good beginnings, excellent endings

What a gorgeous weekend. The weather! I'm telling you, it was beautiful on Saturday. We had a crazy sort of family day, with most of my siblings coming to town and all of my nieces and nephew showing up too, all for the sake of building a new bridge over the creek that feeds the backyard pond. Of course, a lot of other things happened too - there was a bit of boating and canoeing on said lake, some 4-wheeling around the back, a couple of good meals, and the baby played in the dirt to his heart's content (in a very unique outdoor play-pen, but I'll get to that in another post). Here's everybody hammering away. You should have heard the din, but man, that bridge was up in less than an hour. The Baby was itching to get his little hands on a hammer, but had to make do with a plastic shovel and some (heavily supervised) nails. 

So that was the beginning of the weekend. Family camaraderie and recreational manual labour. (Hm, I think that last sentence just about sums up the way my family interacts). And the weekend ended just as delightfully, albeit much differently. This is how we closed the weekend. With a beautifully laid table laden with food (this is actually the dessert shot, taken at the end of the meal, you should have seen it when it was all set with the main course, it was positively groaning!). The occasion for this beautiful excess was, in fact, the first Christmas party of the season. Yes, its true, I have realized that The Holiday Season is officially upon as. How did that happen? Weren't we just swimming and wearing shorts and sweating? How can it be almost Christmas already? Not that I'm really complaining. Ok, maybe my waistband is complaining. (Oy, the food, I ate waaaaay too much, and this was only the first one!) Anyways, all kidding aside, it was such a lovely way to end the weekend. And we went sans enfant so it was like being on a date. Only better, because you could eat some of everything, and the drinks were prepared to your specifications, and the company was wonderful. Thanks so much to the wonderful hosts (S & D) for their gracious hospitality. 

Such a perfect balance! Labour on one hand, leisure at the other. Invigoration followed by indulgence. I wish all my weekends were like this.

Comments

[Rebekah]

"Family camaraderie and recreational manual labour" - sounds like holidays with my family.

[Marcia Van Drunen]

more of the fantabulous
can't wait to see the outdoor playpen!

[Mr. LemurBoy]

I would like to point out that while the deck of the bridge went up in less than an hour, the REST of it took much MUCH longer. Hauling the concrete blocks around for the foundation that deck was built upon was certainly longer than an hour.

[finger thumb]

*Sigh*, after continued harassment/explaining by my dad and brother I must add that only the DECK of the bridge took under an hour. The rest of it happened over the course of the day before and the morning that we put the deck on. So probably more like 48 hours. I stand humbly corrected.