Scrooged

It started out so lovely -- we made the drive to Iowa in under 14 hours and found cousins and spaghetti (and wine!) waiting for us upon arrival. Uncle Bernie stopped by, Dave and Kara arrived from Colorado via Chicago and Indiana. It really looked like it was going to be an amazing Christmas.

And then Sam got sick.

Really, with that many cousins and that many Christmas cookies, it's sort of inevitable that at least one of the kids will have some sort of stomach ailment, and Sam quickly recovered -- he was able to go to The Last Jedi that afternoon. And so we might have been lulled into a belief that we could still have a Merry Christmas.

And then Nora announced on Christmas Eve that she didn't feel well.

The announcement was made following a large dinner, a concert performance with her cousins (including choreography and lots of jumping) and a nontrivial amount of ice cream for dessert. So while not terribly concerned, we did send her upstairs with a bucket as a preventative action. Then we went downstairs to find Owen wasn't feeling great, returned upstairs to find that the bucket wasn't so much preventative as essential, and then went downstairs to discover that Owen was similarly situated.

So Allen spent the night upstairs with Nora while I spent the evening downstairs with Owen. None of us were up for Christmas mass though Nora did rally for presents (Owen had a fever and slept the day away). But as quickly and dramatically as the illness came, by Boxing day they were fully recovered and even managed a skating expedition the following day with Grace and Grant.

By the time we left Iowa, we were three days symptom free and so decided that we should take an extra day to stop in Pittsburgh to see the Mettenburgs. Joe and Cate made an amazing meal (with a lot of wine) and we all had a thoroughly enjoyable night...until around midnight when Allen suddenly found himself violently ill. It went on until about six am when he was finally able to get some sleep. But while Allen was sleeping, Western Pennsylvania was getting a generous dusting which meant that by the time we had Allen showered and we got him encamped in our car (where he spent most of the trip in and out of consciousness), the roads had gotten bad (as had the Mettenburg's driveway --it's kind of our White Whale), so while Allen slept, Allen's dad and I spent the next four hours white knuckling it on the Turnpike to make it back to DC.

The next day we were due for Christmas at Sharon and Don's followed by New Years at Katherine's. We were a little anxious (especially me -- I figured I was next) and kind of useless (traveling while sick is exhausting), but the excellent food (and presents, including period costumes) had a nurturing effect. At least for me and the kids -- Allen started feeling bad that night and decided not to partake in the cornbread waffles with poached eggs and all the makings for huevos rancheros.

Still, we got to spend the holidays with our loved ones and eventually everyone was fine, so really it was a great Christmas... we're just glad it's Christmas past.

(To see all the holiday pictures, such as they were, click here).