Skipping to 'F' because I feel like it!

I'm sitting here on a sunny Sunday afternoon and feeling the tiniest bit melancholy - Phill's sick, I'm just getting over a cold, feeling overwhelmed with housework, planning and marking (which was convienently left at work). 

Faced with the prospect of filling in my Data & Tracking Book and spending a beautiful afternoon doing my planning, I decided to do neither and popped in the video Grant & Jen made of our wedding reception in Canada... since the videographer did SUCH a bang up job and missed songs, dances and inserted Disney graphics, my fantastic brother-in-law and his lovely wife decided that something should be done about it and they made a new video for us.

I find that now, I don't remember a lot of it... but there's a smile creeping up onto my face and lifting this blue funk because although the reception was to celebrate our wedding, it was a lot about friends and family. 

I'm loving all of it - dancing up a storm with Rizwan; Faiza & Naheed singing; Shafik & Aziza dancing - the speeches, the songs, the dances and all throughout the video, hearing Noah exclaiming "Yay!" 

I can hear my closest friends and family talking, laughing and enjoying themselves.  I love it - all of it. 

We had friends and family that travelled across the world, Canada and the GTA to be there and that made every single second of it worthwhile - not to mention the others who aren't with us any longer, or those who wanted to be there and couldn't make it.

I think (without any bias at all) that I am the luckiest girl in the world.

I have some absolutely incredible friends in New Zealand, Canada and scattered in other locations around the globe.  Each and every one of them mean something different to me and I value and treasure every relationship immensely.  So very blessed.  I can't (and don't want to) imagine my life without them.

You know... one of my favourite quotes about family is along these lines "Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts."  Fantastic!  I love my family and I love their nuttiness.  Not just my immediate family, but my 'new' family as well - I am not only a Khamis, Kassam/Dhanidina but now a Couper as well - again - so lucky. 

Then we have my extended family - same as with my friends, I have a different relationship with each of my aunties & uncles and I treasure those individually as well.  I appreciate them all a lot more now that I'm an adult.  On top of that, I have the best group of cousins and we always have an awesome time when we're together.  We're there for each other whenever needed - no questions, no hestiations, no reservations and that's pretty damn amazing. 

All this makes my heart swell up so much, I think I'm going to explode with love and gratitude. 

Noah summed it up in a word: "Yay!" Out of the mouths of babes.