It wasn’t a BAD Christmas….no, not at all, but it was without doubt a somewhat odd little Christmas. As mentioned here earlier I got sick on the 23rd. I pretty much stayed in my pajamas all that day but managed to go out Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve for the first time in my life. Unfortunately however….on Christmas Eve LEO woke up sick….high fever….utter misery. Now you just shouldn’t be sick on Christmas when you’re eight years old. It’s just not right. Of course when you’re a stubborn soul who REFUSES to take tylenol "because it’s terrible" that doesn’t make it any easier. Even when your parents go to the store to get the cherry flavor instead of the grape, you still put it off for hours and hours giving yourself more time to be miserable with a high fever….
Of course we couldn’t go over to my parents’ house that evening with him sick….even if I wanted to drag him out I didn’t dare have my parents get this. Christmas Eve is always when we celebrate with my parents hower si it felt so odd not to go. Part of me thought it would be nice to have a more relaxed Christmas Eve….and parts of it were nice (Christmas music, fire in the fireplace and watching The Christmas Story with the guys) but it still didn’t feel right. Ernie brought our traditional Christmas Eve meal of meat pie (tortiere), cranberry sauce, coleslaw and pickled beets over to my folks but I know my mother was really sad. To top things off my father’s hearing aids aren’t working which makes him more angry and confused.
Christmas morning was great however with a sick Leo lighting up and yellling "THIS IS AWESOME" over his Lego train. The rest of the time he was pretty quiet though. Owen made up for it of course and he was incredibly excited about his Lego fireboat and all their other paraphernalia…..including the surprise of a Playstation 3 from Aunt Debbie….I guess we’ve entered the gaming age God help us. The boys were thrilled of course now I just have to figure the damn thing out…..
Leo and I ended up going back to bed for the rest of the morning and it was a rather quiet day. Luckily my brother in law Dennis came over in the afternoon and that made it feel more Christmas like—not just because of the gifts he brought (Dennis always brings wonderful gifts) but just because it felt odd to have it be just us on Christmas Day.
Leo actually took some tylenol that afternoon (Dennis’ visit and gifts spurred him on) so he was perkier in the evening without as high a fever. Given that he was sick we all had the pleasure of watching three episodes of Twister Sisters…..due to Leo’s newfound fascination with tornadoes.
So all in all, not a bad Christmas….just a rather odd one. I spoke to my mother several times and pretty much wanted to cry after each conversation. At one point she said to me, "well, there’s always next year" and that just about broke my heart because I can’t imagine where/how they will be a year from now.
We will just savor what we have now—-the bad along with the good. We will celebrate properly with my parents when Leo is better so they can give their gifts to the guys in person.
So Merry Christmas to all…and to all a Good Night……
