Thanksgiving and a Birthday

photo by Esther Kim (No I didn't eat all that food, they thought it would be funny to put all of the left over plates in front of me.)  Some of our students and staff!

Here's a personal post catching you up on the recent happenings...  

No Flow, Steam Of Consciousness 

Last Wednesday our YWAM base celebrated an early thanksgiving.  This allowed people to actually have the day of thanksgiving off.  So we gathered and ate a nice thanksgiving meal Wednesday evening.  

Jess was on the set up team.  Since we needed every table on base, she tore down the tables in our classroom and carried them to "the tin" which is our main meeting area.  The tin is appropriately named because it's just a cement floor with a tin roof.   

I was on service duty, so my team brought out all of the food from the kitchen.  We set up two serving stations and an appetizer and dessert table.  During the meal we also refilled anything that was running out.  We had normal thanksgiving grinds only the base cooked up two local favorites, Lau Lau and Ahi Poke.  

Thursday happened to be my birthday as well as the real Thanksgiving.  The base has a tradition to serve a nice brunch on Thanksgiving.  If you know anything about me you know I love breakfast meat so that was a nice treat :)

l-r Joanna (photobombing) Mary, Jess and me

Joanna and Joby invited us over to their church Thanksgiving.  There I got to see, and introduce Jess to a friend named Mary.  I stayed at Mary's house the first time I came out and visited Oahu in 2008.  Mary also happens to have grown up on the same street as our friend from Maryland, Deirdre.  They grew up together in NY.  Small world.  I enjoyed sitting outside on Thanksgiving day next to kids playing in a pool, with a lei around my neck for my birthday.  We shared a great meal with new friends and then finished off the night with some pie and a couple hands of canasta.  

Captain's chair, Kaneohe Sand Bar

We spent Saturday on a boat on the Kaneohe sand bar with a friend from high school, I recently reconnected with.  I haven't seen Megan, in over ten years.  Our other mutual friend Annliese along with her boyfriend Mark were visiting as well so it was a great time to reconnect and catch up.  We shared another Thanksgiving meal together that evening and laughed a lot.  It was refreshing.  

l-r Annliese, her boyfriend Mark, Megan, Jess and me. 

So that was our Thanksgiving and birthday weekend.  Tomorrow... back to eating healthy and exercising, and work too.  

Engage:  How was your Thanksgiving?  What did you do?  Who did you spend it with?  Did any fun or unique dishes end up on your Thanksgiving table?  Let us know in the comments.