This bi-weekly installment of the Open Adoption Bloggers Roundtable is about the holidays, and it goes like this:

An open-ended prompt this round, because it’s always interesting to see where each of us takes it:

Write about open adoption and the holiday season.

Previously written posts work, too.

I don’t think I’ve ever written specifically about our adoption and the holidays, so this will be a new one.

When I think of our daughter and the holidays, two celebrations stand out. One was her very first Xmas with our families; they all lived in NC at the time, and there were 4 other cousins that she hadn’t met to visit with. I won’t get into any specifics, as that usually tends to come back and bite me in the ass really hard, but two thoughts that I had still stick with me.

The first one, after listening to family members (on all sides) talk about how much this one reminded them of some family member or that family member: “We’ll never have that. Not ever.” Of course, the immediate thought after that was “I don’t see a down side to this right now”…

The second one was, “I’m sure one day you’ll feel almost like a grandmother to her too.”

The second celebration wound up being the beginning of an annual tradition with us. One year, not long before Xmas, C & J invited us down to their house for a visit. They have a beautiful house, and C loves Xmas with a wild uncontrolled passion, so the decorations were terrific and numerous. C had presents for School Girl from the two of them and M. She even made up a care package for Evil Dad and me; homemade sugared pecans, Chex mix, tea and an ornament. We all had a great time.

This year J won’t be there. We’ve talked about inviting C and M to our house this time. I think Evil Dad and School Girl might have already invited them. I think I’ll keep my feelings about that to myself.

Happy holidays.