O Christmas tree

Isn't it lovely?

We are very excited to have our first Christmas tree in three years. Yes, that is correct: the last time we had a fully decorated Christmas tree was in 2008. In 2009, Aidan and I left Georgia just before Christmas to join James in New York, only bringing some of our possessions; Christmas decorations were not part of the items that made the trip then. And because we left before Christmas, I did not go to the trouble of putting up a tree and then taking it down again before we left. James had a tree for us when we arrived in New York but he only bought a few decorations for it.

Last year, we moved into our new home just before Thanksgiving and had not yet unpacked our decorations. And, since we spent Christmas in Michigan with my brother and his family, we did not add to our unpacking workload by putting up a tree.

On Saturday, we drove out to a local tree farm and cut a Frasier fir. James has long wanted to cut his own tree, so he was excited to play lumberjack. We brought it home and got it set up, then yesterday we decorated it. It was such fun to unpack our boxes of decorations and to reacquaint ourselves with the ornaments. We don't have a fancy-schmancy color coordinated or theme tree; our tree is a lovely mishmash of ornaments that have special meaning to us. There are ornaments that Aidan has made over the years, ornaments that we purchased while on trips and even a few ornaments that were on our family tree when I was growing up. Some are elegant, some are obviously homemade and some are downright kitschy but we adore them all.

I sat in the darkened living room last evening, sipping wine and enjoying the lights and sparkles. It was not until that moment that I realized how much I had missed our Christmas tree.

Not for the faint of heart

Warning: this blog post contains talk of bodily functions – proceed at your own risk.

Parenthood is not for sissies; it can test your patience, your nerves, and sometimes, your gag reflex.

We have not been a well bunch. The last ten days have seen all three of us dealing with colds, and on Tuesday night I got the Headache from Hell that laid me flat until well into Wednesday. Then in the wee small hours of Friday morning, a figure appeared by my side of the bed. “Mommy, I’m going to throw up,” Aidan announced.

I managed to shake myself out of sleep and say, “Then go to the bathroom!” He got there in time before, sure enough, throwing up. After he finished and I helped him clean up a bit, he told me that he didn’t want to go back to his bed but wanted to sleep in the guest room. With me. I understood that he wasn’t feeling well and needed comforting, so I agreed. What a night. Aidan got up two more times during the night to vomit and even while in the bed, he was restless.

Going to school was certainly not an option. His stomach continued to be uneasy and by 9 am, his gastrointestinal tract joined the party (er, potty?). I am shocked that Homeland Security did not come a-knocking because the stench in the bathroom was most definitely a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The exhaust fan was completely overwhelmed so despite temperatures in the upper 30s, I had the bathroom window wide open.

Both ends calmed down around noon and the poor child was hungry. I allowed him to have a plain piece of bread, a banana and some water. All seemed to be well as he sat down to play on the computer around 2:30. I was around the corner in the kitchen when I heard an odd noise. When I asked Aidan about the noise, he said “I threw up again.” And boy, did he ever. I honestly think that is the first time I ever had to clean vomit off a wall and I hope it is the last time. I am very thankful, however, that he turned away from the computer because I do not know how I would have cleaned bits of partially digested banana out of a keyboard.

Dinner for Aidan was plain rice and saltines, which did manage to stay down. He got a good night of sleep in his own bed and today is back to normal. If only we could recover that quickly.