Time Travel

Last night we had a wonderful evening with some of our oldest and dearest friends. Mark and Krista nearly always host a get-together while we're visiting NB so we can have all our closest friends gathered in one place, and it is always a highlight of our trip. The kids are happy in the pool. The adults are happy catching up on the latest news. We're all happy eating lots of good food. In many ways it feels like not a thing has changed since we moved and left all our friends behind. Oh, our kids are all taller. They are the true markers of time in our yearly visits. But our friendships haven't changed, and that gives me much comfort. These are friends we'll have our whole lives, no matter where we live.

At one point in the evening last night, Mark started playing old home videos on the computer in the kitchen. He found a video of a similar party ten years ago. That time it was a going-away party for friends moving to Toronto, and Krista had decided to make it an eighties themed party. There were no kids running around that time -- the oldest would have been 7 or 8 and home with a babysitter. But many of the same faces were at that party as this one. I say "the same faces" rather loosely: I was amazed at how much some of us have changed in 10 years. We were all in our late twenties or early thirties then. Most of us had very small children, and some of us hadn't yet become parents. But one thing hasn't changed at all since that party in June of 2001: we were having fun! We were enjoying being together, catching up, being goofballs together. Flash forward ten years, and here we are, in the same house, with the same people, having the same fun. Loving being together. I'm looking forward to next year. Time travel.

Thanks to Mark and Krista for another wonderful evening with some of our favourite people. Thanks for new memories to add to our abundance!