There is absolutely nothing worse than being a sick mom at the end of a plague that is working its way through the house! You get to nurture, coddle and comfort everyone back to health one by one, while balancing the rotating chores,cleaning up behind the sickies, negotiating who has to do what (yes I know it isn't fair but they are sick so pleas just do it), keeping your chores under control all while trying desperately to not let anyone else catch it in a manic attempt to sanitize every surface and boost the immune systems of those not yet infected. And then when it dares to hit your system and knock you into what should be out of commission- no one in the family can possibly fathom why you simply want to hide in bed all day- like they were just hours before. Yet the demands keep on coming so you push through, begging the clock to please get to nap time or bedtime or anytime that can equal REST, until you either recover or collapse hidden away somewhere long enough to be missed (hey what's for dinner?) Fun times for sure and there really is nothing worse.....unless of course you get the privilege of all this joy right smack dab in the middle of Christmas! Oh yes! Never ask, "can it get any worse?" because the answer is (cue rain) yes it ALWAYS can get worse.
Illness+Christmas= no fun, especially for mom! Not only do we get to do all the above, but also add negotiating holiday shopping, wrapping, visiting, parties, and drying the inevitable tears as sickies sadly miss out on one event or another can just can't understand why they can't go since it 's just a cough and fever and sniffles...oh my.
So you can only imagine how my cup overran with joy when I woke up a few mornings ago feeling like death drug for miles behind a semi over bumpy road left in a sauna that wouldn't quit rocking. Miserable, for a poor summary, really miserable. And the reality that Christmas would not wait for the miserable drowned my cup. Shopping. Wrapping. Menu planning. Cleaning. Helping children shop. Cooking. It all waited for me. Merry freaking Christmas.
Years of working in the medical field taught me that caring for myself was crucial to not only getting better, but would help prevent the rest of the house from getting sick again, so I of course bundled up, grabbed my water bottle, tossed back some meds and went out head first into the waiting Christmas chaos to do list. What??? It wasn't going to get done any other way and it needed to be done. Christmas was coming no matter how badly this sickie grinch didn't want it to (at least not for a few more days or a week.) So task by task, ever so slowly I made my way through each thing. There were shortcuts and pleas for help that my super hubby came to the rescue to answer, but in the end it ALL happened and it was WONDERFUL, despite the few illness casualties- sorry sis and hubby :-( you should be feeling better soon though :-)
Christmas Eve dinner was amazing with food, love, joy, family and friendship abounding everywhere. No one noticed the store bought veggie trays, missing snacks or helter skelter of the table set up.
The abundance of joy from Christmas Eve overflowed into Christmas Day and no one batted an eye that our get together was over an hour late, there weren't ribbons and bows on every gift, some gifts were mislabeled or that food was fend for yourself and not laid out.
It wasn't picture perfect, but it was oh so PERFECT and I wouldn't have done it any other way sickie and all.
Ok, ok....well I would skip the sickie part that was miserable, but the rest...yeah that was perfect Christmas chaos!
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