Heart Filling Social

We stepped out into the dark, drizzly evening and the group was discussing going to a bar around the corner for a drink. We had been picked up by another couple to get to Victoria, so it had to be agreed by the group to make another stop. “What do you think, Dev?” “Sure,” I replied. We had come out for a friend’s birthday dinner at the Japanese Village restaurant, so, although I’d be inclined to just go home, you don’t want to be that one person ready to leave. And we’d been having lots of laughs with this fun group anyway. So even I was perfectly happy to keep the party going. We walked to Big Bad John’s bar close by. It’s an odd, narrow little bar, where we sat to have a couple of drinks. Our dinner was such a fun experience where each table has a chef that cooks our food right before us. It was tons of fun with good friends, and celebrating a good friend, all of whom, we know from hockey! Our boys have played together on one team or another.

Fast forward a Saturday, which was just this past weekend. We have 3 family birthdays in our immediate family. My dad, my brother in law, and my nephew. My younger sister and family came over for the weekend to surprise my parents and stay with them so we could have family time around these birthdays. On Saturday morning, I picked up cinnamon buns at the bakery by my house, went over there for tea/ coffee cinnamon buns while everyone was still in jammies. My older sister had brought her kids for the sleepover too. This is what you call ‘gezellig’ or ‘hygge’ – as more commonly known. Gezellig is the comparable word in Dutch. Saturday evening, after a full day with hockey playoff game for Owen, my family went back after dinner for an evening visit. My sisters and mom and I sat around the kitchen table with the red wine, the guys sat in the living room and the cousins all played hide and seek. We laughed A LOT. It was so. much. fun. I’m pretty sure my dad just enjoyed us all being in the same room, and soaked it all in, as I did. We all did. For his 70th, we were all at a Airbnb for the weekend at Qualicum. Five years later, he had wanted us to all get together, he hadn’t expected the surprise of my sister and family making it home, neither did my mom.

As you know, I like my alone time, and lots of it. I am not an extrovert, social interactions can be very draining for me. I recently wrote about not accepting all invites, and keeping sanity that way: saying no to some things. But there are some certain social events – that fill your heart. Something different and unique with good friends, and gezellig family time – are very much the heart filling kind.

Sending Love,

Devon