Taste is all in your mouth

During the Christmas vacation we have tried to spend some good time together as a family. Sometimes this is easier said than done. The parents look forward to a great “family” time, but the guys are looking forward to being able to spend more time with their friends without having to worry about school. So in between the times that the guys are off spending the night at their friends’ houses, we find some time to play some board games (no, I spelled that correctly!), watch a movie or two and eat some special dinners together.

Yesterday was one of those special times. Shirley and I planned on taking the guys out for breakfast. It is fun to take the boys out because they don’t get to go to a restaurant that often (what am I talking about – we don’t go to a restaurant that often either!). So they always seem to enjoy this “specialness”. The plan was to go to the Ikea. Yep, the Ikea. You see, even if this store is not to everyone’s taste, they have breakfast for 1 Euro. Stephan understood that part, and that it was a “family” time, but he wasn’t so sure about the rest. If you go to breakfast at Ikea that means walking around looking at furniture afterwards. But everything turned out really great.

Walking around the store became a lively discussion of style. Stephan has a drawing of his dream house and was more than willing to talk about what kinds of furniture would be worthy of this house. Sean talked about his style, and we all enjoyed the time together. It was so clear that there were four different people here.

I remember when the boys were young, when we were walking amongst crowds and they were a bit rambunctious, we would say “Watch out for the people.” Later, when we were talking about a young man who lived with us for a while (Reuben Rog for those of you who know him) and called him a “person” the boys responded with, “He’s not a person, he’s a boy.” He was one of them. “People” were those adults, those big people you had to not bother.

This weekend it was clear to us how our “boys” were “people”. Of course their tastes were not always the same as ours (perhaps we should be thankful?). And it was so good getting to know these guys, sharing some real time together – and that in a furniture store. Go figure.