Happy Lunar New Year! Welcome to the Year of the Snake. This year specifically celebrates the black water snake. According to the Chinese zodiac, this is a year for steady progress and attention to detail. Focus and discipline are necessary to complete the goals you have set forth. The snake is the most introspective, intuitive and refined of all the animal signs. This is a good year for business, but be thoughtful with contracts. Find a safe place to work because the snake needs to feel protected as it utilizes its analytical skills. And finally, good news for those of you who have creepy taste in pets, ancient Chinese wisdom says that a snake in your house is a good omen because it means that your family will never starve.

We arrived in Hong Kong just in time for all the exciting festivities. New Year is celebrated over 15 days. We plan to partake in as much fun as we can find. Due to a short notice booking situation and the holdiay, we are staying in a s*** hole. It is the type of place you live in when you first graduate from college. It is tiny, and the bathroom is a bit creepy. I pretend I am at camp and make my shower time fa-a-ast!

I am feeling a bit road weary lately and AG can tell. On our first night here after viewing the apartment, he took all his girls out for drinks and dinner at the Ritz-Carlton! It has the highest bar in the world at 118 floors up and kids are welcome until 9 pm. So after checking it out and the girls making a pact to come back on Nina's 21st birthday we headed down to another lounge on the 103rd floor where we had dinner overlooking Victoria Harbor. Yeah! Then we had to head back to the place we rented. Boo!

Sunday we went to The Peak which is a tram-ride to the top of a beautiful hill overlooking Hong Kong and the harbor. We got our first taste of the pushing and shoving that is the Chinese way. Unbelievable. As we were getting on the car there was quite a crowd. When the shoving started I was surprised and said to AG, "Let's wait for the next car. I'm not doing this." He said, "Yes you are" and he put his big (relatively, he's huge) American body in the doorway and we all went under his arm and on the car - got seats and everything! Two old men starting pushing and yelling and another family member had to back them off of each other. We did make it to the top of The Peak for more great views of the city and harbor.

The first day of the New Year is celebrated with a huge parade. There were floats, music, dragon and lion dancers and we heard "Gangnam Style" about 20 times! Fun times, except for the puking kid we had in tow! Poor Celeste started feeling sick just as we were waiting to watch the parade. All the streets were closed off, so there was no way we could get a taxi and she just couldn't manage to walk back to the apartment. We ducked into a beautiful hotel (so many - yet none for the Grazianos!) and she vomited for a few hours while AG and I took turns watching the parade with Nina. I told Celeste that I hope this is her first and last New Year's to spend with her head in the bowl!

The next day, which marked the start of our 7th month on the road, everyone was feeling better. We headed out on a bus tour of the city followed by the greatest fireworks display we have ever seen. (And we were on The Mall in Washington, DC at the 4th of July two years ago!) I guess it helps to have all the world's firework factories within your borders! Repeat - pushing and shoving.

Day 3 is known for horse racing. We were on our way there and changed our minds. We wandered and got a better feel for the city. Everywhere in the city there are dragon dances in the streets and everyone is off work for 3 days. It's very festive. We also discovered hot pots today. It is like Chinese fondue. You get meat, vegetables, dumplings, noodles, etc and a pot of broth and you cook and share. Thank goodness because I am one who likes my meat processed where I can't see it. And the restaurant windows with entrails hanging and the menus reading "intestines" were really putting me off. Saved by the hot pot!

Today was back to work day for the people of Hong Kong. So we were off to the visa office to get paperwork completed for our visit to the mainland. This was all new to us as we have not had to get visas for any other country. It turned into an all day adventure of jumping through hoops. Starting at 8:30 in line outside waiting for the doors to open and continuing until 5 pm when we got word that we are allowed a 30 day visa. We were hoping for an extension of 7 extra days. Which still can happen, but requires more paperwork and more money and more effort (read time wasted). In between we spent part of the day at the U.S. Consulate getting paperwork that proves that Celeste and Nina are our children (read bulls***). I was very proud of myself for talking my way in the door without an appointment. And proud of all the Grazianos for our calm attitude during the whole process. Even AG channeled some major zen when the couple behind us crowded us while we were at the window talking to a representative.

The girls have been superstars through everything and in the morning we are going to surprise them with a trip to Disneyland Hong Kong. The folks at Disney are usually experts at crowd control so we'll see how they handle the hustling and bustling Chinese.

Amy