Happy Holidays! Mama S here. Between you and I, I’m thrilled that we made it though the holidays. As I previously said, I struggle with the holidays and this year was no different. What I must call out is that we are blessed to have the most wonderful families and they made the holiday weekend a delight. It ended up being great weekend and no one was more delighted than P.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyYhOszGKrw%5D

I can not say enough wonderful things about our families. Everyone treated P as if she has been in our family forever. There was no difference between her and any of the other grandkids. She noticed and it made her feel very special and included.

You see, foster kids are sometimes (not always) treated differently than bio kiddos at special events. Birthdays, holidays, events, etc. Some families struggle with accepting the foster kiddos and some feel that they don’t have to treat them the same as bio kiddos because they are not blood. I read so many posts in groups where family members struggle with that and it always breaks my heart. Our family is blessed with an amazing extended family.

Not only did our family spoil P but they also asked if Little Lady was going to be with us so that they could have gifts for her as well. She wasn’t with us for Christmas, but we were extremely appreciative of their asking. Imagine, they wanted to include a kiddo that they know only stays with us for a few weeks every month or two. How did we get so lucky?

P handled the holidays pretty well after her visit with bio mom on Saturday. We have been struggling to get visits to occur so I set up a visit with bio mom. I drove to her hometown (about 2 hours away), picked her up, took them to a restaurant, we all ate together, and then we went back to her house to play games. It was a bit awkward at first but ended up being a holiday blessing. We spent about 4 hours together and both P and I walked away with more holiday spirit. It was amazing to see them together and to hear how excited P was to see her. Who knows what the future holds, we are just excited to be able to have moments like this to cherish for a lifetime.

After the visit, P settled down. I think she was amped up thinking that visit was going to be canceled to and that was enough to cause some behaviors. Once we were on our way, things settled down.

We left the visit and headed home to unwrap our matching PJs. Oh my goodness. If you and your family has never done it, I would recommend it. All three of us couldn’t stop smiling when we looked at each other in our matching PJs. We felt like a team. A unit. It was great. We loved it so much that we stayed in our PJs all day on Sunday too!

Some family came over on Christmas eve and we enjoyed a nice meal, exchanged presents, and played a game.

It is called ‘The Saran Wrap Ball’ and it is just that…a massive ball of Saran Wrap with a ton of goodies layered throughout the ball and one awesome prize in the center! (see photos below)

Here is how it works!

• The first person with the ball starts unwrapping while the person on their right rolls a pair of dice, trying to roll doubles.
• Once doubles are rolled, the ball is passed to the next player and the sequence begins again.
• The person with the ball does not stop unwrapping until the person to their right rolls doubles. This creates a wonderful suspense and urgency to the game!
• You get to keep the treasures you unwrap along the way

Saran Wrap Game

The game was a great time and everyone had a ball! Tip- have each person that is going to play bring a small prize- that will save the person preparing the game from having to pay for all of it. Mine cost me over $100!!

After all the games were played and the gifts were opened, P went up to everyone and gave them hugs and said thank you. It really warmed our hearts!

We went over by families houses on Christmas day and we had very little problems at all. I was blown away by how well things went. We did crash when we got home and have had some post holiday frustrations, but nothing too bad.

All in all, we are blessed to have such an amazing family and an awesome daughter. This was a great holiday and I can’t wait to see what 2018 brings!

Have a blessed holiday season and a happy New Year!

Mama S