Holiday Wrap Up

Well it was another stellar holiday gathering with the in-laws this year. Randomly aged kids running around with new toys, an 81 year old crazy (as in senility) MIL calling me an idiot, and no alcohol being served to dull my senses. All of my immediate family is out of state, so each holiday is spent with my husband's side of the family, because I have no interest anymore in shlepping 600 miles east to fight holiday traffic and bad weather. So there were far too many people crammed into a small living, under a sea of ripped wrapping paper with squealing kids lost in its waves. My sons received way too many generous gifts as usual. And even though I had planned on putting my foot down about not spending money on gifts for the nieces and nephews, the guilt weighed heavily on me Christmas morning as we were packing to go, and as we all got in the car for our 2 hour journey to my SIL's house up north, I scrambled to make payable 8 checks in the names of Lauren, Alex, Lizzie, Ian, Mandy and Nick. They were the only nieces and nephews we were seeing in person, and the thought of not showing up with at least something in hand was beyond my comprehension.

We stayed at a hotel that night, so after all the festivities at my SIL's, all the kids went swimming in the indoor pool. After a terrifying underwater dunk by his cousin, CJ wanted to get out, which was fine because it was really late by this time. All was well until the middle of the night when CJ was burning up with a fever, then shortly thereafter the next day developed a terrible honking cough. After a trip to the doctor yesterday, it was determined he has the flu. Poor bugger lied around all day yesterday, and when I left him this morning as I went to work, he was still sleeping. You know he's sick when he hasn't lifted a finger to play with his brand new remote control train. And not to sound like one of those annoying "my kids are perfect!" type moms, but CJ is hardly ever sick. Outside of a cold here and there, and maybe a spell of diarrhea, this is the first bad illness he's had in about 3 years. And it also happened to be the flu the day after Christmas in 2003. It must be all the excitement that builds up and then his immune system just crashes. Now, we're focused on getting him better and trying to keep the baby from getting sick. Not to mention ourselves. I'm taking about 3 echinecea pills a day right now. I've sworn by that stuff for years. (knock on wood)

Other than that, I have total writer's block and haven't had one insightful thought that I felt compelled to write down in days. Too much confusion, too little sleep and not enough time to breathe. But slowly starting to exhale. There's a whole new year to be thinking about.