Giving Thanks

We have much to be thankful for!
Although this post comes a week past thanksgiving - it doesn't mean we stop giving thanks after the holiday is over, no?

So yes. Much to be thankful for :)

I had a really great weekend connecting with everyone back at home :) Thanksgiving for me actually started on Thursday when we had some friends over at Ray's for our very own potluck dinner. Ray's sister cooked a mean turkey and Mike and I made sheppards pie! We made it from scratch and we were extremely proud of it :) It was quite the hilar night but totally random. I think the pictures explain a lot haha



On Friday after preaching for the Jr's lock-in, my sister, Oliver and I headed over to watch the boy's hockey game.

Every Thanksgiving, it's been tradition that we go and cheer on our guys from RH3C as they battle it out on the ice. We yell, we cheer, we heckle, we freeze - it's all in all, a super fun time :)

On Saturday I woke up super early to go hunt for cheap Christian literature with my sister. I got a really good deal on C.S. Lewis' Four Loves - only $7.99! What a steal! After a quick lunch with Mike and his family I got picked up by my bestest girls for an afternoon of 'studying' and spa-ing.

Carrie, May and I headed over to Jo's luxurious condo to take advantage of her beautiful boardroom space to 'study' then to engage in an intense few hours of doing our nails :) Carrie was our guinea pig and her nails turned out to be quite...well, ugly. haha Good sport though!

After some much needed girl time, a few of us headed over to good old Second Cup for our Youth on a Hill (YOAH) reunion. It was great seeing everyone again and I apologize for being so late! I haven't seen some of them in almost a year! We're all in essence the same people - but in many ways, we've changed a whole lot. Especially in the last few years and even within this summer.

I think this group of friends will always be close to my heart. No matter how close we are in our friendships at present state - they will always be people I hold with high regard and love sooo much. When I look back in time to when I truly grew in faith; it was during those few incredible years. I don't think my life can ever be the same again after that...

Anyhoo - I'm getting all nostalgic! Perhaps, it's because I practically embody that word. haha

The next day's plans were to go to my neice's (Lauren's) first birthday party then to a church Thanksgiving lunch and other festivities later on in the evening. But what we had planned out didn't pan out the way we wanted it to. I love it how God sometimes just blows our agenda's outta the water.

Around 5am in the morning, my sister woke me up telling me that she couldn't move or feel her arm. All weekend she was telling me how it was hurting and it felt really strained so it wasn't because she had slept on it. Now, she couldn't even feel or move it.

I quickly got her some pain killers and prayed over her. I really had no idea what to do but pray. I told her that if it still hurt after 30 minutes or so we'd drive into emergency.

Thirty minutes passed and we were on our way to North York General Hospital. When we got there, there wasn't many people in the room so we figured we would be seen pretty quickly. But nope - we sat there for a good two hours before we were called in. And to make matters more ridiculous and kinda hilarious was when Pat turned to me saying,
'Jeh, look - I can move my arm now!' haha

In any case - we waited for the doctor's prognosis before we went home. And FYI, she's okay.

By the time we got home we were exhausted. I had only slept 3 hours the night before so we ended up missing Lauren's birthday and our church's Thanksgiving lunch. Although we missed two anticipated events, I was much more thankful that my sister's arm was alright.

After getting enough rest we were off to meet Vince for some studying then Thanksgiving dinner with the boys at Old Galley's Fish and Chips. All I gotta say is that it was DELCIOUS! Just thinking about it makes me drool...! They all went to Oliver's house for dessert potluck and I went to meet the girls for a night out in the town!



We were celebrating Jo's 22nd birthday so we 'surprised' her at Yorkville's very own, Sassafraz. (I seem to be going there a lot lately!) The ride down was quite crazy since I was the DD! I struggled with the parallel parking but we all arrived alive :) It was another great night to remember why I'm so thankful for these girls. We got each other through high school and now we're almost done university. Our friendship has almost spanned a decade and I love them to bits!



The next day I had to get up early which was truly so difficult because of the night before. Mike picked me up and we were off to his cousin's house for their family Thanksgiving lunch. MORE food and fun! I love!

After spending a few hours with his family we were off to meet my favorite, Cora Bo Bora :) I love her and I'm really going to miss her a ton when she moves to HK :( But I'm also glad for her 'cause that's where God has called her to go! And I support her 100%!

My sister left later that day back to Kingston and that pretty much concludes my highly eventful long weekend.

In hindsight, I really do see how I've been blessed beyond measure. God has been soooo good to us! Each day, I pray that He'd remind me of His cross and remind me of His love for me. I admit, I don't always count my blessings from day to day. But I need to remember them all year round not just on one weekend of the year. God is good.

Very thankful :)