I got back, on Saturday, from a two-day excursion to the Hocking Hills, where I’d rented a cabin for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for my family. I got there and checked in on the evening of the 24th, and my parents arrived around 1 (AM!), after attending the “late” (8:30pm) service at their church. My sister, brother-in-law, and the kids arrived around 5 on Christmas day, after spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my brother-in-law’s family. We did the gift exchange (best of this year: two positively ancient books from Mom and Dad; still didn’t top last year, though I’m not sure that anything ever can or will), watched a movie, and ate the traditional Christmas French toast on Saturday morning; then we went for a brief hike at Ash Cave, as a group. (It’s nigh impossible to go to the Hills and not hike at one of the caves, or Cedar Falls.)

Then, of course, we all loaded up and went our separate ways: Me back to Fremont, my sister and brother-in-law back to Nashville, and Mom, Dad, and the kids to Wooster where the kids are spending the week, as they do between Christmas and New Year’s every year.

It was a pleasant couple of days (except, of course, that the cold I got was NOT on my Christmas list).

Here’s the thing, though. My sister’s kids are growing up; they’re 12 and 10 now, in the 6th and 5th grades, and those are interesting ages, because they’re now pretty well along into developing their own personalities, likes, dislikes, quirks, twitches, and — most importantly for this story — senses of humor, which I’ll come back to.

This kind of makes me sad, because while I’ve been the one declaring loudly for the past year or so to anyone who would listen that they’re not little kids any more, I realized this past weekend that they’re fast turning into real people — real people whom I like, whom I love, but whom, because of time and distance, I don’t really know any more.

But it kind of made me happy, too, because of one gift I got from my sister’s family — a gift that my sister was quick to point out that the kids had picked out for me. This particular gift shows that the sense of humor — off-the-wall and outlandish as it may be — that our family pretty much shares is coming along quite nicely in the next generation. It was simple, and funny. Only a t-shirt from Wal-Mart, but it showcased the kids’ burgeoning awesomeness nonetheless. A picture of a mushroom with the caption, “I’m a Fun Guy!”

Yep, those kids are okay!