The Way I See It...

Publisher's Letter 

Robin Rogers, Ed.D.

December 2024

Another year has flown by. While I can’t believe it is actually December, the city is lit with Christmas lights, twinkling wreaths, nutcrackers, and sentiments of the holidays. Like it or not, the 25th is coming, which means I better find someone to pay to wrap my presents, or else I will be pulling an all-nighter on the 24th before family comes over on the 25th. 

For the first time in many years, I am hosting Christmas dinner. Thankfully, nobody in my family trusts me to do the heavy lifting where cooking is concerned, so I am sure I will have an abundance of help with this meal. Or, we will order a turkey and trimmings from our favorite family-owned restaurants (my usual plan). 

The best part about getting older and having adult children is nobody is in a hurry to wake up to see what Santa has brought, and food and drinks stay out all day long for grazing and entertaining. Instead of spending the day putting together toys and cleaning up crumpled wrapping paper, we will play cards and talk and watch through my house’s huge windows the younger kids of our neighborhood scootering by, while the older kids of the neighborhood zip around on golf carts. I love to see those kids playing together and enjoying their Christmas outdoors.

Speaking of younger kids, I have two perfect and sweet boys, both under five, whom I intend to spoil this month. I have already started lobbying for babysitting time so their parents can go on a holiday date night or two or five. We are going to try to see every lawn decoration that has been faithfully put up in the area, and we are going to sing every Christmas song that has ever been sung. We are going to have a fire in the fireplace and make s’mores and drink hot cocoa. I am going to give them matching pajamas and read them The Night Before Christmas. If they want to play games, we will play games, and if they want to kick balls, we will kick balls. I just know that the time I have with them will be precious, so I won’t be stressing about how clean my house is or if all my presents are wrapped perfectly. 

These sweet boys just got a surprise like no other. Their mom, my friend Victoria, is almost halfway through her third pregnancy. She had done one of those home blood tests to determine the baby’s sex when she first found out she was pregnant, and what do you know? The test indicated that she was having a third boy. But something just didn’t seem right; I didn’t believe she was having a boy. I had already sent her pictures of baby girl clothes. But, those at-home genetic tests are right more often than they are wrong, she said. She scheduled family photos, for which she dressed her children in blue, as a way to indicate that a baby brother was on the way. She made the reveal online, and everyone was thrilled. I still wasn’t sold on that baby being a boy. Obviously, her baby was going to be loved and doted on like the other two no matter what, but something just didn’t feel right.

Fast-forward to one Sunday evening, when Victoria got an email about blood test results from her doctor. As she pulled up the results, her husband asked if it was still a boy, and—you guessed it—she nearly fell onto the floor when she saw the female symbol where she expected to see the male. 

“But, Robin,” she said, “what if the doctor’s test is wrong? I don’t want to get excited about a girl now if it actually is a boy.” I totally understood. I may or may not have talked her into a sonogram right then and there. 

“Let’s go find out!” I said. 

So, she scheduled an appointment for the following Monday. The owner of the sonogram place said that she had only ever seen a few of the early genetic tests come back wrong. Victoria got up on the table while her husband, her sister, her oldest child, and I all waited quietly. The technician pressed around on her belly. She showed us the profile.

“Do you want a baby sister or a baby brother?” the technician asked Brooks. He smiled back at her and told her about their all-boy household. Even their two dogs and pet fish, Finley, are boys.

“Well, you are having a sister!” she said.

And I still get goosebumps telling that story. I’ve never known a person who needed a baby girl more than Victoria, and I intend to spoil them—all of them. 

The best gifts are not the kind you can unwrap; they are the once-in-a-lifetime God winks that you don’t expect. And are we ever expecting her now!

Family isn’t necessarily the people you live with or those you’re related to by blood or marriage; I believe that the bonds of family are forged by love. This month, the magazine is full of stories about people unified by love or care. The Carpenter family, featured on the cover, has been shown many times over that they are never alone. When George and Julia’s home burned in a house fire, their friends, neighbors, coworkers, and acquaintances really stepped up. Their story is touching, and I hope it will inspire you to add smoke detectors and batteries to the stockings this year.

Merry Christmas, and as always, thanks for reading FSLM.