Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Why I fell short this Christmas OR Pass the throw up bowl, please!

Normally, I have a million things to do at Christmas and so I start my list in mid-November with my Christmas card list, my cookie plate list and my gift list. I pace out everything so the bulk of the work is done before Thanksgiving, leaving me with a busy, but not impossibly busy Christmas. I always get it all done. Not this year. I love this view from our complex, as I exited. Snow capped mountains, clear blue skies, palm tress, Christmas wreaths on the gates.

With Thanksgiving coming a little late, I was already a little behind. But I just consulted last year's list on my PC and got my Christmas decorations up. All would be fine. This year's gifts for family would be meaningful and all the same. For my family, each family was getting a book I assembled and wrote on our Disney Cruise last January. Twenty-five of us went and had so much fun. The book brought all the fun memories back. For Ryan's family, we restored, copied onto CDs, and distributed reel-to-reel tapes made by Tom and Diane when they were stationed in Germany their first years of marriage. It is awesome to hear their experiences and hear the voices of Tom's parents. With both of those projects, I did not have to worry about buying each person their own gift. Much, much simpler. Still took lots of time, but I did not wait until December to start so I figured I was in good shape.

I also had all my girls in school. This meant I would have tons of time to shop. Boy, what an easy year this would be.

Ever hear of Murphy's law?
"Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way."

The flu came. And came. And came. And came again. I was the only one who never got it. Of course, my hands were chapped from the washing and sanitizing and disinfecting and drying. Ryan and Madison had it first. Then Maya. Poor Maya, that is the worst. Then McKayla. Then Maya again. Then Madison again. Then Monterey. We had four bowls going at one point. Lots of missed school. Two Christmas programs missed: Kinder and Tiny Tots. Class parties missed. Chocolate dipping missed (that one was mine.) Two and a half weeks of barely any sleep as I slept next to by barfing babes. I have this theory that since Ryan works full time and goes to school full time, I do one hundred percent of the night time duty. I did need his help twice. Both times when it was coming out both ends. By the way, another reason to hate Hot Cheetos: when you throw up Hot Cheetos on the cream colored carpet, the stain does not come out. Even with hiring a professional.

So when I should have been addressing Christmas cards, I was rinsing out bowls. When I should have been shopping, I was emailing teachers with the latest status and getting their assignments. When I should have been making cookies, I was rubbing a cramped tummy.

I did have spurts when I could do something. Maya helped decorate the gingerbread house for the ward party.

Maya also helped me make the Pretzel Hugs by peeling all the hugs and placing them on the pretzels.

I managed to get out my cookie plates, with about 2/3 of the cookies I had planned. And no cornflake hollies. The first time since I was 15 that cornflake hollies did not make the Christmas cookie plate. So to those of you that got the plate, my apologies for not doing the job I normally do. But, I can guarantee that there was no flu bug on any cookie.

To those of you who normally get Christmas cards, sorry. It just did not happen this year. Merry Christmas. I love you all. I know you will forgive me and hopefully I will not be dropped off your list for next year because of one lapsed year.

Next year, NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO GET SICK, FROM THANKSGIVING THROUGH CHRISTMAS, NO MATTER WHAT!

Merry Christmas.

2 comments:

Rachelle@atticgals.blogspot.com said...

Amen on the NO SICK rule, sister! Next year. There is always next year.

Laura said...

Gosh Lisa, you're perfect!! I don't think anybody realized you had all that going on. The cookie plate was awesome (as always), your gingerbread house was hands down the best, and you managed to keep it all together in RS. Most of us cannot even accomplish half of that with everybody healthy. We had our Christmas cards ready on the 24th and I highly doubt they'll ever get mailed at all :) Oh well...