Christmas gone awry

In my mind, there were only two things that would have kept me from going to my sister's house and spending Christmas with her family, our family, my parents, my bro and his wife and a bunch of her in-laws.

Labor was one.  Snowmageddon was the other.

Neither happened on Christmas.

Instead, Clownfish came down with his first (horrible) case of pink eye and general yucky illness.  Of course, bags were packed, we were showered and dressed and ready to go when I noticed the green pus oozing from his eyes.  Called the doc -- couldn't get meds until the next day, and it was up to us if we wanted to travel.  But reminded how highly contagious pink eye is... and a house full of cousins...

So, after several dramatic phone calls to and from my sisters' house, which involved tears on both ends of the line, I finally convinced my family it was best that we stay home.  / short version.

This paragraph contains the longer, rant-y version.  It was soo hard... we've spent pretty much every Christmas together since forever. It didn't help that my mom, dad and sister each made separate calls pleading for us to come, how it was unfair to them and the kids, etc. etc. etc.  I was already so super bummed... it did not make it an easy few hours for me.  I put my mom on the phone with Clownfish ostensibly for her to say Merry Christmas to him, and instead she said "everyone here says its fine for you to come."  (i.e. its all your mommy's fault... you should work on her, maybe cry until she relents.)  (It was at that point I banished Clownfish to his room so I could talk to Grandma and more or less lost it for a few minutes.) / rant

We had no food in the house to speak of -- cookies, lots of cookies -- but not the makings for Christmas dinner at home.  It was too late for the grocery store -- they all closed early.  We played board games, watched tv, and generally relaxed all day.  It was actually pretty awesome.  But eventually, we needed to eat something more than cookies.  We ventured out, assuming our only option would be Chinese food.  Instead, we had a fairly morose meal at TGI Fridays.  I mean, we were in good spirits, but the food itself was just kind of... sad.

Clownfish really held it together all day, and I did my best to keep him shielded from the crying and the drama... (excepting Grandma's helpful comment) but at bedtime, he cried about how it was the worst Christmas ever because he was sick and missed his cousins and he wanted to give them their presents. Sad.

Snowmageddon came on Sunday, so although my parents had hoped to drive a bit out of their way on their way home to see Clownfish and us, it didn't end up happening.  So we had another quiet day at home.

Good thing about snowmageddon -- work got canceled for today.  I am in the middle of my first honest-to-goodness snowday since I can remember.  Spent yesterday and this morning sorting baby clothes (between my sister and my neighbor, I had lots of garbage bags filled with random baby clothes to sort through and clean!) and getting the nursery in shape. 

Clownfish is feeling much better -- though OMG putting those eye drops in is a struggle of epic proportions! -- and we're going to let him play in the snow this afternoon.

So, we didn't get our huge family Christmas, but I honestly can't complain.  Everyone is safe and (relatively) healthy and we're all still on speaking terms and I am rested and feeling pretty good. 

Bullshark is unburying the car and then we're off to a pre-natal appointment.