Thanksgiving Fragments

This morning I said Mass at Trinity Chapel, which is always a little liturgical treat. It's a pretty straight-forward BAS Modern-Rite Holy Eucharist. Interestingly, they have an organist so we can sing a hymn and some of the service music. This would be a great place to do some paperless singing sometime.

After that I've been running from one thing to the next. Not crushingly hectic, but busy. I assembled the second Ikea table that we'll be using for the Advent Liturgy configuration. I also showed some architecture students around the place (every year or so a group of students are tasked with writing a paper about the place for an Architecture course at George Brown). Meanwhile, our cleaners are stripping and waxing the Nave floor. The Yoga folks have been complaining about how dirty the floor has been lately, and this is apparently due to the need for a stripping and rewaxing of the floor--precisely the kind of detail one learns about in the exciting field of Parish Administration!

It's been a season for minor repairs and upgrades to the building. Yesterday Bell fixed a phone line and the roofers took a look at their project. The organ tuners also did their work. Next week the electrician will come by to install another exterior light for the playground. Soon the security camera people will come and install some interior cameras. And we have an appointment with the church handyman to install a new doorbell! Amazing how quickly these kinds of projects accumulate!

Yesterday we had an excellent meeting of the Christ-Centred Character Group. Our Resource Centre continues to take shape. Recently we've made the decision to change the name to "Centre for Excellence in Christian Education." Concerns were expressed about using "Anglican Resource Centre," you see. Right now we are still waiting on some grant requests we've submitted, but I remain optimistic that we'll get some money and be able to roll it out this winter. We've already been able to lend out a few materials here and there.
Behold: Turducken!

For Thanksgiving this year we'll going out with some friends to a restaurant that specializes in southern cuisine. I'm anxious to try Turducken for the first time. Imagine a Turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken! Some people even add a quail inside the chicken and possibly a hardboiled egg in the centre. They also advertised a gravy made with bourbon and Grand Marnier. Yumm!

This year I'm thankful most of all for Betsy and our soon-to-come son. Bringing new life into the world turns out to be fulfilling to the extreme. It's neat to see how it has shifted Betsy and my relationship in positive ways and how I'm already beginning to think differently about many things. I think I'm becoming a father....

-t