The Taynors

The Taynors

Friday, December 25, 2015

When Christmas Doesn't Go as Planned

It's Christmas night, 7:30 pm, and I have enough time to sit down and write a blog post.  Something is wrong with this picture.  After all the planning for a magical Christmas day, I am currently sitting on the couch by myself watching lifetime movies.  This year Christmas did not go as planned.

Apparently even though I shopped months in advance, I got all the best gifts, wrapped them in color coordinated piles for each kid, prepped lots of food, coordinated plans with all of our family... that didn't stop the flu from hitting our house.  Patrick started with the high fever on Tuesday and it has not gone away.  He is miserable and lethargic and is on day 4 of this nasty virus (to the doctor we go tomorrow).  Then just to make things even better, it hit Mike yesterday.  He is out for the count with the same high fever, body aches, and misery.

So this morning Ryan jumped out of bed with excited that it was Christmas morning, but we had to drag Patrick and Mike down to join in the excitement.  Patrick cried through most of present, he had no interest at all, and Mike was barely awake to watch the kids open Santa's surprised before he went back to bed for the rest of the day.

Mid-day I realized that neither Patrick or Mike could attend our family Christmas dinner, and Mike was in no shape to take care of Patrick.... sooooo that meant I had to stay home also to take care of them both.  I didn't want to ruin the day for Ryan, so I sent him up with my parents.

So here I sit, Patrick is in bed, Mike never left bed, and Ryan is out with my family.  I will admit I am a bit lonely, this is definitely not how I pictured Christmas.  I am missing my kids and husband and my cousins and extended family,  BUT I am sipping champagne, enjoying the quiet and thinking about how even though this was not our perfect Christmas, we are still such a fortunate family with so much to be thankful for.

Christmas can be overwhelming and stressful for parents, but that is not the point and life happens anyway.  I am making this a glass half full moment and enjoying whats left of this holiday, and praying that our family is healthy soon so we can enjoy all of Santa's goodies and the plans we have all week.

Anyway- Merry Christmas to all, and hopefully next Christmas we will be able to all celebrate!

Here are a few of the pictures I did manage to get today: