Christmas in the Petri Dish

Man, you know how sometimes, no matter how you try, things just don't work out? Well, that's my Chrisma-Hannu-Kwanza-Kah-New-Year's holiday in a nutshell. I mean, all in all it's been pleasant enough, but… well. Not great.

I mean, Christmas was certainly nice enough, although we worked ourselves to death. As my in-laws are staying with us for the holidays, we decided to host a Christmas Day Brunch. The idea was that by hosting a brunch, we could get the whole hazardous and stressful mingling of familial branches wrapped up by mid-to-late afternoon and not have hours of dinner prep staring us in the face. It mostly worked out that way, although the stress of pulling the whole thing together led to Christine and her mom getting into a screaming freakout hysterical meltdown about an hour before the other guests were to arrive.

It was caused by a box of donuts. It’s complicated.

Ahh, the holidays.

Gifts were quite nice this year. The kids got FAR too much crap. I mean, Christmas is four days gone, and we STILL have toys that haven’t been opened yet. It's absurd. For my part, I got a some nice items – couple of gorgeous shirts, new cologne, an Xbox and Halo 2 (yippee!!), "Shaun of the Dead" on DVD (which I’ve yet to see, but I am looking forward to it immensely), a denim jacket (to replace my rapidly deteriorating one). Christine and I received a new stove and gym memberships as well. Very nice gifts all around.

However, the run up to Christmas was completely fucking exhausting. All I could think of once we got to the 26th was "Well, at least we can finally relax, maybe go to a few movies in the evenings this week." Made all sorts of plans.

And then, blammo, every plan has been shot down. Illness abounds. First, our friends with whom we were to go to the movies on Sunday night had a very ill child and had basically missed Christmas altogether (spent the day waiting to see a doctor in an after-hours pediatric clinic with a child who was feeling so shitty that he didn't even open his presents on Christmas day). Monday night we just couldn't pull a plan together, plus my mother in law began feeling really crappy, and then on Tuesday was told by a doctor that she had the flu AND pneumonia.

That evening, my father in law also fell ill, and he is now running a 102.5 fever. Miranda started coughing last night, and although that's not too unusual (she has a lot of allergies to pollen, and typically it manifests in late-night coughing) given the fact that she is currently living in The House of Sick it is worrisome. Needless to say, the rest of us (me, Christine, my sis-in-law Kelly) are all convinced that, seeing as we are sharing space with two virally infectious adults, at any moment we will be stricken with illness and disease, just in time for our big New Year's night out.

Plus, tomorrow I get to bring my mom to the hospital for minor surgery on her wrist. Should be a fun day.

So, we’ve gone from "Isn’t it great to have in-laws visiting! Built-in babysitting!" to "I wonder if we’ll even be able to leave the house on New Year’s Eve."

Worst holiday vacation ever. Think I'll go buy some Xbox accessories or games or something.

Mood: Growly
Now Playing: Kate Bush, “Hounds of Love”