A Family, Interrupted Part 1

So,

The day before the night before Christmas,

And all through the Reichstag*

Not a Brownshirt was stirring,

Not even The Biatch...**

But outside, Emily and I pull up in our reliable car, Ticker. The boot [translation: trunk] is filled with an assortment of Yuletide goodies and two HUGE sacks from Santa. The rain is falling, but I hardly notice because as I get out I look across the car park [trans.: parking lot] to see a minivan [trans.:minivan] with two excited-looking Guntons in it. I heft out the enormous Santa sacks and the bag full of snacks and start to head to the SS office.

I'm expecting that the foster carer is going to pin the kids in place until I'm safely within-doors, but against my expectations, the kids are unleashed and they instantly rush to catch up with me. They are obviously on a huge high, Rhiannon has a skip in her step and Caleb just cannot stop grinning. He tells me that he has a present for me, showing me it from where he had been hiding it behind his back. Rhiannon also has a Christmas present, but she is making no attempt to hide it and she's carrying it proudly. They also have Christmas cards and Caleb just cannot wait to give me his. I shoo them into the office, because the rain has started to get even heavier. No sign of the new social worker (not sure if she's a Brownshirt as of yet, withholding judgement until I've had more contact with her), so I sign in and as I'm doing that, I hear the carer say, "If you keep grinning like that, you'll tear your cheeks." I turn to see both kids grinning ear to ear and looking at me, so I sit opposite them and Caleb trots over and hands me his Christmas card. The envelope says 'Dad' in his inimitable handwriting and I delve into one of the Santa sacks to give him my card back. Rhiannon gives me her card, the envelope of which has careful joined-up writing, so I open Caleb's first. He's painted it bright blue and written 'Merry Christmas' right in the center. He's a lefty so, obviously, he's made his card right-side opening. Surprised me, I had to figure it out without the aid of a safety net. I get the card open and it says:

"Dear Dad

Merry

Christmas!

Love from

Caleb

XXX'

I thank him for the lovely card and open Rhiannon's card. She'd gummed the envelope shut, so I had to tear open the top. Her card has a lovely snowman drawn on the front and says 'Merry Christmas!' across the top. Inside, it says:

"Dear Dad

Merry christmas

Love

Rhiannon

XXX"

Yes, truly the sentiments of two children who supposedly fear their father...

I thank them both for the beautiful cards and tell them that they are the best cards I've had all year. The social worker arrives and we all traipse to the room we have booked. I ask to be allowed to play some Christmas tracks I've sync-ed to the iPhone (thank you again, Mumsy!) and I am allowed (so far, so good..). So to the dulcet, helium-enhanced tones of Alvin and the Chipmunks, we set about the serious business of Christmas present unwrapping. First out of the bag is Rhiannon's toy, a police station for some battery-powered guinea pig/hamster-things (I suppose they're more sanitary than the real animals) and Caleb gets.... SENTINEL PRIME!!! First shock of the day, the kids have seen the extremely violent third Transformers movie. I'm more than a little upset that Caleb dwelt upon a Transformer that 'turned people to skeletons'. A strong word to be had with the social worker regarding the appropriateness of what they are allowed to watch shall be had in the near future...

Next comes the arts-and-crafts things, Rhiannon's crochet set and Caleb's paint-a-birdbox set. Rhiannon is instantly enthralled by the idea of crochet-ing and I encourage her by saying that once she's done with all the yarn in the set, she can buy more and make other things. Caleb's looking at his birdbox box with his nose wrinkled in disgust. When I ask him what's up, he says "The painting on the pictures is horrible. I could do better."

With a smile, I told him, I bet he could and it'd be a lucky bird that would get to live in the box once he'd finished decorating it. Caleb liked that! Next came Rhiannon's crocheted bag and it's contents, a wallet and three sticks of lipbalm. The lipbalm is an instant hit, considering Rhiannon's habit of licking her lips and ending up with them chapped. She instantly applied a layer of 'Very Cherry' and smiled. Caleb opened a box to find his wallet, belt, watch/compass and pen set. This is all VERY cool, especially the watch, which he straps on immediately and starts figuring out which direction he is facing. Once he decides we are facing South-East, he opens his wallet to find three dollar bills, a nearly complete 'Royal Crest' set of British coins (all they need to find is the fifty-pence coin) and a whole £10. This, I tell him, is to buy his sister a special present. He smiles and nods. Something tells me he might have something in mind for her...

Rhiannon then opens her wallet and finds exactly the same as Caleb found in his. Lucky, lucky, lucky! She seems to know what she might like to get Caleb, but she doesn't give the game away. I called a pause at that point and pour out three cups of strawberry milkshake [trans.: strawberry milk] and then pull out the snacks and treats from the bag. There was: two boxes of Cracker Jacks, a pack of snowman Marshmallow Peeps, another pack of Christmas tree Marshmallow Peeps, three Twinkies, twelve candy canes and a bag of candy corns. Rhiannon is immediately drawn to the Twinkies and manages to get two thirds of one in her mouth in one bite. The om-nom-nom-ing told me that she was enjoying it immensely. That and the blissful, puffy-cheeked grin she gave me. Caleb was more circumspect, enthralled by SENTINEL PRIME!!!, so I had to encourage him to try something. In the end, a Peep Christmas tree was his first try and it lasted all of a couple of seconds before his eyes lit up and he was reaching for a second. The next thing to catch Rhiannon's eye was the Cracker Jacks. I asked, off-handed if they liked popcorn. Yeah! was the reply. Did they like peanuts? Yeah!! Do they like caramel? Yeah!!! Then they'll probably like Cracker Jacks. And as an added bonus, there's a prize in the box too. Rhiannon needed no further encouragement and dug into a box. I managed to get a few pieces of popcorn before she finished the rest. I think they were a hit.

Refueled with milkshake and candy, we dived into the seemingly bottomless sacks for more gifts. Rhiannon got a drinks bottle to match her wallet and Caleb got a huge great box. As Rhannon figured out how to open her bottle, Caleb demolished the wrapping on his present to descover, a Build-a-Bear! Named Timmy, he came with a soldier's camo suit, shiny boots, bear tags and a beret. He also had a £10 gift card to buy some new clothes. More arts-and-crafts things, Fimo modeling clay and Play-doh! Wouldn't it be a shame if that ended up smooshed all in the carer's carpets? >:D

Oh joy, Caleb's found out that not only does SENTINEL PRIME!!! declare his name loudly and proudly, but he also has a loud siren. That'll be a wonderful thing to hear early on a Sunday morning....

Rhiannon opens her next present, it's a bright and cheerful scarf and gloves! She instantly decides to put her gloves on, but wisely takes them off when she started on her Christmas tree Peeps. She also has a lovely book of classic stories and she gasps with delight at this. Caleb finds he has a cheeky monkey earmuff-hat and a Star Wars Lego book set. It's awesome! because he can make robots and spaceships and soldiers. Wearing his hat, he makes a face and asks, "Do I look silly?" I tell him, "No, the monkey is making the same face you do. He's winking."

Caleb take it off, looks at it then, with a grin, winks cheekily at me.

Now I get a chance to open my presents and I start with Caleb's. He's had a sourdough volcano-candle holder, painted to look like it's erupting and complete with red and yellow glitter 'lava' pouring down the side. I am very impressed with it and I tell him so. Caleb's grin is huge. Next I open Rhiannon's present and it's a pair of large framed photos of them both. To say they don't appear all that cheerful is an understatement. In Rhiannon's picture, she has the edges of a smile, but her expression is very neutral. Caleb's picture has him resting his head on his right hand and there is no sign of a smile. These are supposed to be children who are happy in their foster placement? Really? Could have fooled me.

Even the picture from their 'holiday' showed a very unenthusiastic pair of smiles. Four photos of them over a whole year. After the SS had agreed to provide me with pictures of 'significant events'.

As we opened presents, Caleb told me that he'd been in the school choir and had sung 'The Little Drummer Boy' which was playing on the iPhone. I asked him if he'd had fun doing that and he says he had. Rhiannon was quiet at this point, listening to the music while she played with SENTINEL PRIME!!!'s shield-gun-thing. I asked her if she was okay, and she nodded quietly, smiling at me. The smile got bigger when I told her that I loved them both and that I had had the best Christmas present ever, spending time with them together.

Finally our time together came to an end, the social worker telling us it was dead on twelve o'clock. To their credit, the kids were fantastic, helping me pack everything away into bags for them to take back to their house.

I don't know how to take this new social worker. She questioned me about the candies and treats from the States and I'd said Emily's mum (hi, Mom!) and sister (hi, Elizabeth!) had sent them and we'd decided to let the kids have some because we could not possibly get through it all by ourselves. She didn't raise any problems with the contact, even though her pen didn't seem to stop moving the whole time. I'll just have to wait and see the report in the New Year to see whether she's taken what the last Brownshirt said as Gospel and Verse or if sh's formed her own opinions of me. Who can say what miracles the New Year may bring?

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!!!

SENTINEL PRIME!!!

*SS office.

**So it don't rhyme, meh...