Second Christmas

Irene calls this day Second Christmas; in the UK it's Boxing Day, it's also St Stephen's Day, and Wren Day, but forever more it will be the day my first grandchild arrived.

She didn't arrive in the usual way to her parents' arms and hearts, but was carried and delivered by someone else, then given freely to a couple she chose to care for this tiny girl. We had five weeks of secret preparation before she arrived, and she is six days early, already eager to see the world that is waiting for her. The kids were in the delivery room when she appeared, and she was put into their arms. She was already in their hearts, and ours. Tomorrow or the next day they will take her home with them.

She is a present we had hoped for but didn't expect just now, but that's the way of it all, nice things happen in this season.

We can't visit her till this flu is gone, but I am content to wait a bit. She is tiny and needs to be protected, even from us just now. Merry Second Christmas!