Mrs. Collins looked surprised, not expecting any type of gift. She pulled the crystal plate out of the box and read the inscription.

We want to express our thanks to everyone who had a part in the opening of our home.
Because of the help of so many people, our children are now in a safe and happy home.
Thank you for whatever role you played in achieving this goal.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR
THE JESSIE DANIELS HOME FOR CHILDREN
2008

Underneath the inscription there was a child's handprint engraved right in the center of the plate. Lisa had used Lauren's hand for the template that was sent to the company who had inscribed the plates for her. Then around the rim of the plate, the names of each of the children was inscribed from oldest to youngest.

"Thank you, Lisa. This is so lovely. I am glad that things went well for you getting started and I know that you will continue to be successful here."

After they'd gone, Seb pulled Lisa into his arms. He could see the relief on her face at the newfound respect she'd felt from Mrs. Collins.

"Feel better?" he whispered into her ear.

"Much!" she answered as she snuggled against his chest for just a moment.

Almost as soon as the Collin's had gone, Tom and Laray arrived in a very nice looking sports car with the top down. To Lisa the weather felt a bit chilly. But she knew that to someone coming from Massachusetts it would feel quite warm, especially since they had been dealing with snow off and on for almost two months already. They were welcomed in with hugs and handshakes, definitely moving in the last year to all being friends now instead of just aquaintances. Laray was itching to get her hands on the babies. She had only seen pictures of Jessica so far.

When more guests arrived, Laray had Jessica and told Lisa to go ahead and she'd take care of the baby for a while. She sat there looking into the little face. Laray had her own baby coming although she was the only one who knew this right now. She had a special gift for Tom to open Christmas morning that would announce the arrival of their first child.

*

The afternoon seemed to speed by with guests coming fairly close together for a while including the large Gilmour family followed shortly after by Eric and Lainey Samuels with their three children. Eric Jr. ran off right away to play on the playround with all of the other children and Lisa showed Lainey where the now eleven month old twins, Amy and Alyssa could get down and play where they wouldn't get stepped on.

Lauren looked up at the newcomers, the first children her age. She looked at the two girls who were identical right down to their red Christmas dresses. At first Amy and Alyssa paid no attention to Lauren as they explored the new room. But eventually they sat next to each other and stared at her.

Hannah who was the current keeper in the infant room, tried to get the three girls playing together but at this age they usually are only interested what they want to do. The twins, although playing separately, kept an eye on each other, making sure that their other half didn't disappear in this strange house.

As the families with children left, Lisa gave each child a bag of Christmas goodies that the children had helped to make over the last few days. They had made small edible Christmas wreaths molded out of marshmallow and corn flakes tinted green with food coloring and cinnamon candies for the holly berries. They also had made gingerbread men and wrapped them individually in plastic wrap and tied the top with ribbon and had hung some of them on their Christmas tree, that is until they realized their mistake at putting them so low when Jasmine and Maya had an afternoon snack yesterday almost knocking the tree over in their attempts at pulling the cookies off of the branches.

When Carlos and Vicki were ready to leave, Amelia made sure to get her bag of goodies. She had helped made them and Lisa had told her that she had a special bag of goodies made up for her to take home.

"I can share with Mama and Papa but Carlito can't have any cookies yet. He hasn't got any teeth like I do." She informed everyone.

Lisa and Seb watched the happy girl get lifted into her car seat by Carlos and saw her giggle as he tickled her while he buckled her in.

'She's going to be very happy. I just hope she can adjust to the realization that her birth parents won't be coming back for her." Lisa thought out loud.

"She'll be fine. She will adjust over time and eventually they will only be a dim memory for her since she is so young now." Seb said holding her around the waist from behind.

Jerry Bradford and his wife, Drew and his family and Jessica Talbot came almost all at the same time, staying for varied amounts of time.

Brenda came as soon as she was done working. Usually she was off on the weekends except for when it was her weekend for emergency calls and this was her weekend. She had had to remove three children from a home where the parents were in a normal arguement that had escalated into a physical battle. Neighbors had called the police and in turn the police had called Social Services when both of the parents seemed unreasonable and unable to care for the children properly. Brenda was hoping this was only a temporary situation, especially so close to Christmas. The children had been totally devastated to be removed from their home.

She hadn't planned to stay very long but when Lisa told her that Debbie wasn't feeling well she said she'd stay and help get the children their dinner and to bed so Debbie could go home. It would help to take her mind of the the events of earlier in the day.

Debbie thanked her and gathered her two boys and headed home around four o'clock, allowing her to get some rest. The three girls remained to help until the children were settled for the night, playing with the older children in the game room once they had promised thay had eaten enough for dinner. It had been hard for Lisa to tell since food had been available all day but besides breakfast, she couldn't tell you how much any of the older children had eaten today.

"Oh well, they would say if they were hungry, especially Sammy so I guess they'll be fine." Lisa told Mary who was just doing a check on the buffet tables.

It had gone off well so far, the guests coming spread out enough to have a good visit with everyone and to keep the food stocked and fresh as well as giving Lisa time to take care of Jessica's needs without missing too much.

Most of Lisa and Mary's ex coworkers came at some time during the day including Kelly who had taken over Lisa's position. She told Lisa that things were going well as far as she could see. Lisa already knew that it was since she talked to her old boss now and then.

Seb was talking to Donovan Michaels, who had come with Jeff Sanborn when Lisa took the phone that Mary was handing her. It was Ty and he was calling to say hello and give their regrets that they couldn't be there for the open house. They had all gone to do a last minute house this week for a family that was about to be homeless and right before Christmas.

Lisa told him that she definitely understood but they would all be missed. She told him that Sammy especially would miss seeing him so Ty asked her to put Sammy on the phone and Ty explained the best he could to a four year old, why he couldn't make it and promised that he would come visit another time as soon as he could.

Sammy was obviously disappointed but Urs, who had overheard the conversation, stepped in after Sammy got off of the phone and he scooped Sammy up to take him out to ride on his train out back. That always made Sammy happy and didn't fail them this time either. Lisa thanked him when he came back in minus Sammy who had gone back to playing on the lighted playground for a few more minutes before they would have to come in for the night..

The children were brought in washed up and put to bed with a minimum of trouble since they were all tired, all except for Jeremy who asked if he could stay up for a while promising he wasn't that tired. Seb said he could stay up an extra hour since they had been so good today. Jeremy was always so proud when anyone praised him, but especially Papa.

The last guests arrived just before eight o'clock. David and Grace came in the door followed by Pierre and Claire.

"Look who we found coming out of customs when we got here." David told them.

Lisa immediately saw the rings on Claire's finger.

"Did you two go off and get married without telling us?"

Pierre looked sheepishly at Seb and admittted that yes they had gotten married and that they had done it on the spur of the moment and he hoped that his friend wouldn't be too upset with him that they had not been invited.

"As long as the two of you are happy, that is all that matters. We can spend the evening celebrating." Seb said and hugged his friend and then his new bride.

They did indeed celebrate for the rest of the night. Seb pulled out his best wine and they toasted the new couple and also the approaching New Year.

"May it be as wonderful as this last year has been." Seb said.

They touched glasses all around and drank in agreement.