dear friends,

another year, another birthday! i am so grateful and constantly in awe of all the people and blessings that God has allowed me to have over the years, and i especially thank God for each of you, because you are so very special to me.

In case you are thinking about buying a present, may i ask that instead of buying something for me, you use the money you would have spent on me and spend it here instead.

as i look around me, i see all the consumerism and material gratification that surrounds this season, and i cannot help but think of those who are not as blessed with material wealth as we are. since september, i have made a decision to not spend any money on myself until the end of the year (with the exception of food and other basic necessities). so far, i have have managed to stay on track (with the exception of one day in shenzhen...). in the process, i've come to realize that it's not only about not spending money on myself, but considering the ways and places that our society spends and the attitudes that come with it.

we all know that hong kong is a materialistic place, and there is a heavy emphasis on finding evermore entertaining ways to satisfy our need for pleasure and self-gratification. for my birthday this year, i would like to turn the tables around. knowing that someone in need has been blessed because of my birthday would be the best present i could ever receive.

thank you for being in my life and i treasure your friendship immensely!

with love,
jan :)

* day of boxes *
the flurry of christmas activities and family gatherings is over, and i'm now looking forward to a week of being chained to my desk again. two more term papers to go (one of them a group research proposal = yuck). it was a precious weekend. we began on friday night by celebrating winter solstice at cliff and linnet's with the whole family, including auntie vicky and auntie lisa. we had a massive turkey, a massive ham, and lots of cheese - the good stuff that we could never afford ourselves :) then it was into sheung shui on saturday morning. i was good and finished my paper in the afternoon, and then we had another massive barbeque the way only the ma's could do it. we had my favorite cake, the mozart from the madarin oriental, to celebrate my birthday early, and then we opened our presents.

we came back into town on sunday morning and the highlight of the whole weekend had to be the christmas eve service on sunday night. tom did such a great job putting it all together. the beauty and impact of this precious holiday was fully captured when we sang 'o holy night', where i really felt like the angels were singing with us! and of course 'the little drummer boy' with gordon, nate and tom's harmony and derek, edem and hippo on the djembes was incredible. here's a little taste of the magic (all other photos will have to wait, i'm afraid. i won't get around to editing and uploading them to imagestation until january 3rd at the earliest.):

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on christmas day, derek and i opened our other presents in front of our little-tree-that-could, and then we headed over to the flying pan for brunch with derek's parents and older brother & sister in law. and what would a holiday with the ma's be without a movie? we watched 'casino royale' at the new admiralty theatre and i have to say it was pretty good for entertainment purposes. i had my doubts about daniel craig, but i think he did a pretty good job considering he's supposed to be the bond-in-the-making as we now know him.

afterwards, it was off to tea with all my cousins at one of their homes in jardine's lookout. it was a home to be coveted, but i always tend to fear what that much money could do to people. after an hour of feeling starkly out of place, derek, kevin and i headed back to reality to our little humble abode in wanchai for dinner at home. this was my menu for the night:

homemade cream of carrot & basil soup
thai green chicken curry and rice
baby corn (or corn baby, as the package called it)
(extinct) chocolate lava cake

all served with a bottle of 2004 santa cristina toscana red. i know we should have had white, but that was kevin's christmas present and he wanted to get rid of it. the lava cake was extinct because there was no lava to be had. two tries both produced a fully baked (and dry) cake. my convection oven is too powerful for it's own good!

so now as i hole up in my room, enjoy the pre-new year's buzz and see you at the winter carnival!

* finally, a break! *
well, 3 postgrad exams under my belt and i finally get a chance to breathe! after being up late all week studying, i can't wait for a few days of freedom from books! but actually, i still have to do some work tomorrow because i have a small paper due on christmas day... we'll be in sheung shui again for 2 days, then coming back to town for the vine's christmas eve service on sunday night. then it'll be more indulgence of the edible variety with family on christmas day... can't wait!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

remember the reason for the celebrations, and may it inspire you and give you purpose and vision for every new day in 2007!!

For a child has been born—for us!
the gift of a son—for us!
He'll take over
the running of the world.
His names will be: Amazing Counselor,
Strong God,
Eternal Father,
Prince of Wholeness.
His ruling authority will grow,
and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.
~ Isaiah 9:6-7a

* psychology *
final exam tomorrow morning! wish me luck!

wait. i have to tell you about this course. it's a 1 semester course consisting of, essentially, 3 major courses: introduction to psychology, developmental psych, and abnormal psych. at any normal university, there would be a whole year devoted to just one of these. but here at HKU, they like to cram them into one semester and expect people with absolutely no psych background to pick it all up, just like that.

thank God i do have a psych background, otherwise i would be freaking right now! what's more, i haven't read most of the text readings. all i've got are the class notes & handouts. way to go, me.

* update: i finished the exam in half an hour. is that a good sign or not?? well, it was 20 multiple choice questions, and 2 short answer questions with only about 3/4 of an A4 page to write. so it really wasn't very much. i hope i didn't misread the instructions.....

* miracles happen! *
unfortunately, this is not going to be as spiritual as you might think. but i am no less grateful and thrilled.

yesterday, after pleading our case to several professors, we had two of our four term papers postponed until february. (late january for most of my class, but because i've taken official leave for most of january, i got extraaa extension.)

this means i still have to work pretty hard through the holidays, with 3 exams and 3 papers in the next 2.5 weeks, but at least i can take a day or two to enjoy christmas and my birthday without feeling TOO guilty...

and to enhance the holiday mood, a weekend not to be missed:






























MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

* bad girl *
i'm being a very bad girl right now. it's past midnight, and i have a final tomorrow morning (or should i say this morning?) and i'm not studying. well, i am. but i'm taking a wee little break to blog about nothing. just to tell you that i'm not doing what i'm supposed to be doing.

in the past few weeks as i've really had to kick my brainpower into high gear, i've realized that i cannot concentrate. i feel like i've already wasted so many precious hours by doing nothing. like now. i don't know whether it's my deteriorating brain (BrainAge tells me i'm 58 or something like that....), or just lack of discipline. i think it's the latter and i'm just looking for an excuse.

oh, and i just wanted to clarify that the first photo in my previous post is the tree at rockefeller centre in new york city. in case you didn't know. it's a small photo.

ok. back to the grind.