Intermission

Wow! What a week it has been.

Tonight has been the first night I've been able to breathe a little bit since last Wednesday. In the span of about a week, we've been able to go through a whole crazy barrage of festivities. My parents and my sister were able to make it back safely to Edmonton this evening; my brother will be staying with me until mid-July. But let's take it back to when it began.

Since the start of June, I got to see my cousin, Jon, a few times and it was pretty obvious he was getting more and more tense as the wedding drew near. As a pastor, he already had a huge load on his plate. And then to add a wedding on top of all that, I can see why it'd be chaotic.

From my perspective, I was excited and also a little nervous. I knew we were going to have a huge family reunion of sorts to celebrate this wedding, so I was anticipating the dinners and the gatherings that would've drained me to no end. On top of that, my little basement suite needed to accommodate for my parents and brother - good thing my sister wanted to stay with my cousin for most of the trip, or else I would've not had any room to do anything.

My family arrived early Thursday afternoon in Vancouver, and we headed over to the wedding venue for the rehearsal, and then to Jon's new place for the family dinner and tea ceremony. From seeing all the gatherings, all I can really say is that our family is freakin' big. Not everyone was present, and yet our side probably occupied 75% of the attendance. This is a sure sign to me that there is no way for any of us to have a small wedding because of the size of just our side of the family. I don't mind too much because we're close enough that we really wouldn't want to do it without each other, but man, it can be crazy.

So the wedding took place at the beautiful Brock House by Jericho Beach, and it was very nice. Jon wanted a wedding entourage instead of a traditional wedding party, so getting to walk up with all of us cousins was a blast and an honor. At my last wedding, I was the officiant, so I was stoked to be able to be on the other side this time. Overall, I loved the simplicity of the wedding. Everything went as planned (though Jon probably hoped the Ferarri would've started on first go) and we had a great time.

A few days later, and I'm back seeing that I need to work again. Straight up: being a pastor makes it nearly impossible to have a personal life. The cynical side of me almost thinks these extra curricular things are an inconvenience because it distracts me from my work. But you know what, I'm thankful that they pull me away because it keeps me sane.

So we've got about 10 days before we get to do part 2 and part 3 of the summer wedding shenanigans.  During this intermission, I'll have to do my best to cover all my bases before the weddings drag me aside again. I'm quite happy and thankful that my cousins are getting married. We're really starting to see the generation turn over and see our family move forward. It's been an incredible run, and to see us start to take that next step is a joy.

Time to focus.