Things just got too crazy to keep up the live blogging of Christmas, but it was an enjoyable crazy. We spent the fourth day with the Prof's parents touring a little German town. Granny, Little Queen, and I indulged in some touristy shopping while the others enjoyed a WWII museum. The following day we bade our adieus. Sniff, sniff.
The sixth day of Christmas brought Grandmama and Papa to our house. We were relieved for them to finally see all of the home improvements we had been secretly working on this Autumn. The bamboo floors and baseboards and newly painted walls and newly hung curtains were met with utter surprise and quietude, but I think they mostly like it. On the seventh day, I was beaming as Firstborn served Mass with a seminarian who was home for the holidays. Firstborn thought it was really neat, too, and had lots of questions for me regarding the seminary, the progression to priesthood and the ordination itself.
One day this past week-was it the eighth or ninth day?- we went bowling. Wow! What a lot of fun that was and we got lots of good tips from former league bowler, Papa. The tenth and eleventh days were given over to hosting rehearsals for our twelfth night Nativity Play. They were exhausting, productive, and fun days. On the eleventh day of Christmas we opened whatever gifts remained, except the Big Ones reserved for the Epiphany itself. And then...
the unexpected began to reshape our Twelfth Night plans. Sometime in the dark hours between the eleventh and twelfth days, the Professor informed me that he was experiencing a debilitating pain accompanied by classic signs of infection and wanted to go to the ER. What a blessing that my dad was here and could take him so that I could stay home with the still nursing toddler. They were gone for several hours, but returned armed with pain relief measures and an antibiotic. The diagnosis: an infected cyst.
Still, I thought, we can host this party tonight, because the Prof isn't contagious and he can even retreat to the bedroom during the party since we have my parents here to help. But then, Rosebud took to the bed, feverish and requiring a plastic bucket close by. I knew then that the calls had to be made and that our exciting day was being transformed into a napping day. Indeed. Rosebud slept almost the entire day and the Prof and I each took turns catching up from the previous rocky night.
The Epiphany was certainly not what we had planned or hoped for, but it was a peaceful and restful day. We will reissue the invites, perhaps for the official last day of Christmas, February 2nd. The children worked so hard preparing their Nativity play, the mothers had all purchased little infant gifts to be donated to a crisis pregnancy center, the caroling was much anticipated. And then there are those pitched whistles that we were going to entertain the group with...
Merry Christmas, one and all!
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