Ding Dong Bell, Writer's Hokkien version and Christmas MeMe

Writing to catch up with the Christmas holiday has been crazy. People have holiday, I have catastrophe in my hands. The good news is that I got myself some Christmas presents....three books! One from Janet Evanovich, of the Stephanie Plum fame because I missed Hard Eight from her Plum Series. Second book is Up All Night by the most gorgeous Chic Lit author I know, Carmen Reid. And the third book is something more sombre...For One More Day of the Tuesdays With Morrie fame, Mitch Albom. So, what am I going to be doing this Christmas? READ!!! Yippppeeeee!!!! And to commerate the celebrative and festive mood, here's a Hokkien song for you....sing to the tune of Ding Dong Bell (the kids' song) in part-Hokkien, part-English. ding dong bieow (must I translate this?) sia kar wa ai siow (write until go crazy) kui tiam mm cai liao (what time I dunno) wa pian ding dong bieow (I become ding dong bell) (wa) ai ki holiday (wanna go holiday) kee Hong Kong Causeway Bay (go HK causeway bay) ae sai luan chu bae...tngui lai ka lai pay (can simply buy , come back only pay) bo chap teng ar tae, (doesn't matter long or short) don't care what you say (self explanatory?) wa ai ho....li....day...... (I want holiday) YEAY!!! DING DONG BELL ORIGINAL VERSION Ding dong bell Pussy's in the well Who put her in? Little Johnny Flynn Who pulled her out? Little Tommy Stout What a naughty boy was that Try to drown poor Pussycat, Who ne'er did any harm But killed all the mice In the Farmer's barn lyrics to original rhyme found here http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ding_dong_bell.htm Then there's the Christmas MeMe.

Hopped around a bit….it’s a Saturday, give me a break, ok? Nobody (well, not a lot of sane people) work on Saturdays. So, I was browsing through the web and went to http://www.scribblesnscraps.com/blog/ which is an interesting blog of a freelance writer with 5 kids living a practically sane life (envious!). She did a Christmas meme and since no one meme-ed me because everyone knows my life is (was) a whirlwind and don’t have time for frivolities such as memes, I am going to turn around and do a meme.

What types of things do you normally or are you going to put into stockings this year?

Where I come from, we don’t usually do the stockings things. We don’t have chimneys and telling the kids about Santa usually involves a lot of….er….TRUTH. like, that’s your uncle there with three cushions in his clothes, lots of mommy’s facial cotton on his face. So, stockings are just stuff we see in videos. There’s no snow, so, why pretend?

Do you put a cash cap on a gift? For instance, they probably want that $200 camera, but would you actually purchase an item like that for your child? Or lets say it is some remote control thingy that a child really wants - do you spend the $70 or $80 the thing costs? What is your cap?

I wish I could say I didn’t but usually, I have a cap on the price of the Christmas gifts but it applies to gifts given to other people’s children. For my kids, I have a cap too but it’s a lot more flexible. The cap for other people’s children is set about RM50 (USD$15) while my own kids’ cap is RM200 (USD$60). I know, el-cheapo me, right? But did I tell you that we’re not Christians….we don’t celebrate Halloween but we do, anyway. So, that’s a lot already, don’t you think? And by Malaysian standards, some people might even consider that splurging.

Does Santa wrap his gifts?

Santa used to wrap the gifts but now Santa is too lazy, overweight and too environmentally-friendly these days. Wrapping presents means killing and chopping more trees. So, this sad-ass Santa thinks that wrapping presents is a waste of time and money.

What do you do with all of those handmade ornaments our precious children come home with?

I love all the things my kids make for Christmas at art class but usually, they’re so pristine and…and…breakable that they don’t usually survive the car ride home. But the ones that does survive, they’re treasured a whole lot.

Do you open any gifts on Christmas eve and if so, are they different every year or the same “type” of thing each year?

I wish we had the patience to wait till Christmas Eve but no, we usually can’t wait that long! And yes, they usually get the same type of presents every year…which are toys.

Are you finished with all of your shopping yet?

Damn it! It’s Saturday today and Christmas is Monday and NO, I am sssooooo not done with my Christmas shopping yet!