The gift of friendship...

It has been another crazy weekend here at the Henry household…so crazy, in fact, that I feel compelled to share. 

A long while ago I started planning (in conjunction with numerous other keen Thunderbay-ites) a reunion weekend for our friends in Thunder Bay.  Organizing a time when 8 couples from across Canada (Ok, fine Ontario and Manitoba) can come, en masse with children and spouses, and gather all together is next to impossible.  Believe it or not we FOUND the PERFECT weekend and I just happened to be June 9^th.

That was, it SEEEMED like the perfect weekend until I went to write it on the calendar and realized we had a wedding in Toronto that Sunday.  That was around the time that Rob called up from the basement to remind me that it was also the weekend before his report cards were due.

Ok, so maybe not QUITE the perfect weekend.

As it turns out, it was also the weekend that Mia would come down with hand, foot and mouth disease and Toby would develop his 27^th bout of croup.

I am triumphant in my announcement that I SURVIVED the weekend. But not only did I survive it, I come away feeling completely exhausted, slightly jaundiced and…completely rejuvenated.

Every second of our weekend was planned and jam packed, but amid the chaos of flying, catching up, eating, drinking and “getting there on time” we had moment after moment of pure perfection:  From the peaceful comfort of good friends chatting for hours around a campfire, to the total submersion in love that we all fell into, while watching two people who are so obviously MEANT to be together unite. Meeting the babies and children of friends I haven’t seen in years and watching little friendships form among them; sitting beside one of my longest standing friends at the wedding of another in the ultimate high school reunion; dancing the Horah in a room filled with the romance of the setting sun; rainy weather that can’t come close to dampening the spirit of children at a festival; serious life-and-death midnight chats over gin martinis and the midnight poutine bar. 

I can’t thank the world enough for the many friendships I have all across the country.  It is indeed overwhelming to celebrate them all in the span of one lowly June weekend, but sometimes in life, a little sleep deprivation is worth every minute.

Thank you, friends.  Until next time!