December 21

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Today we decided to split into “teams” and get things done.  Yeah, right.  I decided I needed to buy something to wear to the wedding we’re attending on Christmas day and Danny consented.

(Someone asked, so here’s our email : fungbren@gmail.com)

Danny and the kids headed off for a day of play, because the weather was good, and that’s what the kids wanted to do.  Before they could play, though, they charged their batteries after finding a European café, complete with croissants and bagels.  They had a great breakfast of buttered croissants while Danny had a BLT bagel that he later raved about.

Fully charged, they headed off on foot to visit Danny’s old school (yes, he swears they did have schools WAY BACK THEN).  Emily, my little 7 year old, old soul, loves doing that.  She requests it each time we visit.  They were able to visit the school again, and take some photos, complete with the Christmas tree out front, and then they hit the park!  There are few things in this world that Emily and Stephanie love more than a park with monkey bars to climb on.  See the happy smiles?

While they were having their outdoor fun, I was fighting pre-Christmas crowds at the shops in Central, trying to find something nice for the wedding, and I was successful.  Even have a choice of outfits!  I also managed to do a little Christmas shopping for the kids, so it was a great outing.  Still need to find me some shoes (not an easy task in this country full of 4 foot tall women with size 3 feet!!!) and I need to find some kind of toy gift for the kids.

We had been invited to Danny’s aunt’s apartment for dinner, because tomorrow is Winter Solstice, but we have other plans then.  We took the subway and a taxi to get there, and by the time we arrived, the girls were really tired and ratty.  Luckily we did show up, though, because his aunt had bought tons of lovely food.  She had beef, chicken, shrimp, fish, and many different veggies, all ready to be cooked in hotpot.  As an added surprise, we were told that it is Kit-Ling’s 49th birthday today, and we were having cake and there was a card to sign.

Dinner was as delicious as it looked and we were all stuffed.  See my “new best friend” in the photos?  That’s Danny’s cousin’s son.  He’s 12 now and his mother passed away when he was just a toddler.  Suddenly out of nowhere this kid has learned English so he spent the entire time talking my ear off!!  It was really funny and cute.

The cake was really good, but get this (and see the PHOTO!!!!)  they lit a firecracker on the top of the cake as a candle.  For. Freakin. Real.  A firecracker.  When I saw what the other sister was going to do, I just about had a damn heart attack.  Fireworks inside a tiny cramped apartment.  With kids around.  MY kids.  Holy crap, they’ve lost their damn minds.  I hauled my kids as far away from the table as possible and watched as they lit it.   Luckily, it didn’t catch anything else on fire or singe anyone’s hair or eyebrows.   As expected, Stephanie and Emily both had two pieces of cake.

By the time that was done, it was 10:30 at night (yes, again), so we hopped in a taxi and took it all the way back to our hotel. It’s a long ride, including the harbour tunnel, and cost a ton, but the kids were too tired to drag them on the subway to get back.