Well, That's Not Quite What We Had in Mind

So, this wasn't our best Christmas ever. But, thankfully it wasn't our worst. Certainly, very different.

Shortly after John came home Thursday with the flu, I began having symptoms. Mine is a less intense strain (no nausea or body aches) but debilitating nonetheless. Christmas Eve was spent very low key, no church service, a run to McDonald's with the kids, baking cookies - with lots of naps in between. It was actually quite cozy as we had our own little "family service" reading the Christmas story together and praying and watching "Miracle on 34th Street" and all falling asleep in our living room. At 2 am, I woke up and spent a couple of hours cleaning enough to make myself feel okay about opening presents in the morning - and moving kids into our room so we could set presents out from Santa.

The big concern was that we weren't going to take the flu to my mom as she's been fighting a bunch of junk on her own lately and didn't want to expose her. We weren't running fevers, so we felt safe to proceed with Christmas Day as planned, but lo and behold, about an hour after talking to my dad that we're "still on" - he called back to say Mom would be spending the day holed up in her room as she had body aches, headache, and felt like she was going to throw up every time she moved. OK, then -- I guess we needn't worry about exposing her to anything!

So, we did our best with Christmas dinner, Michael made the gravy and mashed potatoes and Dad took care of the salad. Great team effort. It went really well, but we didn't want to make it too good so Mom would feel like she wasn't needed! When presents time came around, Brayden wasn't looking good at all. Half way through, he asked if Daddy could help him open as he was so exhausted - definite temperature time, and I was proud of him for being able swallow big person's medicine to make himself feel better. Even little Ellie was off-kilter, she opened her Care Bears Tea Set and was so excited about that that she refused to open anything else. Her temper tantrum ended when she fell asleep on the living room floor.

After John and I slept away the rest of the afternoon, we headed back to our house with the Schillings. This morning, after waking up feeling miserable, Traig added to the cespool of germs in this household by throwing up. Nice.....

So, today, we're all taking it easy- Brayden is keeping the medicine down to keep his fever down. I've resorted to just wearing my robe as I so quickly sweat through any clothes, I thought this might be the best bet (my worst symptom being the body temperature fluctuation..). John is hoping to gain enough strength to head back to work tomorrow - and don't get me started on the state of our house right now.

Hmm, when I review what I'll do differently next year in my holiday planner, getting a flu shot may be part of it!