Merry First Day of Christmas, Cough, Cough, Sneeze!
It is a good thing that we celebrate Christmas for twelve days. . .because we were all sick for the first day.
If you follow my Facebook page, you know we’ve been dealing with what appears to be influenza. It started with the girls on Thursday with fevers and coughs. Slowly, but surely the bug has gotten to all of us to one degree or another.
Sunday all of us missed church, except for Dakotapastor.
By Christmas Eve, I thought we were rallying. I made it to church with one teen, one of the little boys and the twins. But the twins fell asleep during a 5 pm service. That should have been a sign.
We came home and I set up an abbreviated version of our traditional Christmas Eve smorgasbord. We danced around the Christmas tree and we opened gifts. . .and everyone was in bed by 9:30. Not normal.
Today, Dakotapastor got up to go to Christmas Divine service, and I kept all of the kids home again. Emily was up all night with a croupy cough, and the rest of the family (save me) participated in a chorus of coughing through the night.
Today was one of our most low-key Christmasses ever.
I decided to postpone our turkey feast for a day that we can all taste it. The children played with their new toys. The little boys constructed Batman Legos, the twins played with My Little ponies (a first for this household). I ran about 4 loads of dirty glassware in my new dishwasher. (Did I tell you my dishwasher died on Thursday night? Complete with smoke? Have I told you lately how much I love our locally owned appliance store, who had a new dishwasher installed by 11 am on Friday morning?)
So, I’m not really ready today declare Christmas a do-over, though I do wish we were all feeling better.
I am glad that the Christmas season spans 12 days, and we will enjoy them all.
I will admit that this Christmas has been kind of nice, in a way. So many times we spend the whole holiday rushing around from one thing to the next. Usually I work so hard to make sure everything is “perfect”. But between nursing sick family members and trying so hard to stay well, I could only do part of what I usually do at Christmastime. Hello! We ate LEFTOVERS for Christmas today!
But do you know what?
Even though we are are all coughing and sniffling,
Even though I never quite got out of my pajamas today,
Even though I missed Christmas Day worship for quite possibly the first time in my life,
Even though we never got pretty photos in Christmas clothing. . .
Christ still came! Jesus is STILL the word made flesh!
Through this all, I learned a lesson.
Christmas is less about what we do, but what God has done. And thanks be to God that it is not up to me!
Merry Christmas!
He did indeed! Merry Christmas to all of you…and hope you are all feeling better!
Lisa recently posted..No Answers
Aww that had to be sad being sick on such joyful tidings and festivities. I sure am among the lucky ones to have been involved with any of it even for a bit! Thanks to all the immune system boost from my vitamins!