Twenty-eight: the perfect age

A friend of mine from many many years ago (whom I haven't talked to in over two years) emailed me on my birthday asking if she remembered correctly that it was my birthday. I was so surprised that she remembered - and she was home in New Jersey for a couple of weeks so we met up for dinner and caught up. In her email, she said to me, 28 is a perfect number, you won't be at a perfect age again for a very long time, so enjoy it! She's a math wizard, I'm not, so obviously I had no idea what a perfect number was. So I looked it up.

Wikipedia (the most trusted source on the internet, hahaha) says, "In mathematics, a perfect number is defined as a positive integer which is the sum of its proper positive divisors, that is, the sum of the positive divisors excluding the number itself. Equivalently, a perfect number is a number that is half the sum of all of its positive divisors (including itself), or σ(n) = 2n."

Uh ..... wuh???!!!! No worries, the examples helped. "The first perfect number is 6, because 1, 2, and 3 are its proper positive divisors, and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6. Equivalently, the number 6 is equal to half the sum of all its positive divisors: ( 1 + 2 + 3 + 6 ) / 2 = 6. The next perfect number is 28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14. This is followed by the perfect numbers 496 and 8128."

Ahhh, that made more sense. So my first perfect age was 6, now I am 28, and I am not living until 496, so I really should enjoy age 28. It may not be a 'perfect' year - but I am determined to not 'waste' it. Almost a month has already passed since my birthday, time is so precious. I want to accomplish great things for God this year!

Christmas Eve and Day

Christmas Eve, the family came over to New Jersey for dinner and a fun night of Cranium. A few of my friends from church came too - which was perfect, so we had 4 teams of two!

Mmmm, yummy food from Lotus Cafe

















I made Julien smile for the picture - he never smiles on his own .... hmrph

















Sof is proud of her plastic forks ....

















Yay, Danny and Roger are here - now we can eat!




































Julien and Colin's homemade desserts!


















The dead clay from Cranium. I think it froze when I left it outside in my car for a couple of weeks. Now it's hardened and we tried everything to soften it - microwave (smoke started coming out of the clay after 2 seconds), soaking it in hot water and massaging it (just got purple stuff all over my hands and they smelled funky), Julien suggested vinegar as a joke and I thought he was serious. LOL. So we ended up skipping all the clay activities, sadness.

















We drew numbers to figure out the teams. Sof and Roger pondering over a question

















Julien and Danny discussing their question, they made a great team!

















Me using my sister as a puppet























Roger using Danny as a puppet - hahahahahaha, it was great























The artists representing their teams looking at the card

















*Jeopardy music*

















Poor Jackson, he got stuck with me as a teammate - I stink at the fact cards - and we both sucked at Zooma - What the heck are these things?! Colin is thinking after glancing at it for 1 second, 'duh, that's licorice, film and popcorn, SO obvious' ....

















Deep discussion in progress

















Madelina is mad at Julien for something - can't remember what though, hahaha - must be strike number 1,003,237

















After watching Kung Fu Panda until the wee hours of the morning, we finally went to bed. The next morning, I hung out and chatted with the girls and prepared for hot pot! See, Julien not smiling....

















Oops, too far to the left. Julien being mean ...


















Oops, too far to the right. Julien being mean again ....


















After 3 tries of placing the camera on the toaster oven and using the 10 second timer, I finally got everyone in the picture! Merry Christmas!

Hotpot Galore!

My friend's aunt invited a bunch of people over to her house for a Christmas gathering. We sang Christmas carols together, had a time of prayer and then we split up into the adults and the young people group. I led the young people group and made them play the 'would you rather' game, it got a few really good discussions going. I have never seen so many people eating hotpot together in one house. It looked like a hotpot restaurant, hahaha! It was really fun meeting new people, mostly college kids.


















A few girls hanging out at the hotpot table

















Gloria and her college friends

















Me with girls half my age - I blend in pretty well, no? ;)

















He didn't let me take pictures of him all night, but I got one when he wasn't paying attention, hehehe

EBCC Christmas Party

Yes I know this is really delayed - life has been a little crazy and distracting lately. But hopefully I'll get to catch up soon at the end of this month when I spend a week in Phoenix at my family reunion!

The weekend before Christmas 2008, David (our leader at church) invited us over to his beautiful home for a potluck dinner and white elephant gift exchange.

Andy being a gentleman (or just posing for the camera) and pouring tea for the girls

















The boys chatting and catching up before dinner starts

















Look at all that 'healthy' food!

















We had SO much leftover .....








































Gloria, Sherry and Alan are happy with the selection

















The line for food - yum, can't wait!

















Now that we're stuffed - let's open presents! David explains the rules of the game to us - we roll the dice to if we get to open presents. We each brought a real gift and a silly gift, so each person opens 2 presents. And we get to steal other people's presents if we don't want to open new ones. Then at the end there is a lightening round where after all the presents are opened - you roll the dice and if you get a certain number, you get to force a trade with someone. So presents were just flying all over the place! It was hilarious.

















Mike: what is this?!

















Mike: oh, they're chopsticks! yaaaaay!

















Both of Terence's gifts were Ramen - he was so happy!

















Jon: what are these things?! (they're candles)























Alan opens a fancy 'engagement egg' ... haha























I got an organic bag ... booooooo. Then I got a fake cockroach in a box, hahaha!

















Danny had no idea what his gift was - good thing someone 'stole' it from him, he couldn't even read the Chinese chess pieces. LOL.























Brian stole the scarf from Gloria - look how proud he is!























A box of plastic dental supplies??!! Eww ....

















Gerald got a can of Raid (I actually brought it haha) - perfect, now he can get rid of my roach!























Enchanted Fashions??!!























David stole the scarf from Brian, lol, awww, poor thing

















Who can say no to food soap?























Jesus fish wind chimes























Everyone looking at the dice during the lightening round

















Singing Christmas carols

















Dessert time!

















Caren cutting her special homemade apple cake























David happy with the gift we got him - a digital picture frame - it's sitting on his bookshelf in the living room now :)

















What an amazing evening of fun, laughter, food and fellowship with great friends! I love Christmas time :)