Fiona calls after all!

Last night at 5 the phone rang and it was Fiona.  She sounded really good.  In the past when I  have talked with her after a raging, she has been sullen, uncommunicative, prone to slurring words or sort of snarling at me.  She was bubbly and happy.  It was cool!  She talked about the party they had the school on Tuesday.  Lissa told Fiona she got a camera (I had to explain it was a birthday gift)  The cool thing is that Fiona got a camera at the party.  The school has the kids open 1/2 of their Christmas gifts at the party which seems so smart to me.  Kids like Fiona can't handle excess emotion of any kind--even joy.  And the fact that they did this allowed a commonality between the two kids was great.  I am sure that a lot of the time there has to be a feeling on Fiona's part of how different her life is, the majority of it having been spent in RTC settings.  Thoughts of things she misses have to be in her head.  I know too that despite my best efforts that she likely perceives that I didn't want her, though that is so so very far from the truth.  The fact that for that small moment in time she felt just like the other kids, was so neat and felt so good. I couldn't ask for a better gift.

My mom on the other hand is going to drive me round the bend.  I know this year is hard for her too.  It is the first Christmas for her since her husband died.  We had invited her here for Christmas and she decided she would rather stay home.  I understand that.  A friend invited her to Christmas brunch and she accepted that invite. The hubbub of a family of 6 might well be more than someone 76 wants when a big part of them is still grieving. We agreed that we would come up to see her on the Sunday after Christmas.  I only have yesterday, today and Christmas off from work.  K has to work Saturday.  Unfortunately it seems that the goddess is going to bless us all with a storm that would make travelling extremely unwise. (sleet and freezing rain) So now my mom is flat out angry over the fact that we may not be able to  come.  She is angry over the fact that K has to work on Saturdays and angry over the fact that on Sundays Rob is part of a program through February that has mandatory attendance. Of course up to now, she hasn't minded those things and thought they were great.  But now they are impacting her and they are now from the Dark Side.

I feel badly, I really do.  She didn't want to travel down today, which I respect, but likewise I am not doing 5 hours of travelling with 4 hyped kids today either.  I work really hard to keep the mood of the day happy and not hysterical and i know that a long car ride could cause that.  Also they can't move around much in Nana's apartment so there is no energy burn at all. Christmas Eve night would be he** when we got back to our city.  So we will get together some time in January if the storm tracks as is projected and my mom is not emailing me at all right now because she is angry.  Sigh.