And what a Christmas it was!

Not really. It was pretty low-key. We arrived at the Sheraton Haikou Resort on Hainan Island at 9 pm Christmas Eve, just as all the hotel Christmas festivities were ending, so we totally missed out on the Christmas dinner*. But Santa visited, nevertheless, and left Vivian a modest stocking full of toys: a Mini Cooper car, animal dominoes, and an alphabet puzzle.

The atmosphere at the hotel was pretty festive, with a few snowmen and a giant Christmas tree. Vivi wanted to open the packages, of course.

We spent Christmas day playing, first on the beach in the wind and chill (the temp topped out at about 70, cloudy and later rainy)...

...then later in the natural hot spring pools with a boy we met at breakfast. Vivi loved him...she called him "Mister Alex" but he was only a six-going on genius-year old**. Santa also brought Vivi a pair of swimming goggles and a pair of inflatable arm bands, which she thought were pretty cool (despite the expression on her face - she was just fooling around. Not that she doesn't use that expression often when she IS cranky, she just didn't happen to be cranky at that very moment!).

Whoa...what's this??? A photograph of a mama? Unheard of! This blog is supposed to be all about the kid, all the time, right?



Not much to say there except that yes, I was relaxed and happy!

Later Vivi got her hands on the camera. I think this kid has some talent for photography! Look at her candid shot of her parents! Bruce is warning her, with his eyes, not to drop the camera, and Kiley is engrossed in a word puzzle. Classic.



Vivi is starting to be more self-conscious. Poor thing, she's been stared at so much through her life, but she really handles it well. She does seem to know the difference between people who want to play with her and people who just want to stare at her. The latter are definitely more abundant. So when she can let go and play with a crowd of Asian kids (who want to play instead of stare), its pretty fun and sweet. These were our last moments before heading out for the flight home.


*more on the asterisk later! It relates to turkey dinner!
** The boy and his mom live in Beijing and may be friends for future visits! Yay!