The Christmas Where Everyone Got Sick

Well, this was surely a Christmas for the books.

On December 19th, Thompson came down with a stomach virus.  He handled it like a champ, but the next day it hit me, and then the following morning it hit T like a Mack truck.  The staggered effect was actually quite fortunate, because when I was at my worst T could take care of the baby, and when he was laid up in the bed, I could take care of everyone.   Determined to get better by Christmas, we laid low for the next few days, even skipping out on a Christmas party we'd really been looking forward to.

By the 23rd, we were all feeling back to normal, so we headed down to see my in-laws for a few days.  Unfortunately we had to cut our trip short, because my niece came down with RSV.  She was so dehydrated she wound up in the hospital on the night of the 23rd.  When we woke up on the 24th, we fled their house quickly, scared that Thompson might contract it.  Little did we know, it wasn't my niece that would be spreading Christmas sickies, it was poor little Thompson.  Or more affectionally known as Typhoid Tompie for the rest of the Christmas holiday.

As luck would have it, Christmas Day was the only day that everyone felt fine.  T and I were fully recuperated,  Thompson was his normal jolly self, and no on else had contracted the stomach bug yet.  I'm really glad we took advantage of that time to snap a few family pictures before all hell broke loose.

We spent the day with my mom, dad, and sister Sarah in my parent's new house at Lake Wateree.  We've had a house at the lake for years, but they recently sold our lake house as well as the house I grew up in, and built a new house on the lake where they plan to retire.  I was afraid it would be weird to celebrate Christmas at the new house, this was the first Christmas in my entire life where I wasn't in my childhood home.   But their new house is beautiful, and built to accommodate our entire family, including all the grandchildren.  It's the perfect place for this new season of our lives.

Mom and Dad moved in just a little over a week before Christmas, so it was a mad scramble to get the house in shape for Christmas.  We had a small tabletop tree, very limited decorations, and a garage full of moving boxes waiting to be unpacked.  Definitely still a work in progress, but it'll get there soon.  We had beds to sleep in, a fully functional kitchen, and a table to eat Christmas dinner on.  So that was all that mattered.

Gift-wise, we went pretty simple this year for the baby.  For his first Christmas, I wanted to get things that we'd have for years to come.  Things that we could always look at and remember that we bought them on his first Christmas.  I made an Amazon wishlist for family of some smaller items that we'll be needing soon.  The list had sippy cups, new leather mocs, a silicone placemat, blocks, bath toys, etc.   T and I bought a  Little Tikes swing for our front yard, a piggy bank, and at T's request a dino ball popper.

Thompson's Christmas outfit was extra special this year.  He wore the same outfit that T wore on his first Christmas, exactly 30 years before.  My mother-in-law gave it to us at Thanksgiving, and remarkably, it looks brand new.  He looked absolutely precious in it with his white knee socks and shoes. Those chunky baby thighs of his really made the outfit.  

By the morning of the 26th my sister was the next victim, then came my mom, then my aunt, and then my cousin.  We were dropping like flies.  I never knew a cute little baby could be capable of spreading such a nasty bug.  Thankfully it was a 24 hour bug, so as soon as it found it's next victim, a previous sick person started to feel better.  Of the eleven of us that got together at Christmas, eight of us had the bug, and that number could still be rising.  I felt so bad about bringing this virus with us, when we left for the holidays we had no idea that any of us could still be contagious.  The silver lining to it all was that none of us put on the pounds we typically do over the holidays, so I guess that counts for something!   Now let's just hope I'm invited back to future family gatherings...

Hope y'all had a very merry Christmas full of great food and family time, and free of stomach bugs!