offering hospitality

Over the past few weeks I have been blessed with the opportunity to offer hospitality to a slew of friends and family. Ket and I have enjoyed the crowds (me probably more so), the business, all the adventuring around Rochester, and the hugs (again, probably more fully enjoyed by me than my house mate!). Because of all that hosting, I have been rather slow on updating people on life in Rochester. Here's a little snap shot into all of our guests and our new adventures:

Thanksgiving!!!! (Canadian Style)
On Friday (10/11/13) we had the pleasure of welcoming 5 guests from Ontario who came to town for their Thanksgiving weekend. The time spent waiting patiently for them to arrive (original ETA was 9 and I don't think they made it in until 10:30) was really good bonding time for Ket and I as we laughed and giggled together in a candle lit house - we also discovered our mutual love of candles :). My sister (Hannah), brother (Joshua), brother's girlfriend (Laura), and brother's housemates (David and Max) were welcomed by hugs, tea and conversation. Eventually we collapsed to our sleeping quarters in preparation of a very early morning on Saturday.
Thanks to our friendship with Sweet Beez, we have access to the roof of a warehouse along the river where they keep their hives, and thus to a beautiful view of the city. Naturally we wanted to share this view with our friends, and so planned to arrive on the roof top before the sunrise at 7:15 on Saturday morning. We were sleepy, but the view was spectacular and company delightful. From there we headed off to explore the public market for the first time and purchase groceries for Sunday's Thanksgiving dinner. The market is massive (thankfully we avoided getting lost) and we had multiple choices for our purchases of sweet potatoes, onions, beets, apples, etc. After a potluck lunch with the Pettigrews, the rest of the day was spent exploring the Genesee Riverfront, abandoned subway tunnels (in which we constructed an ad-hoc see-saw), etc. We also went out for dinner at a local restaurant to celebrate David's birthday. Matt arrived later that night and I think we all feel asleep while trying to watch a movie (More on Matt's arrive to come...)
We had somewhat of a rushed start on Sunday morning and tramped into church slightly later than my ideal arrival time, especially as I had 6 guests in tow and there were only about 40 people in attendance... but we were welcomed enthusiastically by the folks at Rochester Area Mennonite Fellowship as per usual. After lunch some of us hurried to the Pettigrews to begin preparations for that evenings Thanksgiving dinner. The fixings included: mashed potatoes, cauliflower with cheese sauce, stuffing, Chadian beet salad, green salad, baked carrots/onions, baked sweet potatoes, complete with deep-fried turkey (there was much deliberation on this count) and pumpkin/apple pie with ice cream. We stuffed ourselves silly and feel asleep early that evening while trying to play a party game.
Monday we woke up to crepes (prepared by Hannah) and left over turkey before sending our guests Ontario guests on the road and going back to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep. I will see my family again at Christmas time when I make my own border crossing to celebrate with them.

Boyfriend in Residence <3
I mentioned it briefly above, but another reason I was so busy the past few weeks was the opportunity to host Matt for an entire week. His roommate dropped him off late on Saturday night (10/12) (her family lives just south of Buffalo and she took a week off to visit them) and came through town again this past Saturday to take him home again. Having him around was wonderful - not only did he cook/clean for us while Ket and I were at work during the week, but he was also there to provide all the hugs and cuddles I have been needing and got to experience some of what life is like for me in Rochester. He got to visit church with us on Sunday, came to potluck with me on Tuesday evening, and joined us for our weekly book study with the J-team on Thursday night. We also got to go out for a date night on Wednesday to celebrate his birthday and 10 months of dating. On Friday I took the day off work to explore High Falls more extensively with him and checkout another local restaurant. And on Saturday we discovered a fabulous local cafe while treating Matt and Mina (his roommate) to brunch before their drive back to Richmond. I am so thankful for our relationship, for our evening phone calls, and for the flexibility in his work that allows him to come visit me for a week at a time. I'm looking forward to seeing him again for American Thanksgiving in Virginia and then again in Rochester some time in January.

Harrisonburg Crew :)
The last set of guests arrived around 11:30 pm on Saturday (10/19), passing Matt and his roommate somewhere between Virginia and New York and allowing us almost a full day of alone time before hosting once again. This crowd of friends from Harrisonburg (Taylor, Aly, and Melody) came because of Melody's fall break (she's a senior at EMU) and to witness what their past roommate (me!) was up to in the northernly state. It felt so natural to have them join in my life for a weekend that it almost wasn't like hosting at all - they simply fit in with our natural pace of things and made our home feel cozy and full.  Aly and Taylor joined us for church on Sunday, and then at risk of getting bored with the downtown Rochester tour we explored a park along the river we had not been to yet. The striking fall colors of the leaves were gorgeous - unfortunately no one had a camera on hand. We went out for dinner in High Falls and stayed up late chatting. Monday, Ket and I left them sleeping as we headed off to work and then joined us that evening for the JPC Monday night workshop at my work place. It was great to show them where I work and what I do, and for them to actually meet and hear from some of my clients too. Monday night we joined Sweet Beez folks for another spectacular view of the city, a photo op (I have a brilliant idea for how to liven up some of our white walls with pictures of the people we host over the year), and a hug-filled goodbye as they started their drive back south. I am also looking forward to seeing these three (and their compatriots) in November/December when I go south to celebrate U.S. Thanksgiving/ Aly and Sam's nuptials.

For now that is a sum of our hosting experience - I certainly do not expect it to continue to be so. We loved hosting the past few weeks, even if it was a little intense to have so many guests in a row, so it follows logically that would love to host you too! It was a blessing to offer hospitality, and it will be a blessing to extend that hospitality. So come and visit us. See what MVS is doing in Rochester. I promise they'll be tea and probably home-baked goodies.