Recuperating from the chaos that was Christmas 2009, I can’t help but smile as I look back at what ended up being the calm at the eye of the storm.

The day before Christmas Eve I had worked myself into a tizzy (aka panic mode) because I had waited until the last minute to make Joel a photo scrapbook - his very favorite gift the past two years running.

Blinking back tears I told my husband, “There’s no way I can do this scrapbook. There’s no time left. It will have to wait ’til his birthday in February.”

“C’mon. You can do it. You know how much he loves those scrapbooks,” Wally protested.

Suddenly the tears were gone. “Don’t pressure me!” I shouted.

“Geesh! Take it easy! I’ll help you.”

“Really?! You’d do that?!” I stared at him in disbelief.

“Sure. We’ll get it done tonight.”

And so, the eve before Christmas Eve found us hunched over the kitchen table, cutting, pasting, and arranging photos and stickers on multi-colored paper. Once we got going I found myself relaxing, enjoying the creative process, picking out photos I knew Joel would love - his brother, Justin, imitating the wide-mouthed trout in his hands; his dad making a goofy face; Joel, dressed in a tux with his arm around a pretty young woman at the prom; his friend Peter, dancing a jig at the birthday party he throws for himself every year; Joel’s cousins lined up on the couch; Joel modeling the cool leather jacket he got for Christmas last year; Joel giving his horse a hug.

What a great life this guy lives, I thought as I cut and pasted. After all those years of behavioral issues on his part and worrying on mine, our youngest son - the one with autism - is a very happy young man. We haven’t done such a bad job after all (in case you can’t tell, I still grapple with the not-good-enoughs).

As Joel opened his gifts Christmas morning, he was more subdued than usual. His new Cincinnati Bengals jacket barely prompted a smile. The cool new shoes got stuck under the table. New sweatshirt, ditto. “Where’s the funny present?” he asked. Oops. No one made him a funny tape this year. Wally dug under the tree to find the scrapbook and handed the package to Joel.

Joel tore off the wrapping paper and opened the book to the first page - pictures of himself at the prom. His face lit up, rivaling the light of the Christmas tree in the corner. He paged through the entire book, grinning, pointing at the picture of Justin making a fish face - laughing at the goofy picture of his dad - naming his cousins one by one.

Joel sat on the couch for the better part of Christmas day, paging through his new brand new scrapbook. Thank goodness Wally “pressured” me to get the scrapbook done, not to mention spending several hours helping me put it together! What made the day all the sweeter was that all three of our sons were with us this year, our oldest having just moved back to Cincinnati from Oregon. Wally, Matt, Justin, daughter-in-law Elizabeth and I had time for several cups of coffee and tea and plenty of conversation before the storm returned with the deluge of extended family later that afternoon.

In the middle of the chaos that was Christmas 2009, my entire family was together, and a home-made gift had made our youngest son supremely happy.

I couldn’t ask for anything more.