This Christmas will probably always be remembered as the year we had the stomach flu, and not just the 24 hour stomach bug, but like the 48-72 hour bug. Fortunately, the kids were all feeling much better by Christmas Day, but I was feeling under the weather still, and Keith was not feeling well at all. It all started early Monday morning when Tori woke up crying in the middle of the night with barf all over her bed. I picked her up out of her crib without realizing there was barf, so then it was in my hair and everywhere. So, yeah, her and I had a bath at around 2 a.m. I was up all night with her. Poor girl was puking about every 20 minutes for 5-6 hours. By Monday night she seemed better. Tuesday went without incident, so Wednesday I decided to take the girls to the Pt. Defiance Zoo. Keith was home that day, and the boys didn't want to go, so just the girls and I went. We had a good time. It was fun to be with just them. On the way home though, about 10 minutes after leaving, Anne Elyse started puking. Good thing I had that sandwich baggie from Subway handy. She was so good to keep the barf in the bag. Can you imagine trying to get barf smell out of your car? Actually, I can. My brother barfed in our station wagon when we were kids. My dad tried in vain to get the smell out. It was down the heat vents and all. We eventually sold it, because it stunk!! The whole way home (about an hour drive), I was feeling queasy but just kept telling myself it was because she was barfing. Nope. About an hour after we got home, I started puking and, well, other things. It was awful. I had aches and chills too. I was so sick at one point, I couldn't even get off the bathroom floor. Keith was gone to work at this point, so Austin did his best to be the man of the house and help take care of the kids. He was pretty worried. He called Keith, "Dad, Mom is REALLY sick." It was bad from about 5 p.m. until midnight at which point Tyler woke up puking. He and I spent the night on the sofa taking turns running to the bathroom or using the "barf bucket." By Thursday morning, I was feeling a bit better, or at least not puking anymore. Thursday afternoon, Austin came down with it. We thought maybe Keith had dodged the bullet. He was working the night shift that week, and came home early Friday morning, around 5 am. and collapsed in bed saying he didn't feel well. He never threw up, just had the diarrhea, but he was feeling yucky through Christmas day. And Keith is a real peach when he's sick. Can you say El Groucho? He even gets the luxury of not having to take care of sick kids when he's sick!
The kids had a blast with all their new presents they got. Austin got a bow, Anne Elyse an American Girl Doll, Tyler a Lightning McQueen remote control car, and Tori a tricycle. The big, family santa gift was the XBOX with Kinnect. It's pretty fun!
It could've been so much worse if we had actually been puking on Christmas Day. Thank goodness we weren't! Our church was at 9:30 a.m., and I'm just going to admit right now that, yes, we are sinners and we didn't go. If I hadn't been so wiped out by the flu/taking care of sick kids/and getting Christmas wrapped up AND if church wasn't so early, we probably would've gone. I just didn't have the energy to deal with it. However, I really did enjoy the spirit of Christmas still and enjoyed taking the extra time to reflect upon the birth of our Savior. There is nothing else quite like the feelings you can hold in your heart at Christmastime. I'm so grateful to have 4 kids that (drive me crazy) that I love and that make Christmas so fun and special.
This is the picture I used for our Christmas Card this year. I only sent 25 this year and didn't get to send one to everyone I wanted to (trying to cut down on expense). It turned out cute. I did a press printed card that was 5x5 in size and cut in a scalloped shape.
The back of the card read:
This is the picture I used for our Christmas Card this year. I only sent 25 this year and didn't get to send one to everyone I wanted to (trying to cut down on expense). It turned out cute. I did a press printed card that was 5x5 in size and cut in a scalloped shape.
The back of the card read:
1 comment:
Bless your hearts!! The flu is the worst and so contagious and the bug sounds awful....Miles, Siena and Cyrus had similar bug in NYC and on their transatlantic flight to London...what can you do? The pictures are wonderful....grateful that at least Christmas Day you all had a bit of reprieve...Our Church was at 9 AM and we only had one child, Cyrus, to deal with so we made it and did Christmas after church (Cyrus is too little to get the Santat thing and all)but I kept thinking...why don't we make it about 11??
Post a Comment