My kids are friends now...

Today we had our Christmas Day gathering of the family. We were all a bit tired from yesterday's community dinner but it has been good.

I have especially enjoyed the fact that my kids have been around us. 4 of our 5 kids were at the Christmas dinner, one making a rushed early morning trip from Christchurch to be there. Our second oldest was with his fiance's family in the North Island. Apart from our severely handicapped foster daughter, each happily helped with the dinner.(Though she happily participated) This morning I walked up the mountain with my youngest (now nearly thirty) and it was like two familiar friends chatting or enjoying silence. He took copious photos and enjoyed the walk. My other son had to show me his car, let me drive it, talk through issues and thoughts. My daughter and husband are like colleagues on the same journey in life. Tonight I talked to my son in the North Island and he chatted away about his life, gave me a safety warning about my new router machine, talked about his stuff. As teens all of them were hard going to get great conversations out of. "Probably", "Whatever" "Don't know" "Maybe" seemed to be their favourite words. It is sooo rewarding that they look after each other the way they do, that they want to be in touch, that they treat me like a friend. Today I have felt blessed to have these kids around. If you are going through life with a teenager and you are wondering where your nice little kid that you once had a great relationship with went, my condolences. Be encouraged, they can come back and want to be with you. I enjoyed that today.

I have been back at work tonight... there's a service on Sunday and a wedding ceremony in the afternoon. There is no rest for the wicked they say. I have to get the church seating back in order, pull down the Christmas tree so the organ can be played and look intelligent by Sunday. Oh Well... today it was nice to be normal.