Baked

No, not half baked.  Just baked.  As in, that’s what I did all afternoon.

Today was a great day.  After church, I made the drive across the city to spend the afternoon/evening with 2 of my closest girlfriends baking. Here they are:

 

Sheena on the left, Julia on the right.  This is @ Julia’s wedding (Just in case the wedding dress and flowers didn’t tip you off) 

For those of you that have no sweet clue who these peeps are: We went to church together.  I’ve known Julia since I was 8 and the three of us have been friends for 13 years.

(I would show up pictures from the actual afternoon, but I don’t have any…they’re on Sheena’s camera)

Anyway – it was just like old times.  Each year, Sheena’s mom hosts a Christmas eve party and it’s a tradition our family always looks forward to. 12 years ago, when she started this tradition, Sheena and I spent an entire day baking for it, and so we thought we’d resurrect that little tradition for a day.

It was a great way for the three of us to reconnect, since we now each live in 3 different cities, hours apart.  We spent hours laughing, baking, going out for supper, drinking tea, and just catching up.  And man was it refreshing.  We talked about “the good old days”, and how special our church family was, how tight our friendships were, and how formative we were in each others’  lives. 

We also talked about how good these days are.  Although our stories of these days don’t have each other in them, it’s just as rich to hear how our lives are going. 

As we toured Julia’s new house (well, kinda new….the first time I got to see it anyway), and poked and prodded at Sheena’s belly trying to get her 8 month old fetus to move already (!), I felt a familiarity. Although we weren’t snuggled deep in our sleeping bags talking about which boys in the youth group we thought we would date “if we had to pick one”, nor were we showing up at each other’s door steps at ridiculous hours in the morning seeing one of us off on a summer adventure/mission trip, but there we were, 13 years later still making sure we were doing ok, laughing lots and celebrating in each other’s joys.

Although we had it pretty good in the “good old days”, I’d like to think these days? They’re pretty special too.