Merry Christmas to everyone! I haven’t posted in several days, and yet I find time to post on Christmas day? What’s up with that?

Well, we had our Christmas two days ago, prior to Kyle and Marie heading north to spend Christmas with her family. Steph went with them, as she is spending this time with her boyfriend and his family. That leaves the old folks and the really young folks. I must say, I am quite happy being "off duty" today and just munching our many leftovers, watching television, and doing nothing! It didn't help that I awoke with a headache (the "coming down from stress" trigger for a migraine) and while my meds have diminished my headache, they make me sleepy, too.

Last week it seems like I spent most of my time in the kitchen. I cooked for the “moving in” crew as Kyle and Marie began the process of making a house into a home. At week’s end, I shifted my focus to cooking for our early Christmas dinner. Dora loves my cooking, by the way. She’s learning to eat vegetables, loves the bread fresh from the bread machine, and was duly impressed with the vast array of Christmas cookies we made. Good food really is one way to create memories and build bonds. All of my older kids wanted to know if I had made Spinach Balls as an appetizer, and they all articulated how they viewed that as one of our traditions.

Dora has been too afraid to articulate her Christmas list directly to me, for fear that I would disappoint her. Therefore, she had been feeding her thoughts to Beth. Dora had no reason to worry, as I had already purchased a couple of her main desires before I ever heard a peep from Beth. In spite of Dora’s reticence to state her desires directly to me, I had picked up on other not-so-subtle cues already.

One of the gifts Beth received was a video program that allows her to project her picture on the television and then add a variety of hairdos and makeup to her image. Beth is always talking about short hair, long hair, curly hair, blond hair … anything besides what she has … beautiful long dark brown/black hair with natural brown highlights. I don’t remember Stephanie going through that, so perhaps Beth’s fixation is about “I want to look like the rest of the family” or perhaps is it just her own curiosity, unrelated to her ethnicity. Who knows … but both girls should have fun with this.

As Dora has been pretty distant and non-reciprocal during her time with us, her array of Christmas gifts reflected that attitude. Other than one much-desired “toy”, her gifts were primarily clothes, boots, and needed items. She has had a confused and confusing four months, and I don’t really blame her for not knowing how or what she feels. I am, however, optimistic that this holiday season has opened her eyes a bit to what good things might be in store for her, if she only allows it to happen.

I hope you all are having a good day. I know many of you are struggling to deal with very emotionally disturbed kids who can easily derail a family celebration.

Photo Credit: Kyle and Santa Gracie