Happy to Be Back

It seemed weird not to be writing a blog for the Stiletto Gang on Tuesday. I’m glad to be back in the groove and hanging with my young gal pals.

We had a most extraordinary Christmas holiday time. We open gifts on Christmas Eve after our dinner. I do something different nearly every year. This year I cooked a turkey and all the stuff that goes with it because I hadn’t cooked on Thanksgiving. Our guests were my youngest son (who is not so young), his wife, grown daughter and two grown sons, my middle daughter and her husband, and the son of my youngest daughter who has been living with us. This was his first Christmas in five years–and it was great fun seeing his enjoyment. His mom had sent his presents home with us at Thanksgiving, and of course we also had gifts for him. He’s had his troubles over the years, but things are finally looking up for him.

Christmas day was a smaller group, and except for the fact that I cooked a standing rib roast, everything else was left-over from the day before–still yummy. Granddaughter’s boyfriend joined us this time. We all watched a movie after dinner. Then hubby and I went over to another granddaughter’s house who has three kids and an extra young man living with her and her husband. We had a good time admiring the kids gifts and visiting with everyone.

The following day, hubby and I used a couple of the movie tickets we’d been given and went to see the Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons. Good, good movie even though the theme is really death and dying.

Just to explain something about our family, we’ve always taken people in. Back when we had all of our kids at home, we had a foster boy for a year-and-a-half. At various times our kids brought home other kids whose family life wasn’t so great who ended up living with us for different lengths of time.

We raised one of our grandsons from the time he was 11 until he was 20 because his mom was not doing well. Now we have another.

Long after my middle daughter’s two kids were long gone she and her husband became the legal guardian for a teen-aged girl. There oldest daughter, the one with the three kids and her husband have taken in several teens over the years. A couple of boys from a foster home and gave them a place to live until they went into the service. Unfortunately, in California when a foster child reaches 18, they’re booted out on their own. Most of them don’t have families to go home to.

I’m proud of my family–and glad they are willing to share their homes with young people who need a place to stay. Of course everything doesn’t always turn out hunky-dory, but that really doesn’t matter. They did what they needed to do at the time.

That more or less brings you up-to-date on the Meredith family saga. And yes, I did make a New Year’s resolution, to spend more time on my work-in-progress and less fiddling around with blogs.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com