Our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Sanya

We spent our Christmas eve day at the beach . . . Nica looking stylish in her Thai pants . . .



the sunset at the beach on Christmas eve








Our Christmas eve dinner . . . Chinese food at a restaurant on the beach at DaDongHai



the delicious meal



the restaurant decor



we went for a walk on the beach after dinner



Nica on the beach



We spent Christmas day at the beach reading, sleeping, and relaxing before taking off in the evening for Hong Kong via Guangzhou



enjoying the sand between our toes . . . .



and the sunshine (it was 29 degrees Celsius)



others enjoyed the beach too



DaDongHai where we spend many enjoyable afternoons



The Christmas Bunny??? For some reason we could not quite understand, one hotel featured a Rabbit Family Christmas theme

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

We captured some Christmas trees throughout the season and our travels...

Here is ours at home!

And Joe with his homeroom class at school...

And again at home with friends, Dee & Geo! luv u guyz!!

And, of course, some from our trip to the sunny south...starting at the airport...

(notice this one, decorated completely with Coca-Cola bottles! haha)

(notice the Russian in the background...Sanya definitely caters to the Russian tourists!)

...and ending at our hotel in Hong Kong! We have left the sunny south, and are now exploring Hong Kong. More pics to follow soon, including some of our Christmas Day on the beach.

Merry Christmas, dear family!
Joe, Nica, & baby!!

I'll be warm for Christmas...

Some more of our pre-Christmas celebrations...thinking of our families and wishing we could have both beaches and family together!!



We have consumed a LOT of coconut smoothies!

A view of the ocean from the front door of our hotel

We explored a mountain known in English as "Lover's Mountain"
The literal meaning is "Lu" (deer) "hui" (turn) "tou" (head) in memory of the man who was deer hunting and was about to shoot the deer when the deer turned into a beautiful woman. They fell in love and were wed on this very mountain. haha...so romantic...

A view of Sanya from the top of the mountain!

Joe is SO GOOD at doing the "Chinese man pose" !!!

Nica being Nica...

Look at how big our son is getting!!

Lovers... ...the legend is true... this mountain is magical (sigh)

beauty all around!

Nica expressing pure excitemnt and joy with the palmtrees decorated for Christmas!

Here is the statue at the top of the mountain in honor of the two lovers... it can be seen for miles around!!!

After hiking we enjoyed a great thai dinner!

We saw monkeys in the trees as we were going back down the mountain! Some came quite close to us, but it was hard to get a photo b/c it was so dark, but we got a few! So cool!

A view of the city at night from the top of the mountain.

and a view of "our" beach at night!

We love you all!! We are sadly preparing to leave Sanya soon, but will post a few more pics of our final days there soon!

hugs from Joe & Nica (and baby!!)