There’s a secret I’ve been hiding from you all for a while now. I’ve been wanting to talk about it, but in truth, it wasn’t my secret to tell. But let me tell you what happened on Christmas Eve at my dad’s house…

My dad doesn’t like throwing parties…especially after my mother passed away. She loved to have parties at the house, though we’d always get stressed out with all the preparation it would take to get the house ready. After she died, the house changed, and I know my dad didn’t want to have a lot of people over, and no one wanted to ask him to host any of the annual parties. The first party we had at the house was Claudine and Dan’s post wedding party, and that was three years after my mom.

So I’m sure people were surprised when my dad announced he was going to host the annual Christmas party. It’s been a LONG time since Christmas was hosted at our house! We all gathered there and my dad called everyone to come around the dinner table for prayer. Surprisingly, he led the prayer and afterwards he had a little something to say.

He looked to the woman standing next to him and introduced her to the room as his wife. Yes, my father is now a married man. I have a step mom.

Of course, many people in the room knew already, since my father had confided in a couple of them. Me and my sisters already knew - luckily he told us BEFORE he got married, months ago. Yes, months ago…it’s been several months he’s been married.

I looked around the room to see some expressions of surprise, and the smallest bit of tension in the room. Then, a voice exclaimed, with warmth and love, “Welcome to the family!” It was my Tita Ellen, my mom’s best friend. I cannot tell you how much this little gesture meant to me. It eased the tension in the room, and started the words of congratulations from everyone. My uncle then cried out, “Do we all get to kiss the bride?” and the laughing began…everything was back to normal again.

I know it meant a lot to my dad that his wife was accepted by the family. He knows that my mom was loved by everyone and that some people may have been reluctant to think that he could find a new wife. So it was a great relief to me that my aunts and uncles, my family, welcomed my new step-mom with open arms.

So how do I feel about all this? Well, I really don’t want to go into details about who she is, how my dad met her, how long they’ve been together, etc because that’s not my information to tell, but I admit, at first, it was pretty hard. My mom was everything to me, and it was pretty hard to see my father happy with someone else. But then I realized I was being selfish and that I would rather have my father happy than so sad without my mom. He’s in a good place now, the happiest I’ve seen him in a while, and I know that he’ll never forget my mom, that she’ll always have a place in his heart. My new step mom is really nice, though I admit that I don’t know her too well. But she’s a good person, and she adores Benjamin.

Those of you who were looking at my Christmas pictures might have been wondering who the woman on the left side of my family picture was…now you know!

So life this year has definitely changed! I mean, I now have two step-brothers!

Whoo…it’s nice to get that off my chest!

Tags: Daily //