Christmas eve, i went to work for a few hours in the morning, and then joelle was kind enough to drop me off at john's house. i spent my whole day there, knitting, watching ronin, baking, eating, and playing simpsons jeopardy. hehehe. funniest event of the day was when john's cousin phil asked to have his back cracked, so as john was picking him up, phil farted. john insists that he got "poo'ed on."

This morning, i woke up and went to john's house for Christmas lunch. big feast, as always, and a gross amount of presents. if i ever marry into this family i will go broke having to buy presents for all these kids. then john and i came over here, and he helped me make some potato salad before we just sat and talked. with all the busy-ness and hustle & bustle of the season, it's hard to find a few minutes to just take a breather and chill. then i pretty much had to kick him out because we were leaving for dinner at calvin & ivan's house. it was nice, andy's family, leanne's family, john & levia, and oscar & samantha's family. the kids sat upstairs and watched an assortment of tv shows (mostly basketball, thanks to ivan & andy). dinner was fantastic...AAA Alberta roast was the best part! andy and i ate SO much beef that we were standing while eating it at the end...

it saddens me to write this, but somehow it doesn't FEEL Christmassy. i know the reason for the season and all that, but perhaps the busyness has just worn me down. it seems that i just went from school right into social mode. i guess sometimes i feel a bit down because i don't have one-on-one time to chill with ppl and just talk. heart-to-heart, maybe that's what i crave. now it's just quantity over quality, see how many ppl you can cram into the schedule. especially with everyone back for just a few days, it's hard to see one person at a time. like i haven't had the time to just calm my heart and think about what the day really means. reading abe's blog kinda hit home... the greatest marketing sham the secular world pulled out was santa claus and his big bag of gifts.
in a way, i kinda wish we had Christmas eve service at church again. it was always a night to look forward to, not only seeing everyone, but an evening to worship with loved ones. not that today wasn't a special night, but Christmas eve service was always special in its own way.

i'm ranting now, but i think y'all get my point. hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Christmas.

busy busy busy. monday i went to work, and gave carrie & joelle their presents. i got them ikea slippers and glitter glued stuff onto them. joelle's say "noel" and "joelle" with a snowman and a Christmas tree on 'em. carrie's say "merry" and "carrie" with a tree and a holly. joelle bought a square candy jar and painted stuff on each side! one side has her nickname for me, one side has a lizard, one a fishing scene (because i ranted all summer about going fishing!), and the other a turtle. very neat! carrie made me a plate of fudge...YUM!! after work i went to john's work and then we went to justin's house for his annual dinner thingy. it was VERY fun, with props going to darren & lesley's mom for one of the best shows i've seen all year!

today i went out for lunch with aaron and leanne (yay she's back!), and then we shopped. and shopped. came to my house, where sam picked leanne up, and then i took a nap before john picked me up to go to his sister's house. i guess you could loosely call it the "cheng kids' gift exchange"... it was pretty fun! all this time i thought big had my name, but turns out it was rosie that got me! she got me pj's and a necklace with an S hanging from it. even tho we had a "no telling" rule, rosie had gone up to john and asked what she should get me...apparently he was "no help at all." if there were prizes to be awarded, john would've gotten least thought-out gift cuz he bought rosie a bmw shirt...about an hour before he finished work today. in fact, he'd even forgotten who he had, so he bought a girl shirt and a guy's jacket just in case. of course, she got her gift last, because like i said, he forgot who he had. LoL, funny tho, she was prolly the happiest of everyone with her gift! i think i would've gotten the award for best-wrapped gift, cuz i made victor's look like a reindeer. :)
anyway, after presents, ppl played different games...a bunch of us played pictionary. the sisters on one team, me & kelly on another, and john & sabs' cousin (the boys!) on another team. somehow the boys came from way behind and won it (GRRR).

all in all, very busy but fun few days. just wait til the update about the next few days! :P

i am done like dinner! yaaay! i had my second (and last) exam on friday morning. it went okaaay, but i don't think i did as well as i did on thursday...which sucked, cuz both exams were worth 50%, and i think i was going in with a higher mark in the thursday one anyway. oh well...
after my exam, i went with a linguistics friend and her friend (both white ppl) for dimsum! it was their first dimsum experience, and they really liked it, so i'm glad i didn't disappoint. i spared them the tripe and chicken feet, so maybe they didn't get the *full* experience, but close enough for first-timers. after dimsum, i ended up walking down sparks st. so i called up tommy and went with him for lunch (well, his lunch, anyway). it was rather nice, i wish i had had time during the term to go for lunch with him more. then i went from there to john's house.

we talked for a while, ate, ran some errands, and then tackled a chore that's been long overdue: we cleaned his fish tanks. his big tank was overrun with algae, which would have been under control if his yellow tangs hadn't died long ago. so i tested the chemical levels, sucked out 1/4 of the tank, we cleaned out the dirt, and replaced the water. i reset all his live rock into a new formation, but it was really hard to do because the water was murky from us moving it all around. i did the best i could, and then figured i'd redo it if it looked bad once the water cleared up.

today, john and i went shopping all over town. went to ikea & lee valley (i managed to spend only $30 at ikea, PHEW!), and all over centrum. went to the fish store, and they've got some gorgeous fish...we're going back once they're on sale! went home, and checked out the formation of the live rock. it's actually not too bad, but then i noticed that we started with 4 fish last night, and one is now missing!! yes, i do believe that i may well have SQUISHED him under the rocks!! the water was so murky that i couldn't see what i was doing!! :*( john tried to make me feel better by saying that he might've accidentally sucked him out with the yukky water or cleaned him out with the algae. i still think i squished him. 2 of the 4 were pink damsels, and now there's only one. one's name was "buh" and the other was "nie" (if you know trevor, you get the joke). now that one is gone, the remaining damsel is just going to be called "bunny" from now on. but alas. may he rest in peace under that rock, in the garbage, or down the drain.