Short, simple and sweet

Friday (22 December 2006)
I was on medical leave – down with viral infection that causes stomach ache. So, rested the whole day.

Saturday (23 December 2006)
I wanted to drop by at the KBU Christmas carnival but I was still feeling weak. In the morning, Seng Chor went jungle trekking at Bukit Gasing with his ex-colleagues. I had to baby-sit with Mum. At night, Mum, Seng Chor, Jordan and I went to Tesco for groceries and dinner. Stomach felt better.

Sunday (Christmas Eve)
9 – 10 am: Congregational worship; followed by Christmas Eve lunch in the church. The theme was “It’s a Miracle!” About 100 people turned out. Food was catered from Loong Foong restaurant – not too bad. Glad that Mum and sis came. Seng Chor was the master of ceremony. Hmm… not an experienced one, though. Good effort for the first time. Our Growth Group (GG) gave out bookmarks sewn with the words “It’s a Miracle!” – all hand made by some of the members including Seng Chor. I think he even sewed more than me! That’s how we have been spending our nights in December – sewing and babysitting at the same time. On some nights, we took turns – one sews, the other baby sits. Jordan must have felt neglected sometimes. We let him play by himself in the playpen most of the time. Our chief designer was none other than our beloved Aunty Sue. She puts in the most effort with the final ‘magical’ touch on all the bookmarks. God bless her richly. Altogether we had about 180 bookmarks. The GG’s bookmarks were specially made by Aunty Sue – rainbow colour. Heeheehee!

Christmas Eve Dinner cum Gift Exchange. The usual gang gathered in our house at about 7 pm. We had a very simple dinner – Dominoes pizza, potatoes salad and special dessert by Lu Kenn and Eva. Then, the fun part began – gift exchange. For the last 2 years, we bade for our own gift using Monopoly money. The highest bidder gets the gift. This year, our creative guy Kevin suggested something different – each person selects someone to give the gift. The person acts like a guardian angel for that special someone. Kenny took the lead to coordinate. Below is extracted from his email:

“This year, let's try something different ... here is the list of people coming. Please select one person for whom you would like to buy a present. It is on a first come, first served basis (hehe). Please reply to me (as it is supposed to be a secret whom you are buying a gift for). I will let you know if the person has been selected already. Please keep it to yourselves too . :)”

When we were preparing the gift, we just wrote to whom it is for. We did not state who it is from. However, some of us wrote clues as to who the giver is and the recipient has to guess.

Kenny distributed the gift to everyone. For those with clues, we read the clues first, guessed, then opened the gift. The rest had to guess after the gift is opened. The guessing part was really fun. Some were really creative in presenting their clues. One of the clues is “Who wants you to be fatter?” Hahaha! Here is the list of who got what and from whom.

Seng Chor – voucher from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf from Kevin
Christine – Keyboard brush from Kenny
Jordan – Long sleeves shirt from Lu Kenn
My Mum – blue coloured scarf with sequins from Jordan
Eva – Towel from my Mum
Lu Kenn – miniature golf set from Eva
Alex – Pen from Sahaya
Yoke Kheng – Cloth to make Sari from Pei Lu
Kenny – T-Shirt from Yoke Kheng
Kevin – Multi-purpose knife from Alex
Sahaya – Chocolates from Seng Chor
Yung Ling – Light-up Christmas ornament from Christine
Pei Lu – Book from Yung Ling

At the end, we took a picture holding our gift. It was a short, simple and sweet event.