San Fran...Day 4

Friday. I woke up pretty early and Joshua was already out of bed. Marie was already up and running around, the day before her wedding. I got a list of things to do to help her out. Joshua was already in the kitchen making the icing to top the cupcakes Marie and my other cousin Alanna had baked the night before.

While he was doing the icing, Linda and I were putting thank you tags on the party favors. Of course, it was SUPPOSE to be an easy task BUT we ended up having to make our own string loop out of thread. It was very time consuming but it all got done.

After the party favors were done, we went back to the iced cupcakes to put the finishing touches on them. Joshua began cutting orchids off the stems and I started putting them on the cupcakes. By now, everyone was starting to wake up so naturally, I made everyone help out.

After a long morning, we relaxed in the afternoon. The Lai siblings and their significant others played some card games and watched tv. But it wasn't long before we had to get ready for the Chinese Tea Ceremony and Dinner.

Joshua quickly put together a fruit plate and then our Uncle Tommy came to pick us up in his mini-van since there were the six of us. We arrived at the destination and it was crazy. This was the first time this trip that we were going to see our aunts and uncles and cousins. And crazy it was. The kids had grown up so much since the last time I was out there 4 years ago. It was so good to see everyone.

Once everyone was there, the wedding party did their rehearsal thingy while the rest of us chatted up. Then the Tea Ceremony began. The bride and groom to be would offer tea to the elders and the elders would give them their blessings. Something like that. Dinner was help yourself buffet, Chinese-style. Yum, I miss that kind of stuff. I definitely went up to the buffet a second time, and a third, maybe even a fourth. It was all so delicious, I couldn't help myself.

It was a great night!