December 26, 2006

Did you have yourself a Merry Little Christmas?

I did not.

This week will be odd. You know how it is, the week after Christmas. The inevitable conversation starter is "How was your Christmas?" This year, I am not sure what to do - paralyzed, I am. Do I lie and answer "It was good...." or do I just tell the truth?

In short, what happened is that this Nasty Head Cold took a vicious turn into my lungs on Saturday. To boot, Arun was still pretty sick himself. And I was hosting Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day. By 3:30pm Christmas Day, I was a ragdoll, sitting on the couch, totally Boo-Hooing my eyes out to the movie Rudy while using up precious, precious Puffs With Lotion tissues........ Rudy!....Rudy!......Rudy!.....

The long story is more complicated........It involves familial comments regarding X's and my parenting skillz, an underdone turkey (Hey, turkey is the new pink!), a lazy ass aunt who had me running at her beck and call even though I was clearly sick and maybe not-so-clearly pregnant (Whu? I'm pregnant??) and, and, and a mountain of food that people brought, then left for me to deal with even though I said "Oh, we won't eat that - feel free to take it home with you.", because seriously, we WON'T EAT THAT. All this was topped by an overtired, sick toddler who refused to sleep after an insane, adrenaline-infused Christmas Eve spent chasing his much adored cousins. Thus, Arun spent much of his Christmas Day snoring on X's chest - the ONLY place he would deign to sleep. Despite our best efforts to gently place him in his crib, timeaftertimeaftertime, which led to the aforementioned comments on our parenting skillz because clearly, your child's inability to sleep is a clear indication that one must totally SUCK at being a parent.

So, um, yeah.

In my family's defense, I'm guessing I wasn't very much fun this year. Big picture? I am grateful to have family, to have a cozy home, to have a cool husband, to have an adorable son.

And I'll be even MORE grateful to have dry, clear sinuses.

This morning, as I carefully navigated a minefield of sharp-cornered boxes of miniature fake food, Megablocks and tragic corpses of Little People strewn throughout our kitchen, I realized I am grateful for one other thing - nobody went overboard getting toys for Arun. The Shin Denting Shopping Cart and the Heel Splintering Mega Blocks were MY doing, but overall, Arun wasn't inandated with toys.

Rare Snaps of the Elusive Happy Toddler on Christmas Day

12 comments:

Leah said...

Oh dear. It sounds like how I worried ours would be - I'm sorry!

Kirsten said...

Dude, sounds like we are living parallel lives! What with the snot, sick toddler, pregnant tireds, and that damn stroller of hardwood denting doom! Happy Holidays!

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

I cannot be the only one who thinks your kid looks like the My Giant of toddlers?

It could be the hair, but I'm used to babies with a full pate. He just seems really tall.

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

Sorry about the snotfest, drive-by commentary etc. etc., btw.

Scribbit said...

Those "family moments" can be so stressul. With the pressure of trying to create good memories and fun for all someone usually has to go and say something awful to someone else. Sorry you had to be on the receiving end. Not fun.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear that your Christmas wasn't as merry as it might have been. Hope you feel better soon.

Anonymous said...

So sorry to hear you were unwell, I hope you're going to have a speedy recovery any second now.

Happy belated holiday.

Anonymous said...

isn't it like totally amazing how everyone knows how to parent your kid better than you? I never cease to be amazed by that morsel of knowledge.

And I'm sure that fact that he is sick has NOTHING to do with wanting to be held.

Sorry things were crummy and you feel bad. On the bright side, we had the stomach flu, so you can totally come over and we can swap germs.

Diana said...

Oh, tell them to just piss off, at least in your head. What? You did? That's my pal!

Hope you feel better soon, and I'm sending my pity to your garbage man, who I'm guessing will be the one to deal with the giant bags o' discarded food from well meaning relatives.

That Chick Over There said...

Most of my holidays end up this way. I'm sorry. :(

Your kid is adorable, if that makes any of it any better.

meno said...

Puffs with Lotion rule!

Sorry about your Christmas. And the "helpful" comments from the family.

Anonymous said...

Dude, so totally sucks. I have so been meaning to talk to you about your parenting skills, but thank goodness your family beat me to the punch.

Kidding! ha ha!

Let's have lunch soon - want to hear the whole story!