A Christmas Story: 2009 Edition

Well, here we are, home from our holiday "vacation," otherwise known as "The Trip Where Everything That Could Go Wrong, Did."  I tell ya...this trip was something else!

It all started a few days before we left for California to visit the grandparents for Christmas.We were peacefully chugging along, not a kink in sight until three days before we were scheduled to leave.  Addie woke up that Saturday morning and I could just tell something was wrong.  She was quiet, lethargic, and wouldn't drink her milk or eat breakfast.  All she wanted was to be held.  I picked her up and she was burning up. I got her one of the first appointments of the day with the on-call pediatrician, who also couldn't find anything medically wrong with her other than her 101.2 fever and her obviously sick demeanor. So, we brought her home to watch her and wait it out.  She slept almost the entire day-Willie's birthday-and woke up the next morning acting so much better, but still running a pretty high temperature-103.6 to be exact.

In a panicked frenzy I called the on-call pediatrician before he had a chance to get to the office and call to check on us..  He said as long as she was acting normally, to wait it out and if it didn't go down by the next day to bring her in again.  So, that's what we did.  By that evening, her fever had all but broke-down to 99.8-and she was eating and sleeping almost normally again.

We started packing Monday in order to have a smooth morning on Tuesday and everyone seemed to be doing great.  Addie was still sick, but I could tell she was recovering. For the most part her fever was completely gone. We had a great day, and started looking forward to our trip again.  We relaxed Monday night, knowing it was going to be a hectic week coming up since trips like this are always as stressful as enjoyable.

The alarm went off Tuesday after only a few hours of sleep and Willie and I pried our eyes open, struggled out of bed and loaded up the car.  All of a sudden Willie came in complaining that he had an upset stomach and bad cramping.  He got sick right before we left, but then he appeared to be feeling better so I thought nothing of it.  We got to the airport, checked our bags, and got through security just in the nick of time.  We were the last ones to board our plane before take off, but we weren't late.  We even got to California half an hour earlier than we expected!!  It was such an easy flight, Addie slept for half of it, and the other half she was a total doll for the flight attendants.  It seemed everything was going to go smoothly from here on out.

Unfortunately, Willie's stomach started acting up again as soon as we got to his grandmother's house.  He was sick the rest of the evening with a stomach bug, cramping, and fever.  I felt so bad for him since he was so excited about the trip and here he was laid up downstairs separated from everyone while we visited. Right before putting Addie to bed I checked on him and he said he was feeling better, and was even thinking of coming upstairs to spend the rest of the evening with his family after getting up and dressed.

That's right about the time that his dad fell down the stairs!!* I mean, are you kidding? His 60-something-year-old dad fell down two steps and busted his knee up.  He couldn't walk the rest of the trip.  It was awful.  I mean seriously. Can we not catch a break here? Sick kid, sick husband, injured father-in-law, and we're on vacation supposed to be enjoying our time?!

I vowed to make the best of our trip at that point.  I mean, Willie could do nothing but continue getting better, Addie was in a better mood every day since Saturday and other than a chest cold and being more tired than normal she was being very easy.  It couldn't get any worse, right? haha.  That's right about when I got hit with the stomach bug.  All I can say is that at least Willie recovered before I came down with it.  That made it so much easier.  He was a great husband and a great Dad.  He took Addie for the day and let me sleep it off just like he got to.  They went shopping and met some of his mom's friends, and hung out with his grandmother while I stayed in bed waiting for the bug to pass.  Late in the afternoon I felt well enough to get up and move around a bit so I joined everyone again.  Unfortunately, I was still fatigued and cramping  the rest of that night and the next day, but the worst had passed.

And the worst truly had passed.  From Wednesday on, everyone started feeling better and looking forward to Christmas.  Presents were wrapped and put under the tree.  Food was enjoyed.  Company was had. Plans were made to (gasp) leave the house and do some of the things we had hoped to do on our trip.  We were fortunate enough to enjoy the rest of our trip and enjoy our holiday after such a rough start.  I will say, traveling during holiday season is a totally different ball game than traveling during the spring or summer when there are fewer bugs to catch!



* For anyone wondering what happened to Jim-my father-in-law, he is doing much better.  His knee was very banged up and bruised, and he spent our entire trip in a reclining chair.  Willie's mom informed us last night that after we left he was able to get up and walk around using a walker, so he is definitely improving, just slowly.