My First Christmas Present Of The Year.

It's a wee bit early to have received and opened a Christmas pressie. But The Canoeist doesn't have much time here, and he won't be around for Christmas, so...

Ok, the truth of the matter is that I saw this while at the mall today and in my sweetest of strawberry shortcake sweet voices, said, "So pretty! You buy for me for Christmas?"

And voila! It's now in my room. :)

The Canoeist has been working in Shanghai for at least 3 years now. During those 3 years, he's performed the disappearing act quite well.

So it was quite a surprise to receive a call from him late this morning, when he's touched down only just this morning. Since he's fully booked for tomorrow, (and I'm pretty sure he will be busy catching up with his gazillion friends over the weekend) we decided to catch up over dinner today.

"Dinner's on me. What would you like?" I asked.

"Let's go eat hawker fare." came the reply.

For as long as I've known him, The Canoeist has been one of the most simple, contented, down-to-earth people I've met. Coupled with the memory of an elephant, which is good and bad. So over 'wanton mee', 'orh-luah' and 'kwey chap', we caught up on what's been happening in the other's life over the past 3 years. As always, it's great catching up with old friends. And because of that elephant memory that he has, the evening was punctuated with his "See? You never change!" and "You best at doing this kind of thing what!" or "Ya la, you laughed at her maggi mee hair cos it resembled your email background pattern!".

Honestly, I'd clean forgotten some of these things till tonight! And I can't believe I actually said or did some of those things. Thanks for reminding me. It's great fun to look back and laugh at some of them. I guess that's why God created memories and gave some of us a memory like that of an elephant. :)

Thanks for the blanket too! As I'm typing this, I've just noticed that it's made from Polar Bears! It's really pretty...... look at it unfolded. I wonder if it has strawberry scents like the Strawberry Shortcake figurines I used to have as a kid...

Post Edit: Just so Kayestercan doesn't call me an ingrate, I'd better clarify. The Strawberry Shortcake blanket was the second Christmas present of the year. The first was this bag from my bestest cousin, Kayestercan. I got it about 2 months back. That's how early it was.

Come to think of it, it was a similar case as the blanket you know. I said, "Eh your bag nice."

And voila! I got it the next week, with a, "That's your Christmas present hor."