You are NOT getting five gingerbread men and 12 chocolate Santas for 50 cents!

Ugh. Someone needs to tell my mother that you just can't ask for presents back if the recipient doesn't seem to use them! Her exact words while I was getting out of the car earlier today: "Where's the Roots knapsack that Grandma and I bought you? If you don't use it, give it back!" Fortunately, I knew better than to ask HER where her tact was... that would have led to stramash, and no mistake! I'm not giving in to her this time... last year at this SAME TIME, it was something else. No way. Just because I don't seem to use an item doesn't mean I won't have use for it later... *sigh*

Church was definitely packed today! Said hi to Randal and made small talk with him / thanked him for the Christmas card he gave me before he felt he had to do the sound because Eric wasn't here yet. He likes my Santa hat, and figures I can wear it till NYE... I dunno, man! Later, I jokingly blamed Eric for foiling certain things... he said that he was doing the multimedia stuff, and to blame Mike instead! Uh, HE's not "in the know" and wouldn't have ONE clue what I was blaming him for! So then I sat up near the front where I said hi to Calla, Winnie, her baby Megan, and a bunch of others. Cindy gave me a Christmas card, and I gave Joe his Christmas / birthday cards (Christmas baby!) while saying hi to Helen and baby Nathaniel. I saw Julianna (another Christmas baby), but didn't get a chance to talk to her or her boyfriend Mike. (who has the exact same name as Mike K. in Awana) It was one compact service, since they managed to fit everything in around Chris' brother Wesley getting baptized AND a baby dedication for Hannah and Benjamin! Saw Tim with Joshua, and congratulated him on his baby's birth. Asked what the name was: pronounced like Mike Keenan, apparently.

After service, I went downstairs to see what was going on with the brunch prep, and said hi / Merry Christmas to Helen K. and her baby Nicholas. I gave Hien her Christmas / birthday cards (Dec. 30), and gave Rosanna one gingerbread man for her sixth birthday tomorrow (yet another Christmas baby!). She told me that she still remembered when I gave her a stuffed bear for her birthday a couple of years ago: her mom says that she still loves it, so that's cool. Anita W. gave me a wedding thank-you card for me and Steph... it's more than a year late, but that's okay! (Billy and Stella gave theirs out at least three years late, after all...) Denise managed to catch me in the basement and give me a Christmas card. Since my stuff was already in the toddler room, I couldn't really reciprocate... next week, perhaps! She was really exhausted since she got in at 1 AM after her flight had been delayed for two hours! Sounded like she needed a lot of sleep, heh. I went outside since the kids were starting their singing time, and her brother Brian asked if I'd seen his parents. His sister had gone outside just recently, I told him... so he had to jet to the front of the church and see if his parents had gone without him!

We joked that Kevin should go inside and inspect the brunch prep in the kitchen since he works in food inspection, then he said that a church food event didn't really need it... but community events certainly did, like your average soup kitchen or neighborhood holiday dinner. Jon and Jen talked about Boxing Day: apparently, Jon and Harmony are just going to look at all the crazy people trying to shop! Jen doesn't seem interested in the hockey game at Eric's later on, but we'll see. I went back inside after a while and saw Steven (Christmas baby) briefly... I think the kid's ten now! Little Wilson didn't want to be with the kids while Auntie Bessy was talking to them about Christmas, so I told Mike and Kathy that they could go with their son Christopher while I watched him. Later, he ate with the four-year-olds. (Evelyn, Clara, Luke, Bianca, etc.) The brunch went off without a hitch, much to Vivian's pleasure. Anita Tung and I tried getting Bianca to eat some ham / waffle / eggs / hash brown. She didn't seem to want anything, but saved it for her mom! I talked to Clara (AKA "girl with the pretty eyes" to my sister) about her new sibling: baby Gabriel cries a lot, but she still likes him. (the name Gabriel for a kid born in December sorta makes sense, as does little Natalie's name since her birthday was three days ago... Priscilla's birthday is today, actually!)

After I ate, I gave Jason and Amos one gingerbread man to share. Andrew said that he got my email, and thought the Richmond list was hilarious! I gave Chung his Christmas / birthday cards (yet another Christmas baby), and talked to Dave a little about tonight's dinner at his place. (Harmony's invited, but can't come since she's doing a carols / dessert thing at Fraserlands) His girlfriend Tiffany gets in tomorrow night, and his mom is definitely excited! Handed Dave and Christon their Christmas cards, and then ten-year-old Carson offered me 50 cents / a chocolate stocking / other miscellaneous stuff for my bag of five gingerbread men and twelve mini chocolate Santas. I don't THINK so, dude... 50 cents doesn't even cover half a gingerbread man! Julie C. complained that he was being gross during brunch... ah, boys who are brats!

Since Steph and I had to go to the Greek restaurant at 12:45 or so, I went around handing chocolate Santas to random kids / teens: Zoe, Jessica, Jennifer, Jason, Amos, Cordia, Stanley, and Quan got some. (I think I still have a couple) Complimented Stanley on his yellow-and-black "POLICE LINE: DO NOT CROSS" guitar strap - his brother Eric picked it up downtown somewhere, so that's pretty cool. Gave Vania a Christmas card for her mom, handed Auntie Fonda her Christmas card, and said bye to various people. My grandma was concerned about her hair in the rain that had started, so we had to drive to the restaurant which is pretty much across the street from the church! Oh well, it's best not to make seniors TOO cranky! Lunch was good, but we had a LOT of leftovers. Talked to Billy and Danny about those spicy wings that Henry mentioned: apparently, they were pretty good! Watched some Maximum Exposure show on FOX... crazy stuff goes on there! In the bathroom, I discussed certain annoying people with my sister: of course we don't know a lot of Chinese since we grew up here and weren't born in Hong Kong like Billy and Danny were! (Uncle Sam's mom wanted to be playful and try a game of "for each Chinese character the kids know from these Christmas cards, they get a dollar!" A certain father at the table disparaged our ability: let's see how you do if it's in FRENCH, shall we, sir?!)

My parents had to squish me on the way home: I had no room to lean back since I was double-teamed with their arms around me. I know there's not much personal space in the backseat with three people there, but seriously! At least I only have to spend until lunch tomorrow with them, but some family time on Christmas is good. Yay for sleeping over / not being alone, maybe. Jon was out at the mall doing last-minute Christmas shopping at three places before going to Dave's tonight: THAT IS INSANE! Tomorrow, Steph's treating us for lunch at Neptune Seafood Restaurant: one less mouth to feed since Jon's having lunch with Harmony's family near T&T... good luck parking there even if it's NOT Christmas! My mom thought that I could haul my presents back to the townhouse and open them tomorrow with them, but my sister has reason: too much for me to transport back and forth if they're already here with me at my place where they should be! ;) (then I don't have to worry about certain things like reactions, haha)

Guess I'm helping out at the service with the Awana kids, after all... at least I *just* responded to that Awana email, hehe. Danny asked me if we had to wear our uniforms, but I wasn't sure about that. Now that I've seen the email again, I see that we have to be there at 9:15 or so... maybe I will have to go with Jon and Dad: I'll be there SO EARLY! (8:45-9 AM?! Julie S. didn't want to be at the violin music practice yesterday because of the sleepover at Jason Mak's beforehand, heh) Guess I really can't sleep in... not that I was really planning on it, of course. Chinese Eric has not called Jon, but Tony did during lunch and ask to be included on the Daniel Fellowship email list. His email address is interesting since it's his Chinese name spelled backwards. I don't blame him for sleeping in and missing the service! No time today to look at my cards and process them: tomorrow it is since I gotta go to Dave's now!


I just thought of something. Maybe if we go for desserts on Boxing Day after the PPV hockey game, I can ask Vernon about the computer equipment since he'd know what innards would go with which components! Heh... he'll be there since it's his parents' anniversary! ;)