Christmas was wonderful this year! While it looked for a time, as though my adopted stepson's adoption issues were going to come out and take a stab at sabotaging Christmas just before the holiday came, as quickly as the behaviors and attitude appeared, they were gone again, and Christmas was uneventful. We had a lovely morning, it took the kids hours to open up all of the gifts that they had waiting for them underneath the tree, and everyone had a glorious day together as a family.

My parents came, bright and early and helped us enjoy our morning as a family, and my adopted stepson was quite happy to have his grandparents there to share his day with. There were no tears, there was no attitude, no long face, nothing but two smiling happy boys who were simply gushing with excitement over every brightly colored package, regardless of whom it was addressed to. I had worried just before Christmas had arrived, if my adopted stepson was going to be able to handle the day alright, or if memories and emotions concerning his birthmother would rear up and make it hard on him, but to my surprise, and delight, he truly had a remarkable holiday!

My husband is on his way, as I type this out this morning, to pick the children up from my parent's house. One of my Christmas presents this year were two deliciously close to the field, I mean reach out and touch them close, tickets to watch my favorite football team whoop up on my least favorite team last night. Of course my team lost, and it rained and was freezing cold the entire time, but I still had a complete blast, and my parents were wonderful enough to watch the boys for us, while we snuck out for a night of tailgating, cheering, and shivering from the cold.

With today being the last holiday of the year, and an already glowing report from my mother this morning on how great the boys have been, it looks as though we will be able to put a holiday season behind us with no adoption issues! Sure we had that one week that he had attitude, and overreacted to just about anything that was said or done, but with some extra comforting to show him that his place in this family is secure, and no one is going to leave him, he quickly settled down and the problems melted away. Besides since no holiday actually occurred during that particular week of mayhem, I say that counts as an adoption issue free holiday season!

Especially since we used to deal with holiday adoption issues from the end of October, until roughly about the end of February, so dealing with a mere week of out of whack behavior this year could almost be chalked up to pre-Christmas jitters, excitement overload, if you will...which is what we went through with our youngest on Christmas Eve Day, not able to contain his excitement any longer he was quite the whiney brat for most of the morning, while his older brother was the quintessential Christmas Angel, how's that for a switch!

So as I am gearing up for our last celebration of the year this evening, I have been sitting here and thinking about what has made the difference this year in my adopted stepson? And after mulling it around for quite some time now, I have come to the conclusion that it isn't really one thing, but a multitude of factors that played a part in him having such a stress free holiday season.

On our part we were fully prepared this year for holiday troubles. We expected them, we had back up plans in place if we faced them, and worked out a head of time how we would react if they surfaced. We went with an overly compassionate approach, figuring if he was feeling insecure about family, and his place within it, that some extra love an attention would go a long way into making the troubles melt away, which turned out to be true.

Oh his part. he has grown and matured so much over the past two years, and come to realize so much more about himself and his life, and he isn't allowing himself to become hung up over the past, as he once did. He accepted help when it was needed, and actually asked for help which is a huge deal for him, and he allowed himself to be loved and spoiled on all of the special days this holiday season, instead of pushing everyone away. So here is to a great holiday season, and to a wonderful new year, for not only our family, but to all families out there!