I remember when I got engaged. That in it’s self is another story involving bathrooms that I will share another time! I was so excited. I wanted to be a couple since I could remember. I don’t even think I was really in love! But I finally found someone I could face waking up to for the rest of my life. It was time to put my wild ways behind me and settle down.
But that settling down meant taking on a spouse’s children, something I was not prepared for. The older two seemed to barely tolerate me. Which in reality was OK with me. I was a stranger in a strange land and scared to venture out and explore. The youngest was about 11. And he had needs I needed to fill. But I didn’t know how. I was still working desperately to fulfill my own needs!
He and I tolerated one another for several years. I know I was hard on him and expected him to be a little adult! Of course he wasn’t capable of the things I expected of him. Then the miracle happened.
It was Christmas time and we had just bought a new car. The area where we lived was absolutely nuts about decorating for the holidays. They even put up Easter egg and Jack-O-Lantern lights! But at Christmas it turns into a wonderland of lights, ornamentation and figurines.
My stepson and I snuck away one night with new car. We took it to McDonald’s for it’s christening fast food, eat-in-the-car meal. Then we drove around to look at the lights. I don’t know if it was something in the air or an act of God, but I suddenly realized that I was head over heels in love with this kid. He was the neatest little guy full of fun and energy. We bonded in a way we never had. Suddenly, I became his step mom emotionally.
Now we are like to kids together. We pick on his mom unmercifully! We laugh and carry on and betray the adults we both have come!
Now I miss the child he was. He used to spend every other weekend with us. Now we only see occasionally! But I will always have the memory of that Christmas season night when he changed from being something I had to deal with to something I couldn’t help loving. And for old times sake, we try to find sometime every Christmas to drive around and view the lights as a tribute to that magical night
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