Reconnecting, Breathing and Sighing... Taking it all in.

We had a special Armfield gathering at Mom and Dad's yesterday.  It was so good to see many of my cousins and their children and their children's children... wow.  It was good to reconnect as some of them I hadn't seen for many years.  At first connecting is tentative because familiarity hasn't kicked in, but after the few first stabs and a deep breath, conversation flows equal to equal and both are thankful for it.  I was so glad to hear a brief highlight from each person's life.  Some were shy, but most just told us things I never would have guessed and I was so grateful.

As usual, the children of Helen and Bob Armfield know how to cook the best, tastiest, most abundant food in the country.  David calls it, "food made with love."   Jan and the girls homemade candy alone could win any state fair.  -- How does one resist homemade English Toffee?  There is no resisting; only eating, licking and smacking, and thanking God for another time to see one another's faces.  Sigh.

Then Dad and the boys went fishing and Weston caught his first fish.

Today we opened the gifts we had made or bought for the person whose name we drew, and then of course, Mom and Dad gave us all gifts --very generous.  Mom's bows and paper are always so elegant, I spent half my time pulling paper and ribbon out of the garbage bag Dad was collecting and folding it flat for travel home to Canada!

I was so glad Adam played his saxophone for us before the ritual; wish I had got a picture of him.

Weston and Donovan are pretty much in their happy place with their cousins and free roam at Mom and Dad's (remember the homemade candy and also a wide screen TV... deep breath.)

Thankfully the boys did well at our old church Reformation Fellowship today.  The sermon was great.  I'm so grateful for Jack's understanding of the Bible.  It was like water to a thirsty soul.

I'm glad I got to get in this brief blog here in Oregon.  Deep breath.  Ah... you can just taste the moisture in the air out here.  It's almost balmy compared to Rosebud.  Everything is SO WET!!  I love seeing the water flow in the canal behind the house.  I had forgotten how soothing that was -- and such a fixture of my childhood.  I think this week will go fast.

Oh... we have our luggage now!  We wore the same clothes for two days, but thankfully our gifts came in time for the exchange and even my brick of sharp cheddar made it safely here.  The only sad part now is we have no video camera.  We think it got swiped in Denver... Sigh.