My oldest daughter had a friend from California visiting last week. They met playing an online game in which they were also able to converse. Her friend was lamenting a canceled trip to Japan, so my daughter asked me if she could visit Washington instead. It’s not exactly a foreign country, but at least it was somewhere to go.

I had recently told my oldest she should start propagating friendships with real people rather than only people online, but I didn’t mean for her to invite a complete stranger into our home. Isn’t the idea counterproductive to everything we teach our kids? Don’t talk to strangers, don’t take candy from strangers, don’t meet with strangers in dark alleys. However, I’ve always welcomed their friends into my home, and just because she hadn’t met this particular friend in person, didn’t mean she shouldn’t visit. Besides, I’ve learned it doesn’t matter whether someone is an acquaintance in person or online, you never really know them until they live with you a few days. So in the spirit of Christmas, I agreed.

I tend to collect children, though not in the creepy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Child Catcher way, as I villainously rub my hands together in anticipation of imprisoning a child. I love to feed my kids and their friends. I stay out of their way, and they all call me mom. Most of them friended me on Facebook. I’ve even added a couple of their college friends to my band wagon. However, my daughter informed me her new friend was not an eater. What chance did I have at all?

I drove my daughter to the airport so she could look for her as I steered the car. It was a good thing, too, as her friend had never been on a plane before and there was a misunderstanding as to which door she should come out. She ended up in the departure section rather than the arrivals. It was a bit of an awkward silence home and we stopped at McDonald’s for a bite to eat, where the friend and I laid our cards on the table over the food situation.

Admittedly, because of the circumstances of their meeting, I wasn’t sure how to relate to this particular internet stranger whom I wasn’t allowed to feed. She did warm up a bit over frosting almond roca where my husband and I had our normal banter and she had her first taste of the crunchy treat. One of the stipulations to letting her friend visit was my daughter had to play tourist guide. It’s a busy time of year and I wasn’t prepared to sightsee. However, she did a fine job touring her friend around Seattle, and all I could think was, “Thank God it wasn’t me!” We had a family outing planned later that week, but that was about all I could handle.

Still, I had the feeling of not quite reaching this new person. However, people are who they are and it’s also a good quality to accept them where they’re at and not push myself on them or in this case, shove food in them.

Then as we were driving somewhere “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” came on the radio.

“Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose.”

I chimed in with my childhood insert “like a lightbulb.”

“They never let poor Rudolph, play in any reindeer games.”

“Like football.”

And she giggled, because she had done that as a child, too. Generation gap or not, some things will cross the divide of time. Merry Christmas!

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. You can read more of her writing and her blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com, on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh by Gretchen Leigh,” or twitter @livewithgleigh. Her column is available every week at maplevalleyreporter.com under the Life section.