizarre Foods" and they were filming in HK last night. Do you watch Bizarre Foods? (It's on the Travel Channel in the US). I love it! Mr. Zimmer and Maddy are actually family friends, so today they were having dim sum together. Be on the look-out of Maddy on an upcoming segment. 

Hope ya'll are enjoying your weekends! 

One more week, and I'm State-side!

xx,

Lauren

Fish for you?

It's my last day in Tokyo, and we're starting early. We arrive at the subway at 5:00am to get to the Tsukiji Fish Market. 

The Tsukiji market is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. 

An auction happens everyday around 4:30 am and ends by 6:00 am. 

The fish is auctioned off to the sushi restaurants. 

Getting into the auction is a bit of a crap-shoot. 

 Sometimes the guards will let toursits in, sometimes not. 

 It was not our lucky day. 

 The market in itself was pretty incredible. Can you believe these tuna?

We left the market by 6:30 and went back to the hotel to shower and get the fish smell off.

We spent our last afternoon wandering around Shinjuku. 

I left Michael that afternoon, and he was off a meeting. He's in Tokyo the rest of this week and then heads back to the States on Saturday. 

We had a great weekend in Japan. Tokyo is a fascinating city, and unlike any place I've been before.

 If you're making your bucket list, add this one to it.

xx,

Lauren