Peanut and PopTart: One more day, one more time…..

is about all we can say at this time! Oh yea, and Happy New Years from
Beijing, China! Its 30 minutes from midnight here as I post this one to our
friends in the United States for upload (thanks for everything Walker
family!). We were sitting in the hotel restaurant having dinner when we saw
the Sydney Harbor Bridge fireworks take place signaling a start to the New
Years celebrations around the World (actually, they are 3 hours later as it
starts in Kiribati, but I have never seen their fireworks on TV!). There
are lots of patrons gathering in the hotel to celebrate, locals, ex-pats and
the like, but we are all going to be fast asleep when the New Year floods
into our hotel room as we have a 5:30 am shuttle departure from here at the
Langham Hotel which is right next door to the Beijing Airport.

The day started early for us as we awoke at 5:00 am this morning and started
our journey to Beijing. We met the driver and guide in the lobby at 6:20 and
we were graciously served a nice breakfast to go by the staff of the hotel!
We arrived at the airport about 45 minutes later, got checked in very
swiftly and made it to our gate with time to spare! The flight was pretty
uneventful for Savannah and I, but Aiden and Mom had a serious accident in
the bathroom of the plane that had the flight attendants summoning me to the
restroom with supplies as they flooded the rear of the plane with orange
scented air freshener! Ann Marie likened the bathroom to a gas chamber as
they kept spraying it in and around the door until she almost could not
breath! It was a trying time, but a laugh was shared once the diaper and
clothes were changed and sealed in a odor proof bag! This will be one to
share with Aiden once he gets a little older!

Upon landing we were shuttled to the Langham Hotel right off the airport
property. This is a very nice hotel and the bed according to Ann Marie is
heavenly! She fell asleep about 5 minutes after crawling in! We ate lunch
and dinner right here at the hotel as we did not feel like going offsite and
for once we admitted that we were just too tired to do anything! I think we
all need an off day to just vegetate and let our bodies catch up!

Tomorrow morning comes early, so I will call it a night and let you all know
we are all thinking about you back home and cannot wait to be there
ourselves! Things on our to do list are fresh vegetables, ice and sleep in
our bed! Call us crazy, but we love home! I will now sign off from China
one last time and leave you all with well wishes for a Safe and Happy New
Year in the United States and to ask that you each say a little prayer for
the children of the World who tonight will go to sleep not knowing the love
of a family and total unconditional love. Till then……

Michael (God Bless America!), Ann Marie (I think this is the best mattress I
have ever…….zzzzzzzz!), Savannah (Please make sure the iPod is charged
Daddy!) and Aiden (Do they feed us on this plane too?) Kennedy