Boxing Day

Canadians, like their British counterparts across "the Pond", get a second stat holiday after Christmas Day: Boxing Day, which exists for no other reason than to give a name to all the sales in the stores. There's probably some historical reason for calling it "Boxing Day", but I'm unaware of what it might be. Anybody have any ideas?

Christmas Day was a blast for our family, including phone calls from:

• Guber (and Mrs. Guber) who now live in Montreal
• Three generations of my extended family in Ontario, enjoying a feast at my sister's place
• The incomparable Logan (aka Skip) from Los Angeles; the only Los Angelean to dare to visit us in Canada (okay, it was July at the time, but still...)

Later that afternoon, our doorbell rang, and I was jumped on by none other than Dave & Sandi. Normally, getting jumped on in this end of town means dialling "911" as quickly as possible, but Dave & Sandi are amazing friends of ours from our time in Ontario when we worked at a youth detention centre together, and were involved with YWAM's Performing Arts base in Cambridge (note the very "80's" style YWAM t-shirts that we all wore like a uniform back in the day).

Whenever we've been praying together as a family these past few days, especially on Christmas Day itself, we've been very thankful for the relationships we have as a family, with our extended families, and the blessing of true friends. Given that the common denominator of almost all of these relationships is Jesus, it made Christmas (the celebration of God's gift to us that brings us into relationship with Him) all the more special.