December 27, 2006

Extended Family

It's early morning. The time of day which is usually my time. Most days, I wake up an hour before everyone else, and in that time of quiet, I pour myself a cup of green tea, and I catch up on email, or write part of a sermon, or pray. Sometimes I listen to NPR. Occasionally I exercise. Once in a while I write a psalm.

Today I'm thinking about the Christmas that has just passed. I don't have long; I need to get everyone else up because this is the day we're hitting the road, heading south.

Well, not everyone. Stephen and Spencer won't be going. They're the teenage brothers from up the street who hang out at our house. Stephen is mildly upset with us right now, because we'll miss his 17th birthday, which is Friday.

I think my biggest surprise this Christmas came from Spencer. On Christmas Eve, he was at the house, and we were talking about our plans for Christmas Day. I knew he wanted to come over, so I said, "We're probably going to do family stuff in the morning..." I was thinking that maybe he could drop by in the afternoon.

But without even looking up, Spencer said, "Oh, all right. I'll be here early, then."

I just looked at him and smiled, and said, "OK. See you then."

3 comments:

~pen~ said...

that is precious. he feels close enough to be included in the sacred family early morning ritual and you were precious enough to say "see you then."

you rock :)

jo(e) said...

We have extra kids at our house too. I always think it's a big compliment when kids choose to be part of our family.

Michael Zimmerman said...
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