A mother knows when Christmas is coming: it's the time for sneezes and wheezes (and fevers).
This year for Christmas, I'm asking Santa Claus for one thing, and one thing only: a year's supply of Kleenex. Or children's cold medicine.
Seems that every year, without fail, one of the children comes down with a whopper of a cold. Or worse, the stomach flu. (That's another thing I am asking for: Thera-Flu for kids, as well as Pepto-Bismol.) Every time the weather turns cold, that's when one of my school-age children becomes a victim.
I remember last Christmas: we were looking forward to a quiet holiday with just our immediate family (plus Grandma and Grandpa) spending some quality time together; however two days before Christmas Susie started crying in the middle of the night, claiming that she didn't feel good.
When I went to check on her, she greeted me in grand style: she threw up on me. If there is one of the worst things that can happen to a mother, it's when her child blesses her with vomit. Not good.
Needless to say, our Christmas/holiday plans were put on hold. Poor Susie had gotten a stomach bug (it was going around at her school); she was miserable, feverish, and extremely nauseated.
Plan A went into action: isolate Tommy and Beau (the other two kiddies) from Susie's room, protect them from the nasty stomach bug. Plan B soon followed: call Grandma and Grandpa, tell them not to come because Susie was sick.
It looked like we were going to spend Christmas camped around the livingroom with our sad, skimy excuse for a Christmas tree (it looked no better than Charlie Brown's tree: it was pathetic); the presents that surrounded the tree didn't help the tree's shoddy appearance one bit, as our minds focused on the isolated family member, who would spend Christmas in her bed, puking her guts out and feeling terrible for ruining Christmas for the rest of the family.
It was not a happy time. Susie ended up having to be admitted to the hospital with dehydration the next day, Christmas Eve, which upset her brothers greatly. They figured that with their older sister in the hospital, Santa Claus wasn't coming.
Susie ended up having a rotten Christmas as well: she was the one who was sick in the first place, and no matter how festive the children's ward at the hospital looked, she could not hide the fact that she had an IV in one hand, nurses kept waking her up at all hours of the night to check on her, and she felt absolutely lousy.
It's no wonder she acted more like a little Grinchette than a Christmas angel. The child was sick. And miserable.
She wanted nothing more than to be home in her little trundle bed, where she could get some decent sleep. She was finding out quickly that just because a person is a patient in the hospital, they don't necessarily end up getting the rest they need.
I am glad to say that Susie recovered without incident. We ended up having Christmas three days later, on December 28, 2006. A little late, perhaps, but better than no Christmas, I kept reminding her. The boys were happy again; they got over being mad at their sister, and miracle of miracles, they didn't get sick.
This year I wonder who will fall ill first. Susie again? Tommy? Beau? Seems that when one falls ill, the other two follow suit. Then we have three sick, stuffy, miserable kids stuck in the house, and it is I who has to turn into SuperNurse and try to get them back on the road to good health.
That's really no problem. I can handle sick kids. I'm a pro at it.
It's when Hubby-Dear gets sick when it turns into a problem. When Dale gets sick, my whole world stops.
If I think the kids are bad when they are sick, you haven't met my husband. Dale turns into a whiny, sniveling brat who demands attention--24 hours a day. I soon end up feeling like that poor, overworked nurse at the hospital last year; that is when I can appreciate her line of work, and thank God that I don't hang around sick people 24 hours a day!
If there is another thing I am asking Santa for Christmas this year, it's good health, not only for my kids, but for Dale!
LOL Karen, this isn't funny, but the way you wrote it, it was...my favorites? Asking Santa for a year's supply of Klenex and Thera-Flu, and being greeted in grand style, by throw-up! LMAO!! Poor kids, hope this year is kinder to them. Mama needs a break!
Some Christmas had not the smell of roast turkey or pine tree, just Vicks Vaporub scent to kill all Christmas perfumes.
Atchooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Georg
Farctured Frazzled Folk Fables and Fairy Farces, Part II satirizes popular children's stories into adult-oriented renditions. FFFF &FF, Part II is also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble e-book formats.
