December, 2015

It has been a long time since I’ve done some sort of journal-ish entry on my blog – alas, one of the downfalls of having a Facebook account is that many. Many small updates do not necessarily account for more detailed entries – I’ve learned this from finding old friends on Facebook and, after scrounging their pages, seem to have no idea about what’s actually going on in their lives.

That said, I plan here to account for the past month or so of my life… for any of those interested…

Before vacation could officially begin, we had an OPAYCO Alumni concert! Ok, well, actually, it was just the Christmas Concert, but a tradition began a year ago whereby all the alumni are invited back to come play some of the closing pieces! It was great to get to see people again, and, honestly, Sleigh Ride, Christmas Festival, and Hallelujah Chorus never get old!

 Christmas vacation began a few days before my official HP vacation – December 19^th and 20^th were spent preparing for and actually getting my best friend, Daniel, married to his best friend, Lizzie. I had the honor of being best man at the wedding, and I’ve scarcely been more excited, and finding out that two of my other good friends got engaged the same day didn’t do anything to keep a smile off my face.

Shortly thereafter came Christmas, ushered in with a Christmas Eve service at our Pastor’s House. We’ve only just recently started having this service, which was complete with a hymn sing, Christmas memories, cookies, and a discussion of evangelism and apologetics with the young men and our pastor.

Christmas itself was fantastic, with grandparents being present the whole day, with friends from Church coming in the evening for Fondue. We did our classic Secret Santa (thanks, Emily!), and the boys got a game that’s some sort of mix of Axis and Allies, Risk, and the movie Last Samurai.

New Year’s Eve was celebrated with the traditional Gym Night – always a blast. New Year’s Day brought about our annual New Year’s Day Ball. Since our home was recently carpeted, we switched venues to a grange, which was a big success. Note to all of you Emcees and Dance-Step-Callers – if you have a sore throat, I don’t recommend 2 hours of previously listed occupations. It does terrible things to your gullet.

 As if that wasn’t enough, two days later we were off to our semi-annual Fort Vancouver Day! Josh organized this one, which was awesome, and we spent a good day volunteering, interpreting, dancing, whittling, eating, and generally enjoying each other’s company.

 That evening, we rushed up to another annual event – our church’s annual Youth Dinner. Arriving in formal apparel (or… some of us changing from our fort garb upon arrival) we enjoyed a delicious, 3-course meal. Between and following the food, we played word games, created a Western-Shakespearean drama, sang hymns around the fire, and recounted what we were thankful for this past year.

It’s been a crazy last month, and tomorrow I return to work and “real life”. I am extremely blessed by family and friends, and its times like this past month where I really recognize it. Thank you, Lord!