It Must Be Christmas!

One of my (many) mottoes is "It's Not a Holiday Until Someone Throws Up." No current stomach bugs making the rounds here, but both Libby (coughing so hard) and Andrew (migraine) have already obligingly proved this motto true -- just in time for Christmas Eve.

With each year that passes, I am slowly adding to my list of holiday axioms. Of course, these do not ALL happen EVERY Christmas, but usually we can count on one or two to make the season a little more festive.

It's Not Christmas Until...someone is running a fever.

It's Not Christmas Until...someone has passed that fever to a sibling or two.

It's Not Christmas Until...someone (or a couple someones) is on antibiotics.

It's Not Christmas Until...the pediatrician takes pity on me and gives me a "just in case" prescription for the lone holdout kid not currently on antibiotics.

It's Not Christmas Until (new for 2009!)...I tell said (male) pediatrician "I love you" in a fit of extreme gratitude for said prescription because I also know that...

It's Not Christmas Until...we are sitting in an ER waiting room -- usually around midnight -- for an issue that on any other day of the year could be handled with a routine office visit.

It's Not Christmas Until...there is a veterinary crisis. Or two. (They will most likely involve incontinence.)

It's Not Christmas Until...we've fired up the carpet cleaner. Several times.

It's Not Christmas Until...we've given an 80-lb. arthritic, geriatric dog a bath with buckets of hot water in the garage after dark because it is 40 degrees outside and we can't haul her upstairs to a bathtub.

Despite everyone's determination to make this Christmas super-memorable in ways that I trust we will laugh about later, we have not lost our Christmas spirit. Far from it! The wheels may be falling off around here, but that just makes for some fun sledding. Right? Right?

Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care. The reindeer food is ready. Our nativity is set up, and we are looking forward to the reading of Luke 2. The presents are wrapped. The carpets are clean(ish). Cookies are ready for Santa. Surely some of their medications will make the kids see Sugar Plum Fairies tonight.

We are thankful for God's goodwill toward us and for His peace even in our mess this Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!

Coming soon...How to Get Kicked Out of Your Pediatric Practice by Alison Nichols