"That's right! Tomorrow's Sunday. Michael is looking
forward to making his acceptance announcement from the
pulpit. Isn't that great news?"
"Yes, almost like a miracle. I was so pleased. Good night,
Jed."
"Good night, Maggie."
She felt like she was floating on air as she walked back up
the stairs to her room. Perhaps this would be a wonderful
Christmas after all. One way or another, she felt certain that
it would.
aggie remembered Sunday morning that she had
'#7/ promised to take Spencer up to the ski resort (to
snowboard for the first time ever!) directly after
church. She quickly explained this to Jed, suggesting that it
might be the best plan as Leah hadn't even had a chance to
really talk to him yet. This would get Maggie out of the pic-
ture for a while, which might be handy. He somewhat reluc-
tantly agreed to this line of reasoning, but quickly promised
they would talk as soon as possible.
She spent the first hour watching her poor son fumble
and stumble on the bunny hill. It seemed he spent more time
getting up than actually standing on his board. She felt sorry
for him, but figured this was some sort of strange rite of pas-
sage that he must pass through, although more than once she
suggested he look into lessons. But each time he adamantly
refused insisting that he would get the hang of this on his
own. Finally, when he splattered to the ground just as they
were contemplating trying out the chairlift, she discreetly
questioned the rope-tow operator, a young man she'd seen
in town a few times, about whether he knew of anyone who
gave snowboarding lessons.
283.
284Melody Carlson
He glanced at his watch. "You're in luck. I'll be starting
a boarding workshop at two o'clock and I still have a couple
spaces."
Maggie turned to Spencer, who'd managed to get to his
* feet and awkwardly slide his way over to her. "H
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H 57495.
II 67253.
JJ 13204.
"Sign me up!"
She looked at him in surprise. "Okay, sure."
After taking care of the lessons, they took a quick lunch
break in the big log structure that served~as the main lodge.
It was full of skiers and riders (as Spenc~r called the snow-
boarders), but everyone seemed to be in holiday spirits and
no one minded the long wait in line. Just before two o'clock