Roy is coming down with a doozie of a cold. He gets at least one a year, but this one is directly related to the holidays. Now, before you jump to the conclusion that he has this illness because of too much holiday partying, let me assure you, it has nothing to do with that!
Every year, we start out like any other family, hoping for a Christmas with meaningful Christmas church experiences, just the right gifts, way too much food and maybe, just for fun, a good old fashioned family fight to spice things up. That’s not too much to hope for, is it? That is not what happens at our house.
It seems like when the Christmas holiday approaches, Moses must intercede with God and ask for a reenactment of the seven plagues of Egypt, using our family as an example! We may not get rivers of blood or a swarm of locusts and thank goodness, we don’t do the whole death of a first born, but we do seem to be getting hit with more than our share of bugs!
It generally starts with Royce, my older grandchild. He goes out looking for an interesting bug for which, after he has displayed the symptoms, he is taken to the hospital and properly drugged for his efforts. In the beginning he kept these germs to himself and one memorable Christmas Eve, he ended up in urgent care for his fever.
His techniques have expanded since then, however, because he has now learned to share and that’s just what he does with his germs. He turns to his brother, mother or father and sometimes his aunt and uncle and says, “Here, you can have some of my germs.”
As a result, we have literally held present openings with someone lying on the floor by the tree with a high fever and eaten a supposedly delicious Christmas dinner with someone retching into a toilet just down the hall.
It takes its toll on the family and always, always, always, just as we think everyone is over the hump (so to speak) Roy manages to come down with the disease…whatever it is!
I never pick up these bugs (knocking on wood there), but I had my own “year of illness” a couple of years back when I developed an intestinal infection right before the holidays. By the time Christmas arrived, I had been diagnosed and treated, but it meant I was sipping “delicious” chicken broth a spoonful at a time while everyone passed the turkey, mashed potatoes, cheesy green beans, etc. past my nose and consumed it before my eyes.
If the disease is contagious, however, the cramped quarters of a family gathered for the holidays makes it inevitable that as many people as possible will take their turn at the holiday altar of germs. This year was no different than usual, with a miserable cold, sore throat, general punk taking hold of as many as possible and ending with Roy.
So, I’m not asking for gifts next Christmas, as much as I like to get them. Next Christmas, I’m going to plan for the holidays with as many immune-building vitamins and over –the – counter aids that I can find and pass them out to all my family while I fervently beg the Almighty to make it possible that no one needs antibiotics, anti-nausea pills or even an aspirin and we truly have a healthy, Merry Christmas!
Hope all of you had a healthy and a happy Christmas this fine holiday season!
© Jackie Wells-Fauth and Drops In the Well, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jackie Wells-Fauth and Drops In The Well with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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