Ah, Christmas day, our house looks like a tornado flew through from the living room through the kitchen and dining room and coming to rest in the playroom. If you can imagine eight children, ripping open packages at lightning speed with shreds of colorful wrapping paper flying around the room, then you have some idea of what our house looks like right now. I can only take comfort knowing that Cindy’s House is probably worse than mine right now, since she still has 20 children at home. To borrow a phrase from The Christmas Story, the children had a veritable cornucopia of pillage to make space for in their already cluttered bedrooms and playroom.

After opening gifts, everyone got dressed to go to Grandma’s house for brunch. This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. That is where we met up with our adult children. I figured that my son who is 24 could use some new clothes, including socks and underwear. I know that young bachelor’s don’t like spending their money on what they don’t see as necessities. He was grateful for them, but when he opened the leather coat, I bought for him he grinned from ear to ear, so I knew I had made a good choice.

Our two-year-old granddaughter was initially afraid of the stuffed horse that was the same size as her. Eventually she was coaxed into touching it and realizing that it wasn’t going to harm her. For some reason she has always been afraid of animals which is a little disturbing since we live on a farm.

We took along gifts for our 19-year-old daughter because she showed up at grandma’s house last year, even though she wasn’t speaking to us. But alas, she did not show up, so we brought them back home. We have no way of contacting her today because she has yet to give us her address or phone number. She will probably out grow this phase of her life, her older sister did, but it remains a painful process for adoptive parents of older children.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, I am so grateful for the number of friends I have made through adoptionblogs.

Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2007

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