I’ve been enjoying the four day weekend that is Thanksgiving here in the US. Neither NZ nor Australia has a holiday that has (from my observation) such strong emphasis on family without being as terribly commercialized as Christmas. I like it.
I’ve been vey blessed in the last two years that I’ve been in Chicago to be able to share a Thanksgiving Day celebration with friends’ families. This year my friend Jolyn very kindly invited me to her cousin’s place and we enjoyed a great meal with about 20 people. Lots of good food (loved the sweet potatoes 
).
I should have gone running the next day to burn some of the extra calories I’d consumed, but actually didn’t get out till Saturday (but of course not before listening to the All Blacks wrap up the Grand Slam at Murrayfield – yeah!).
There was still some snow around on the shoulders of the roads I usually run on, so I spent more time on the road itself, making the route a little more hazardous than usual. At least it was daylight and I had my flouro vest on. The first three miles were pretty hard work and I pulled up shortly afterwards feeling more soreness than usual in my lower legs. I figured there was no point in damaging something. I walked about half a mile but started to feel the cold so began jogging lightly to stay warm. From there I managed to kick on pretty well and finished without feeling any great strain on my legs.
I’ve done quite a lot of work on the website this weekend, some of which is visible and some of which is still in production, notably an article on what I believe. And I’m still way backed up with web articles I’ve come across that I want to comment on. Didn’t get to bed till 1:30 Saturday night, which wasn’t very responsible of me, but I did manage to sleep in a bit.
I made it to church Sunday morning, after skipping last week with a cold. A very good sermon from Colin Smith concluding his series on Micah, and I will try to get my notes up here as soon as I can. This week began the Advent season and they lit a candle to mark that, which no doubt means something important to the initiated. I guess all those emerging folks would be pleased by the use of symbols, and I’m happy if it somehow helps people to focus on the truth of Christ’s coming. Personally, it means nothing to me at all.