Worst Christmas Vacation Ever!!!

I will let you be the judge on this one. 

First, the holidays for me went into an upheaval when one of the adult children got sick.  It meant that I left home four days before Christmas to help out in whatever way I could.  That also meant that I left my house with a bedroom full of unwrapped gifts and several errands and chores that needed to be done.  Of course, this is because I REFUSE to shop for Christmas gifts until after Thanksgiving and wait until a few days before Christmas to wrap things and put them under the tree.  All in all, it is pretty trusting of me to believe that no one rummages through the bags looking for their gifts.  It also means that the bags are fair game to the mail dogs in our house who feel they have the right to "lay claim to them."  Anyway, as I was hurriedly packing to leave, I was going through bags and the Ninja was marking them and was to take charge of having them wrapped with the assistance of anyone left behind.  Please do not think that I am complaining. . . there was a lot of work to do.  But. . . of course once I got home on the 23rd, I went through packages organizing them under the tree and realized that several were missing.  Not to worry!  After endless hours of searching and occasionally by accident, everything was located.  I don't know why, but someone gave Pook the pen to mark the gift tags.  If you know him then you know that he deliberately turned that into a joke and labeled a significant number of gifts to other people from him.  This totally messed with my head as gifts were distributed Christmas morning because the adult children do a gift exchange and I assumed that these were from his portion of the exchange and did not distribute them.

Late Christmas day, after we have spent the entire day in pajamas after Church, we had to decide how dinner would proceed.  Eat in the dining room or not???  I like to have everyone sit at the same table, but how do you fit 26 people at one table?  Simple. You eat in the living room at three banquet tables laid end to end!  The problem was locating enough chairs.  But we managed.

Of course their was the usual squabbling about who helped more than anyone else.  Someone wasn't going to help with dishes because someone else didn't help cook or set tables or whatever.  Of course their was the group working on a complicated jigsaw puzzle in the kitchen, who only worked on the jigsaw puzzle because they were possessed!

The real issues started after Christmas.  More running to doctor's appointments which was actually the most relaxing thing to do.  I was out of the chaos that was our home.  "Mommy's" birthday was coming up and we were expecting almost the whole group to return for dinner with her which meant getting organized for another massive guest barrage.  No... wait.... a reprieve or further punishment!  More than half of the family came down with a stomach virus that put them to bed when they weren't in the bathroom.  Of course, anyone with small children knows that they very often don't make it safely to the bathroom.  God blessed me with health and I, at least so far have not been stricken.  That also means that I have washed no less than 15 loads of laundry.  Some blankets and bedding got washed, put back into use and put back into the laundry within hours.  Toys were scrubbed, and sheets were bleached.  As of last night, another wave had started with the few victims remaining.  I am praying to not be included in those numbers as we are trying today to celebrate that birthday!!!

So today, I got on my knees and thanked God for the opportunity to serve my family.  Sounds odd, doesn't it.  I couldn't get upset over it all.  I just smiled and knew that God had us all in his hands trying to comfort us and I was his tool.  May you enjoy the remainder of the this holiday season.  I hope your Christmas was merry and that you have a Blessed and Happy New Year!!!