Surprised

Yesterday afternoon I was surprised by a loud pounding on my front door. I wasn't expecting anyone, and it was obviously someone who didn't know it was the time of day when I still had a sleeping little one. Peregrine was up and we went together to see who it was. I opened the door and nearly fell over, for there was my four-year-old nephew Joseph who lives in Alaska! I think I stood there and exclaimed "Oh, my goodness!" about four times and he probably began to wonder if I was planning on saying hi or inviting him in! He was soon followed by his dad, my brother Jacob, as well as my parents and sister Gloria. My sister-in-law, Jackie unfortunately couldn't get the time off of work, and we shall miss her. Only Gloria knew they were coming, and the rest of us were surprised. Or shocked!
Jacob is about two years older than I, and as children we spent many long and happy hours roaming our farm together, building forts and rafts, collecting old "junk" and having a lot of fun. After I graduated from high school I spent two winters living with him (and snowboarding as much as I could). I think it was around that time he began his long and glorious tradition of making surprise visits home. He and I drove from Mammoth Lakes, California back to Oregon once and walked in to an evening church service where we knew our family would be. The look of happy surprise mingled with tears on our parents' faces was priceless. A few years later Jacob and a friend left for Alaska to seek work and adventure. They found both, and Jacob has lived there ever since. He's surprised us several times over the years; once he arrived at my parents' home and they weren't there so he sat on the couch and waited. When they opened the door, there he was! Another time he just casually walked in and said hi, as if he came over every day! When I spent nine months in Asia, Gloria planned on joining me for some time together in Thailand. Can you imagine my surprise when I met not only her, but Jacob at the airport in Bangkok? We spent three happy weeks island hopping, snorkeling, eating Thai food and drinking mango shakes.
Jacob married Jackie around the same time Erik and I got married. We all wondered what sort of woman had finally captured his heart, and she's the perfect match for him. Joseph and Peregrine are only about a month apart, and we always enjoy our annual visits with them. I think this is the first time he's surprised us since becoming a family man, and we're glad he's passing the tradition on to Joseph. We're looking forward to a week of fun visiting and lots of good food. We always feel compelled to make all of our family favorites for Jacob when he comes home for a visit. And believe me, that's an awful lot of really good food to make and eat! I'd better get me to the kitchen.....