they cooketh a christmukkah meal



the younger brother and sister cooked the annual christmas meal sans da jie and i contributed with my very first pie - a pork and mushroom pie! we had mussels - more lemon would have been good - pasta, salad - that's seaweed on the top thrown in by the sibs, honeyed chicken wings - the bro cooked afew in baileys and got a self-induced high on it, not the wine - chipolatas skewered with bacon and we were rightly suitably stuffed! one of the few times the sibs gather in the kitchen and argue over the use of the convection oven - my fault - the pastry was too thick so i had to leave it in the oven for much longer.

this morning in church the choir was awesome - such a delightful and unusual range of songs sung in majestia and joy bathed in sun in the santuary - i always love to be in there - i think first impressions stay with you and my first impressions of the santuary was when i was a seven year old choir girl where it was semi-out-of-bounds cos the kids went to sunday school in the modern brick and concrete extension but the sanctuary space was so different and awe-inspiring with the stained glass windows and the lamps hanging from the iron rafters, the solid timber pews and the red-carpet aisle and the old brickwork and i was shorter and smaller than The Adults so i think i always feel that way since and later on we drove to killeny for half boiled eggs and barley for breakfast and then we swung to havelock to have teochew porridge but decided it was too soon after the eggs to eat so we drove to sembawang hills for lunch instead.

last night i made a quick bus trip to brenda's house to exchange presents and have a quick Christmas Catchup and it was very nice and cosy sitting in her room and talking and she gave me a delightful cd - american in paris.

the best christmas present for me was when i arrived late in church and got to the pews where mingyao was and sat down and he handed me his gray sweater for me to cover my hands because the sanctuary can get quite cold - and i had rushed out of the house thinking oh should get a sweater but never mind, rushing - the impact was like pow! pow! in my heart and i grinned silently.