9
Before long, Miranda was cruising the crowded aisles and pressing into “rolled-back prices” with the best of them.
This was a whole new world to her, but she kind of liked it.
With her list in front of her and canned Christmas music playing merrily in her ears, she quickly got her bearings and figured out the lay of the store.
“Put on your Santa,” she whispered to herself as she studied the list she’d compiled in the RV.
She’d started with the youngest kids’ names, leaving a space to fill in with whatever she selected for them—just to keep things on track.
Her plan was to check the names off as she located just the right gifts.
But the more she shopped and perused the store, the more she realized this wasn’t as easy as she’d expected.
It took some time and careful thinking. And even some heartfelt prayers for divine direction.
Would five-year-old Katie really want a tea set?
Would eight-year-old Benjamin already have a soccer ball?
Ninety minutes and two overflowing carts later—and with the assistance of a tall and helpful employee named Tower—Miranda was loading her loot into the RV.
With Joy watching in amusement, Miranda piled bag after bag on the floor by the door, then waded on through.
“I can’t believe your credit card didn’t go up in smoke when they totaled the purchase.
” She handed Joy her card as well as the receipt. “I hope I didn’t spend too much.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Joy tucked both into her purse without even looking. She picked up a stuffed tiger. “Now how are we going to wrap all these goodies?”
“I knew there wouldn’t be much time to wrap everything,” Miranda explained. “So I splurged on a bunch of colorful gift bags and tissue paper.” She dug through the mound of bags until she found some of them. “See?”
“Perfect.” Joy shook out a big candy-striped bag and went to work.
The motor home soon resembled Santa’s workshop as the two sorted and packed the assortment of presents into dozens of varying sized gift bags and Joy carefully wrote out each recipient’s name on a gift tag. She also tied the bags securely with bright ribbons, making them look even more festive.
“Very pretty,” Miranda observed as Joy held a finished bag up.
“Tying them closed will discourage peeking,” Joy explained. “You know how curious children can be right before Christmas.”
Miranda took some photos of all the filled bags that were heaped along the sofa and floor, transforming the RV into a makeshift Santa sleigh. And then the two women dined on the packaged salads that Miranda had bought for them.
“It’s kind of a skimpy lunch,” she admitted, “but it looked healthy.”
“It’s just perfect. And we’ll have an early dinner,” Joy promised.
“I suspect it won’t take too long to get the Mahoneys’ house all decked out.
Not with all those children around to help out—and Ellen assured me that they’ll all be there.
” As they ate, Joy described the decorations she’d packed for this visit.
“They’re all very child friendly,” she explained.
“Lots of cartoon characters and silly things that my boys used to enjoy.”
“I’m surprised your boys didn’t want some of your Christmas decorations for keepsakes.”
Joy waved her hand. “Trust me, they have more than enough. You know me when it comes to Christmas, Miranda. I always went overboard. The bins I packed for the Mahoneys are all very bright and colorful and fun. Nothing’s easily breakable either.
With a little supervision and direction, we ought to be able to just set the children loose with it. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”
“Sounds like it’ll be fun for everyone.”
By three o’clock, they were in the Mahoneys’ living room.
It was a spacious area, but rather stark.
A big tan sectional occupied one wall, a green recliner sat against another, and a fairly big TV was prominently displayed across from them.
Miranda listened as Joy explained her plan to an overwhelmed but grateful Ellen Mahoney.
“We won’t worry too much about perfection here,” Joy told her, with Miranda and the six kids looking on.
“This is as much about the process as the final product. I want the children to enjoy all of it.”
“Okay,” Ellen said with uncertainty. “If you’re sure it won’t turn into a big mess.”
Joy just laughed. “In that case, it’ll be a fun mess.” She looked at the kids now. “I’m sure you’ll all do your best, won’t you?”
They eagerly agreed, so Miranda and several of the children began hauling boxes and bins into the Mahoneys’ two-story house. “Hey,” Miranda called to a teenage boy loitering on the front porch, taking a moment to introduce herself.
“I’m Sean,” he told her. Then he pointed to a boy who looked to be about ten. “That’s Phillip, my little brother.”
“How about if you get the ladder that’s strapped to the back of the RV, Sean? You can be in charge of putting lights on the outside of the house.”
“We get to have lights on the house too?” Phillip asked.
“You bet.” Miranda nodded. “We’re doing this up big-time. Why don’t you help Sean with the exterior lights?”
As Miranda worked with the boys to hang up lights around the windows and along the eaves, she managed to extract pieces of the Mahoneys’ story. Apparently this family of eight was relatively new.
“The two youngest girls, Katie and Kelsay, have a mom named Kara,” Sean quietly explained while Phillip returned to the RV to get a box of light-hanging hooks.
“She’s our foster mom’s niece, but Kara, uh, she got arrested for drugs last year.
She’s doing time.” He reached up to loop a hook onto the gutter’s edge, then laced the lights’ wire through it.
“The rest of us are siblings. Our parents split up a long time ago. Our mom had custody.” He sighed.
“But our mom’s kinda like Kara . . . I mean as far as her problems go. ”
“Prison too?” Miranda asked with sympathy.
He nodded. “She got sentenced last February. That’s when we came here.”
“Well, the Mahoneys seem like wonderful people,” she said. “I think God has blessed all of you by bringing this new family together.”
He brightened. “Yeah . . . I guess so.”
“Still, I’m sure it’s hard for you.” She handed him another strand of lights. “And I’ll bet your siblings really look up to you—since you’re the oldest. You could really make a difference in their lives.”
He nodded slowly, as if considering this. “Yeah, I hope so.”
“And remember,” she said quickly since Phillip was on his way back, “you are not your parents, Sean.”
“Yeah, I know that.”
“You have the chance to make something really good out of your life.” As she continued, she wondered why she was giving him this little pep talk—what made her any sort of expert?
Except that it just felt right to encourage this young man.
“You get to write your own ticket, Sean, and nothing your parents have done or have not done should stop you. Be your own man, man.”
Sean smiled shyly. “Thanks.”
She reached out to shake his hand. “I expect great things from you.”
He grasped her hand with an embarrassed expression.
Phillip rejoined them, and after about fifteen more minutes of work they finished up. “You ready to power it up?” Miranda asked the boys. “To make sure it works?”
Sean went over to plug it in and—voila—they had light in a rainbow of colors.
“It looks like the gingerbread house,” Phillip said as they all stood back to admire their work and Miranda snapped some photos.
Back inside the house things seemed a bit chaotic but were going fairly well.
Joy had put Christmas music on and Ellen was trying to direct two of the children in setting up a nativity scene.
Meanwhile, Katie and Kelsay had just started decorating the tree.
Before long, all the kids were helping with that.
Joy’s creative, kid-friendly selections meant it was more fun to play with the ornaments than to hang them, but they eventually got them all up.
As Miranda surveyed the finished product, she had to chuckle.
The results were not quite up to Joy’s usual standard of perfection.
Several of the garlands were taped to the walls at child height.
And many of the decorations looked slightly cockeyed and haphazard.
But the children seemed quite happy and proud of their work, and Miranda doubted that anyone would really notice or care about the slight imperfections.
The place was colorful and festive and fun.
A great improvement to the functional but otherwise drab home.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” Ellen told Joy as the grown-ups stowed the gift bags for the children in her bedroom closet. Later Ellen and her husband, Tom, would place them under the tree. “I can’t even imagine what Christmas would’ve been like without your generosity.”
Joy reached out and clasped Ellen’s hands. “You have thanked me already—by opening your heart and your home to these dear children. God bless you for your generosity!”
“We wish you all a very merry Christmas,” Miranda called out to everyone.
“And we hate to rush off, but we need to make an early night of it. We have a lot of miles to cover tomorrow.” She almost added “to avoid the storm,” but didn’t want to worry anyone.
Besides, she hadn’t had a chance to substantiate the weather rumors yet.
“Where are you going next?” Ellen asked as she walked them to the door.
“Albuquerque,” Joy told her.
Ellen looked slightly shocked. “That’s a long ways away.”
“Yes,” Miranda told her. “It will take us a lot of hours driving to reach it, so we want to get an early start in the morning.”
“Hopefully you won’t run into that storm the weatherman has been talking about,” Ellen said with concern.
“Storm?” Joy’s brows arched.
“We’ll keep an eye on the Weather Channel,” Miranda assured them both. “I have an app on my phone. And if it looks bad, we might just have to stay put a day or two.”
“Oh, dear,” Joy exclaimed, “we can’t do that. We’ve got two more visits to make before Christmas!”
Miranda patted her back. “I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
“God bless you as you travel,” Ellen called out. “We’ll be praying for God to watch over you and keep you safe!”
As Miranda and Joy climbed back into the motor home, everyone was calling out “goodbye” and “thanks” and “Merry Christmas!”
“Wow,” Miranda said as she started the engine. “I don’t know how Ellen does it day in and day out. All those kids. All that noise. I think I would go stark raving mad after a couple of days.”
“Thank the good Lord that everyone has different gifts.”
“That’s for sure.” Before backing out, Miranda waved to little Katie and Kelsay, who were still hanging onto the railing on the front porch. “Thank the good Lord that Ellen has a boatload of patience.”
As Miranda drove out of the subdivision, she remembered how she’d felt slightly envious while shopping for the Mahoneys’ gifts at Walmart.
As silly as it seemed, for a brief moment, she had secretly imagined she was shopping for her own family’s Christmas.
But after spending a couple of hours at that noisy, chaotic house, she was grateful for the peace and quiet of her life.
And she was glad to be back on the road.
Oh, sure, she still had a slight longing for family .
. . and perhaps something more . . . someday.
But at the same time she felt strangely content too.
And the idea of driving all the way to Albuquerque—more than five hundred miles—didn’t feel the least bit intimidating to her.
Just as long as the weather didn’t turn on them.