Naming, Jed, babies, movies, DVD machine problems, tensions, Friday plans

The Awana kids were very cute singing their three songs today! Little Conor wanted to be with his brother Sean, so we let him up on stage. Chrystal and I talked to Selena and Sunny about Hawaii and the holidays. William and Stanley talked about names for a bit: Stanley says he got his name because his dad saw Stanley Park, and figured that would be a good name... eep. He also has a friend named Maxim, so wonders if the dad was reading a certain magazine, haha. Someone can never pronounce Vania's name, oops. Henry asked me where my uniform was since his was in the car and someone was bugging him about it: mine was at home, but Danny wasn't wearing his either!

I talked to little Gwyneth and Evelyn for a bit, and their mom Teresa says she'll call me next year since the Christmas season is pretty busy. Not a problem: I know she's going to Winter Conference too! Clara's mom told me that baby Gabriel was born on Nov. 19 - I had a glimpse of him yesterday, and he looked cute enough! (sleeping, though) Talked to Mary, David, Julie, Hien, Margaret, Emily, Mike, and a bunch of others too: definitely tired today! Hannah and Priscilla said that they couldn't open gifts till Boxing Day (some other kid also said this to me), so I told them that my brother and his girlfriend were just going to the mall tomorrow to look at all the crazy people who actually DO shop then! Saw my old Sunday School kid Jed again: he had a sparkly Santa hat, and still likes toy cars since he had two of them! (in Sunday School, all he wanted to do was hold the toy cars during storytime!)

Looked at the babies in the baby room for a bit in between DVD machine problems: David's wife Rosenda looks HUGE again... she must be due pretty soon. William told me that one baby's head was as big as his dad's foot: that's baby Ian for you, and he'll be a big kid! His cousin Olivia spilled Cheerios all over the floor, whoops! Stanley wanted to scare them since he didn't like small kids that much: that's not nice, especially on Christmas Day! Tried watching THE INCREDIBLES, but settled on LION KING 2 instead when Uncle Johnny fixed the DVD machine. Danny said that one has a lot of problems - he's used it before, and it stops every five minutes and won't have sound! Not good when you have a bunch of hyper kids in the basement!

Went upstairs after it was over, and wished various people a Merry Christmas before going to lunch with my family. Neptune Seafood Restaurant (which is actually the Silver Palace) was way too full. I saw Nai Chiu waiting outside, so we chatted for a bit.. he must have come from church too! He introduced me to his mom, and I introduced him to my grandma. After that, we tried Long's Noodle House (Jon and Dallas' "date" restaurant), then decided to go to Tsim Chai back in Richmond: Moutai was closed! Family tensions were running kinda high, since a certain grandma was cranky and created a chain reaction: somehow, my sister and I were expected NOT to be cranky! Oh well, we did a good job of seeming cheerful... but I was getting tired, which sometimes leads me to be really quiet. (like Jeremy and others I know) That can be misinterpreted by certain people as being cranky: not most of the time! Also saw on TV that James Brown died. :(

Grandma's also losing her memory: she asked me the same question twice in ten minutes yesterday on the way to Dave's ("Did you take a nap this afternoon?"), and bought Chinese cough medicine even after my mom opened some for her at home! Speaking of grandma figures, Uncle Sam's mom has a limited life expectancy, according to doctors. Maybe that's why she gave red envelopes with varying amounts of money to some married people I'm related to! Who knows... but just enjoy the time we have, for sure! My sister drove me home, as I had the same Greek food leftovers that they did for dinner! (parents wanted me over there, but here is better for me) I'd open my gifts now, but I'm too tired. Maybe I'll do it later on after I nap in my own bed... hey, Sheena also wrote me a Christmas note which I didn't see at first with Cindy and Dianne's card! Cool... I'll call Steph tomorrow about the hockey game and stuff.


Checking my email, I see that Jon would love to go to a veggie restaurant called The Foundation with a neat and funky vibe on Friday for our Bible Study group outing. ($10-20 per person?!) Then he wants to watch a documentary at Jeremy's or somewhere else that isn't Nathan's, since the Daniel Fellowship is building gingerbread houses there. The only way we can have Nathan's place for ourselves is if we take over and kick everyone else out, haha. If documentaries aren't our thing, then he would love to go karaoke or watching a movie at a theatre. His next email to a bunch of Toronto / Vancouver people actually covers the karaoke thing: I overheard him tell Harmony last night that he'd LOVE to do that and sing duets with her, haha.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday before dinner and maybe past 10 PM / Saturday past 2 PM are good for him. He figures that nobody really wants to spend New Year's (Sunday) at a karaoke joint, but that may just be him. I guess I can see where all my post-Christmas money will be going since he has expensive taste! My sister thinks he should spot me since he can't expect everyone to go along with what he says budget-wise... good luck in getting him to do that without my owing him something later! The reviews seem okay, but the open kitchen and health standpoint might leave something to be desired... guess we'll see later.