Easter 2009 was filled with stories and a wedding preview!

Before going over to the townhouse last night, I went to the 7-11 nearby and bought eight packages of half-price chocolate eggs. Half were for me, and the other half were for the Sunday School kids. I divided the kids' half into four Ziploc bags at the townhouse, and tried a green tea Kit Kat (which I assumed Melissa gave Steph in L.A.) after I watched some Chinese TV with Grandma. Some guy on the show looked a lot like Chow Yun Fat! Grandma was surprised I knew who that was; she also thought that Jon, White Kid (Eric), and I were CRAZY for leaving at 6 AM for service!

Watched my mom inventory a lot of thrift shop silver for Jon's wedding reception. Tried going to bed early, but sleeping just did not work. My brother woke me up before 5:45 AM, so we had a quick breakfast of bread, cake, and cashew nut butter before leaving to pick up Eric and Pastor John. Sunrise Service was pretty cool, although we did wonder where Jeremy was - Jon figured he was studying for an exam he has on Tuesday. I had to give Richie a hard time about the hockey night at his place, hahaha. People shared interesting personal stories about "new beginnings" - I'm not at liberty to disclose them here, but suffice to say that the tales gave me an insight into people's lives that I didn't have before... and the length was making my foot fall asleep, but at least we were under cover from the rain. Discussed how long the Sunrise Service tradition had been going on, hockey, and other things. Acer and Calla joked around about sarcasm later with Jon.. it had something to do with umbrellas, too.

Went to ABC Country Restaurant for breakfast, and I had a Western Omelette; I was telling Grace later that the mushrooms were what clinched it for me. Unlike last year, I had a good view of the TV - we discussed various news stories. There was a Sunday School teacher who was arrested for the murder of a child: "That's why we have the Child Protection program!" Mike, on a Berlin woman who jumped into a polar bear pit: "Suicide by polar bear!" Johnny, on a story about Nova Scotians finding needles and drug paraphernalia when the snow finally melted: "Hey, Citrus and Steph! There's a cop on TV!" On the Somali pirate story: "Hey, has the sea captain been rescued yet?" We saw the Obama family in church: "Yup, he IS a churchgoer!" Christon had to leave early, and got less sleep than the rest of us: working on Powerpoint till midnight and then having to drop his dad off downtown at 5:30 AM didn't help. (Jon and I found that we were waking up twice every hour - "not used to sleeping this early / not wanting to oversleep / excitement... hm. am I gonna sleep much the night before my wedding day?!")

Greeted a bunch of people at their tables, and had a good time bantering - Calla could identify Steph, Vanessa, and others by voice alone even if they were sitting in the back! I had three cups of coffee, so Eric said that I'd be either jittery or crazy later on; perhaps! Went to church at 9:30 after witnessing people do the roundabout tradition, and discussed stuff with Raymond: bowling, gutter balls, sleeping, Easter candy at 7-11, and more. Eric was obviously looking for his parents after we started worship, but things worked out. (even if everyone at the Sunrise Service was dozing off during Phil's sermon) Talked to Ron and Veronica after service had ended, and also in the fellowship hall. Added some cheese slices and pretzel twists to the kids' Easter chocolate, which they seemed to like. Said hi to Joshua and Keenan, who definitely wanted to play the drums! Interacted with baby Allison, gave her mom Anita the free diapers, and played with baby Matthias as well.

After Sunday School, I said hi to Watson's mom, who now knows my name - I'm glad her son knows it, too! (he can speak English now!) Said hi to Ada and her sons Ian and Sean - Sean knew my name without prompting, so that's very smart of him! I went to Pho with my mom and grandma; Steph decided that she HAD to go home and sleep after service. Waved to Ivan when I saw him there with his family, which was cool. Got back to church in plenty of time for the baptism service: Mom says her quasi-birthday dinner is on Wednesday night instead of tomorrow. (her "old style birthday" is in early April, not in mid-May) It occurs to me that I have plans at Erik's already, but we'll see what happens. Maybe Jon won't be able to make it either, haha. Raymond sat next to me, and we discussed our own Easter baptisms, plus Superstore's lacking selection of baptism cards: we're definitely not in the market for baby baptism here!

I didn't know most of the Chinese Congregation baptismal candidates, but I did recognize Adam and Andrew's mom by sight, whom I congratulated in simple Chinese later. (and one or two of my grandma's friends...) Nathan had to give me his cards to give to the girls since he had to leave right after Jon did a special song by Elgar on the violin. (Eric T. did a sax piece, which baby Allison seemed to like - Jeff was working...) I was reminded that Raymond could sing in Chinese, and he does a good job of it too! *yay* Joked that he'd throw me off, but we did exchange amusement and dubious looks. (I should have asked him for a translation of a guy who was apparently rather funny...) There was a guy who'd been married for several months, and is due to be a father in a few weeks: we DEFINITELY gave each other a weird look on THAT one! Picked up a copy of the English testimonies for Steph, since I knew she'd probably want one. Saw Rosanna and Samantha, both of whom professed to not know who I was... so I said that SOME people's pants were on fire! (calling them liars...)

There was a camera trained on the baptismal pool, and it was funny when a mop was almost the only thing we could see! (all the splash water had to be mopped up...) With translations and twelve testimonies, the whole thing ended at almost 5! Grace was comparing it to a really long AGM, and said that even weddings were shorter than three hours long! "We're all churched-out from almost twelve hours!" Calla advised Richie that he COULD hang a Flames flag out his car window since this wasn't Toronto, even if Vancouver and Calgary DO have a bitter rivalry. If it's Toronto, you'd better not be flying anything BUT Maple Leafs flags, unless you want your car keyed!

I told Sam and Mike that the huge crowd was a preview of my brother's wedding - Mike mentioned that he couldn't make it since his cousin happens to be getting married on the same day. Managed to find the girls and give them their cards: Jonathan called Nathan a ditcher since he'd left early, haha. Was in a bunch of pictures, which was cool enough. Saw Lucas and his parents - very nice! Afterwards, my grandma seemed to be under the impression that we were waiting for Dad so we could pick Mom up from work - Mom had actually left REALLY early so she could make the turkey for dinner! On the way to the townhouse, we saw a three-legged dog, and got caught up on the news in general.

Once Mom told me to wake my sister up, I accordingly did so... she thanked me for the testimonies. Grandma was then under the impression that my sister was at WORK, and wondered what I was doing - poor Grandma, getting old and confused! Nathan and Jon got there at 8; the dinner was simple, but it was still good. We watched an interesting food science show (BRAIN BOX) about halitosis, and breath-freshening agents. Parsley apparently doesn't help at all, while (cinnamon) gum / brushing teeth / fennel seeds (black licorice taste!) do. Discussed huge families, the baptism, Tina's Chinese testimony, the Ducks, beer, coffee, Kahlua, Calgary, Victoria, Christon, Ray, the Somali pirates NOT the "Yo ho ho!" type, serenading Harmony, work, Nate's dad, and more. Nate dropped by Eric's to pick up hockey tickets for Wednesday's playoff game (the BLUES) before dropping me off at home. Told him not to crash the car when he made his way back, while discussing Chinese Eric being VERY happy to see him, and other topics!