Christmas Two started off on a high note. I worked from 1pm to 4pm (not bad, eh?!), and planned to come home, pick up Adam, whisk off to the movies to see "Seven Pounds", and then go to seven pm Christmas Eve Service right before an awesome Adam meal. Perfect, right?
Perfect until I come home to find Adam in bed, after an afternoon, of well, intestional upset. Seems he caught a bug that Dad and Patti also ended up catching on their way out of Christmas 1. Our Christmas plans, as we knew them, were kapoot. What else is a mature, responsible woman to do but to.... cry. That's right, despite my normally realistic, optimistic, groundedness, I shed a few tears of selfishness! A tear that our romantic Christmas Eve was ruined by the severe case of the kooties, and that it looked like Christmas Day in New Lenox with Adam's family might have the same fate. A tear that Christmas is supposed to be about family and joy and fun and that this year, it might be disinfectant, seven-up, saltines, and a solo trip to church. A tear that it just wasn't going how I hoped it would.
I attended our wonderful Christmas, candlelit service and felt awfully small for crying about our unperfect Christmas 2- after all, who is blessed enough to have an absolutely, positely, terrific husband, fabulous extended family, the blessing of a baby on the way, AND THREE christmases?! Come on, Sarah, get it together!! At the conclusion of silent night, my face was wet with tears again, this time for all of those who do not have a warm, cozy house to return to, or families who would love to be with them (if they weren't contagious and puking!!). I came home with a renewed sense of hope and joy for all the blessings in our life, even on this untraditional Christmas 2. I put my energy into disinfecting, pouring Adam 7-up, and doing laundry to the tune of my favorite holiday music and enjoyed all we do have.
Christmas Day itself was awfully bizarre too... Adam is finally feeling a little better, but by the time we were ready to travel, the family in Chicago had caught the bug too. Are you kidding me, Santa?!
So, we did what you can do on Christmas without family. We went to see Seven Pounds, ate at a Chinese Restaurant, and went to Walgreens to shop. We came home, did a little more disinfecting, had a little more 7-up, and watched a Christmas movie. So it wasn't what we wanted, and it wasn't your regular Christmas, but we couldn't be more blessed. Having a husband who is bathroom-bound by cooties sure makes you appreciate the husband with only a headache for Christmas, and disinfecting as a pair is blissful compared to only having the dogs for company. I'm finishing this wacky Christmas day with gratitude, knowing THIS is the stuff stories are made of. After all, next year we'll have a good story for Wylie's first Christmas, and Christmas 3 will kick Christmas 2's booty this year!!
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“When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, we hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago, and etched on vacant places are half-forgotten faces of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know.” - Ella Wheeler Wilcox. We returned home this Christmas to a small village, home of my spouse, far from the big city and far from what used to be. The snow was light, but our hearts heavy for those who will not share a Christmas this season. Our thoughts, as always were on the ones we love, separated by distance but reminded only with a single tear. It is hard to believe so much has happened in a year. I looked out from a front window, to a snow flake dancing above a single distant light and wondered how all our lives will change in the months ahead and what, if anything, will become of that snow flake. Narnia
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