men in hong kong have yet another reason to appreciate the diverse cultures in this fair city: mother’s day in the UK is in march. so north americans watch their british friends scuttling around making last minute flower delivery arrangements and make mental notes: ah…our mother’s day is coming up. i better get a hoof on that.

i had a wonderful mother’s day. and i have to shallowly admit, a large part of that was influenced by the presents i received.

as we were about to head off to church, it started raining. we decided to stay home. we were late heading TO church, and parking and getting the babies into the church dry would have been impossible. so, we stayed home. and i was given my gifts.

yesterday at church i had helped the kids prepare the mothers day presents that would be given to mother’s the next day at church. so let’s start there. cora, the lovely youth programme director (and canadian. YAH!) had sent families an email, asking the fathers to bring their kids to church on the saturday to make special mother’s day gifts.

i volunteered to help, even though it would ruin the surprise. why?

1) i figured cora would need the help. she is amazing, but extra hands are always needed

2) this is one way i can help. i would not join the praise and worship team (and let’s be honest, they wouldn’t take me)

3) i want to be more involved. like most churches, our church has about 20 per cent doing 80 per cent of the work. i am one of the 80 per cent who wants to help out more.

so, we headed off to church to make mothers day gifts.

there were three gifts.

1) a garland of grace. kids were given 15 strips of paper and told to write down 15 things their mothers had taught them. each individual strip was folded into a circle, and then linked to the next one, creating a garland. kids were very creative in this one. answers ranged from, be nice to eat your vegetables.

one cutie-patootie was quite unwilling to give his circles the "necklace" effect, and preferred to keep them in circles of two. i asked him about this and he replied, "well, my mum likes handcuffs!"

well allrighty then!

2) a necklace. kids were given string and a selection of beads to choose from to create a necklace.

3) a sachet of potpourri. and the making of this was hilarious. there was a dads table, where mag char, dale and nick (husband of terri), were making the tables of potpourri with their kids. because we were making the sachets for every mother in the congregation, we needed to make 150 of them. there were 150 bags, and enough potpourri as well. it averaged out to each child in attendance making 7 bags. of course, after one or two, the kids were bored. charles looked up and asked cora (i was at another table helping other children),

so are we done now?

and cora replied, "have you filled up all those sachets already? wow!"

and the look of panic on the guys’ faces as the kids dashed away and they were left to scoop and tie (in a bow!) was very very funny. dismay, helplessness, horror as they eyed the 40 empty sachets on their table.

i knew the presents sebastian was making, but i didn’t spend time at his table.

so this morning, when i saw the beaded necklace, i choked up a little. to transfer the intensity, i looked at my garland. sebastian couldn’t come up with 15 things i had taught him, but here is what he reckons i have taught him:

"eating vegetables and making pudding"

"tight hugs and the letter "S""

"how to ride minute buses, big buses and taxi’s"

"letters and numbers and words"

"saying please"

"i love my mummy!"

"i love my mummy!"

and there were a few more circles/strips with just drawings on them.

my little man!

and there were five more cards…one from sebastian from school,

"i love my mummy because she takes me to chi fu."

chi fu is the nearby shopping centre and wet market. sebastian loves the wet market, (he hasn’t figured out the chickens and fish are on borrowed time and that the THWACK of the axe that makes him jump is something ominous rather than funny…)

each of the babies gave me a card with their footprint on it…sela – purple, carys – red, jasper, blue and sebastian blue. very sweet.

charles had gotten me a massage certificate, and as well, a few months ago he bought me a gorgeous ring that i LOVE LOVE LOVE. i am not much of a jewellery person, but what i wear, i love.

after playing with all four throughout the morning, they ate lunch and all went for a nap. HOORAY! charles and i raced to bed and watched GATTACA, which neither of us had ever seen before. i actually thought it was pretty good. interesting concept and premises about the future, particularly the IVF aspects.

then voices had us hustle to the nursery…food down their throats and it was time for the playground! it was very wet down there, but the babies were thrilled. jasper looked like a snail, he left this trail of slime behind him. talked with friends, it was lovely and fun.

and now, thai food for dinner (we also had thai food after our massage last night…terri and nick were with us and it was great), and mother’s day is about to end.

if anyone has any brilliant and cheap suggestions as to what the kids can make for the father’s for father’s day (cannot be a time consuming task), please send me your thoughts!! remember: we have to make 150 of them! merci.

maybe because last year’s was so difficult, this year has been a wonderful mothers day. the triumverate were in a really good humour, and sebastian was thrilled to spend the day with both his parents. a great day.