Trigger Warnings : Depression, Self-Harm, PTSD, Anxiety, Illnesses...
Bianca is a 12 years old girl who lives happily with her family, when a big storm is going to change her life forever.
Maya and Carina wanted to have a baby since a little while n...
Christmas was arriving quickly. This afternoon, as it was Sunday, we spent a chill day with our daughters. We took out all the material to do Christmas cards and write their gifts list. But when we gave a piece of paper to Celeste, she just draw patterns on it.
"No Celeste, you're supposed to draw things related to Christmas, it's to give to our friends, and wish them good things." Bianca explained.
The littlest frowned.
"Let's start with the Christmas wish list baby girl." I said sliding down to sit next to her on the floor. I took a pen and set a piece of paper in front of me on the coffee table. "What do you want to say to Santa ?" I asked her.
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"Santa ?"
"Yes, honey, for your Christmas list." I repeated, and she frowned again.
"Celeste no know."
"You don't know what to say ?"
"No know the list."
Carina entered the living room with cookies and sat on the sofa. I leaned over and whispered to her ear 'I think Celeste never celebrated Christmas.'
"What ?" She turned to our daughter. "Celeste, is it your first Christmas list ?"
The small girl nodded and everything made sense. She never celebrated Christmas with the abusive families she had in the past.
So I explained everything to her, how she needed to say to Santa how she had been a good girl, and what she wanted to have as gifts. I described the Christmas tree we were going to decorate and the gifts she was going to find at its foot on Christmas morning.
"Celeste good giwl ?" She asked anxiously at the end of my explanation.
"Of course you were a good girl."
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"But no know what say."
"Let me help you." I started, picking up the pen. "I think we can tell Santa how you helped Carina make lasagna last week !"
She agreed and played along.
"I share doll with Pru !"
"That's very nice ! Let me write it."
"I quiet when Bianca do homework." She stated proudly.
"That's true. You're such a good girl." I praised and we soon finished this part. "Now you need to tell me what kind of gifts you want, what would make you so happy ?"
She thought hard and shrugged.
"Well, here." I handed her a toys catalog. "Just circle all the toys you want. We'll cut them out and glue them to your list alright ?"
"Alwight !" She happily replied and start looking through the big book. I then turned to my other daughter. "How is it going here ? Did you wrote to Santa what you wanted ?" I blinked at her, knowing she wasn't believing in Santa anymore.
She nodded and smiled at me before continuing to write a long list of gifts' ideas.
The next day, Bianca was at school and Carina brought Celeste to have a play date with Pru as we both took a day off to go buy the Christmas presents for our girls.
Bianca wanted expensive things, such as big-brand sneakers, a laptop, a hair straightener, perfume... While Celeste chose a lot of toys, but not the most expensive, such as an enormous bunny stuffy, a pencils and felt-tips kit, a whiteboard for children, new dolls, an electronic train...
But my wife and I didn't count our money, we just spent the right amount to satisfy our daughters and make them happy. It was our first Christmas with them, and even if we didn't want to spoil them, we did.
This evening, I came home with the biggest Christmas tree we had all ever seen, and we decorated it, listening to carols and eating Carina's gingerbread. At some point I just took a step back and stared at my happy family. Everything seemed right. I couldn't be more grateful for all of them. Carina, Celeste and Bianca were perfect.
