Christmas and the Aftermath

Posted December 26th, 2006 by Mom | Comments (1)

Christmas is supposed to be peaceful. After all, it is about the birth of Christ. Come to think of it, birth pains aren’t that peaceful…

It is December 26th. The kids, C and J are finally in bed – may they stay there. My head is splitting with pain and my husband said “screw this day – I’m going to eat a cookie and watch tv.”

Let me fill you in on last night’s catastrophe – Around 8 pm Christmas evening, J was running through the hallway to his room in search of a dry diaper for me to change him. (Note that C’s room is next to J’s.) Here comes C running out of his room and down the hall around a blind corner on his way to the living room to play with his toys. SMACK! J and C collide. With J being a few inches shorter than C, J’s forehead hit C under his right eye on his cheek bone. There was much hysterical crying. Since I was in the kitchen for the chance meeting, B was the first on the scene. He called out for me and we each comforted one of the boys. Roll forward to bedtime, an hour later. C and J get ready for bed and we read to them and then lights out. J is having a difficult time unwinding and keeps getting out of bed. Each time, C is disrupted and starts crying. Note doubt in part to his swollen and painful eye. Finally around 10pm I take C into my husband’s and my room, give him some pain medicine and we cuddle and watch 3 cartoons while he is getting drowsy and calm. Around 11:30 I take C and put him back in his bed. He falls asleep and sleeps until morning.

Today begins. B goes into C’s room this morning to check on his eye. It is almost swollen closed, with a black bruise from the corner of his eye across under his eye following the cheekbone. B tells me to get it x-rayed. Good news – the eye and orbital socket (didn’t know this word until today) are fine. My loving mom kept J while I did the doctor/hospital thing – hospital outpatient for the x-ray. C was an angel all through the visits. He was so good the x-ray tech let him have 2 suckers which he promptly stuck both in his mouth at the same time.

I come home to another ordeal. Willie has been dealing with arthritis and other medical problems. Wouldn’t expect much less for a 16 year old cat. Without going to detail, I had to have him put to sleep this afternoon. I have loved him like a child. My head knew and knows that I made the right decision, but my heart is broken.

Can this day get much worse?!
Yes. After coming back inside from taking the garbage to the curb for tomorrow’s pickup, I came in to my husband saying “I don’t believe this.” Yesterday I gave my beloved husband a Nautica watch for Christmas. The watch just fell off the kitchen bar onto the tile floor as B was trying to put away miscellaneous items to help me. The crystal cracked.

Can this day get much more worse?! I’m going to go to bed now and not find out until in the morning. Needless to say, this Christmas will be one remembered forever. For the day after Christmas and as the “flashlight Christmas.” Oh, did I forget to mention the flashlights? C and J each gave me one for Christmas, C and J gave a snake light to their Dad, B and Santa put a Cars flashlight in each of the kids’ stockings. J chewed the button off of one of my new flashlights that day and B was fortunately able to put it back together. Thank goodness for a good husband! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

BTW – Blue, the beta fish is fine.