The Atonement Christmas

When we arrived at my Mom’s house I think we were all a little unsure how it was going to go. It had been years for Clint and I and the first time for our children to spend a holiday with her. We sat and visited for a while and it was nice and relaxing. Then while the enchiladas were in the oven she let the kids open their gifts. She was absolutely over the moon at the kid’s joy. My Mom has never really had much money and when she did she never did anything good with it so it made her feel real good to be able to treat the kids to some nice gifts. I was pretty surprised how well she did picking gifts out for them when she doesn’t really know any of them that well. She had gotten Gus these really cool wooden blocks and he used all 150 of them to make village on her living room floor. It was clear to me she had Lilly figured out when she opened a very fancy dress and fancy hair bows. And my little artist Drew was excited to get some Blendy Pens! We gave my Mom a framed family picture and she was thrilled. She even had Clint hang it up for her before we left.
After gift opening we had a yummy dinner followed by a pogo stick jumping competition in her kitchen. My Mom and Willie (her boyfriend since I was 12) had a kick watching all of us. Clint and I smoked the kids on the pogo stick!!! Well, Clint smoked me too. We could tell that my Mom, though having a great time, was getting a bit tired and the kids were about ready to get going to so we took a photo of all the grand kids with them (- Cameron) and said our goodbyes.
It was a real nice time and I know we all hope to be able to do it again. My Mom has called me 3 times since then telling what a wonderful time she had and how special it was to her.

I do believe for my Mom this was her atonement Christmas.