Coffee is a common language that seems everyone, no matter their race, creed or disposition, can speak.  It establishes common ground for everyone around the table.  I can remember having my first encounter with the art of coffee when I was in pre-school.

My mother preferred black coffee and I just wasn’t ready for that bold taste. But, the grandparents knew how to make things a little sweeter. My grandmother drank hers with cream and my grandfather drank his black with sugar.  It’s no wonder I ended up enjoying coffee with sugar and cream.

Fast forward a few years when Keith and I were just a few years into marriage and had a baby.  He was working for a company that started putting a popular coffee brand into the break room for the employees.  He started requesting that we also buy this brand for our home.  It wasn’t long before we started branching out and expanding our palates.

When our oldest was just starting to get her sippy cup brew, we joined Keith on an extended business trip to Buffalo, NY.  There we met some friends who had a coffee shop that was also a church.

It was there that we were first exposed to the idea of coffee becoming the common ground for sharing kindness to a community that needed hope.

Keith has been more adventurous when it comes to broadening our horizons in the world of coffee.  When our kids were little, he would always be seen sitting with one of our toddlers bouncing on his lap and drinking his morning cup of joe.  This quickly led to curiosity on the part of the said toddler.  Keith would take their sippy cup and make a mix of coffee and milk with a little bit of sweetener.  It became one of their favorite ways to spend time together.  He even started showing our then 18 month old son how to load the coffee maker with water and coffee grounds.

This was a perfect time for me to make breakfast and get ready for the day.  It worked well, that is until Keith had a business trip.  When Keith was gone, our son would go stand near the part of the counter where the coffee maker was located, reach his hand up to grab the countertop, put his head up against the cabinet below and cry “OH DADDY!”

While I could make his sippy cup coffee and even involve him in the process, Mommy was NOT a good substitute.  Over many months, he learned how to make coffee on his own.

When he was two and a half, he was staying with a friend because we were having baby #3.  So, he endeavored to make them coffee.  He actually woke up way too early, found the coffee pot, found the coffee, climbed up to the sink, filled the water reservoir, filled the coffee chamber with a filter and coffee, then turn it on to brew.  My friend was a little  shocked and was a little concerned about his safety.  Needless to say, he wasn’t able to be in the kitchen by himself after that.

We have many fond memories of coffee drinking.   When each child graduated from the sippy cup, we purchased each one their own unique coffee cup. Some of those cups survived Schramm Famm childhood and are still a part of our mug collection.

We still try to collect mugs wherever we go.  This past summer I found one at a thrift store and just loved the way it felt in my hand.  Thank goodness I found them online so I can buy another if this one breaks.

Coffee is a huge part of our lives. We have gone out for coffee every Christmas Eve during our Schramm Famm Christmas Shopping Spree.  We bought a small Krurig for our daughter when she was able to have one in the dorm. We sent a stainless steel French Press with coffee to our son when he was serving in the Army overseas.