Christmast at our House

Well, we all survived the Christmas season, though I must admit it was one of the wackiest ever at our house. Our eldest son was home on leave preparng to go to Iraq. That set the mood and the anxiety and last minuite-ness of everything. Then on the final send-off day, my joints hurt too badly to get out of bed at 4 in the AM, so I didn't get to go see him off. We hugged for the longest time and both shed some tears as we embraced. I won't see him again until Dec 01 of 2006. He is in Virginia now, then will ship to Camp Penddleton in CA, then on to Iraq. If yo are reading this and are a praying person, please pray for my eldest - John Hagan Allen. He is 21 and a brave patriot and we all miss him dearly. In the midst of this everyone in the household got either the flu, a stomach virus, or food poisoning. I personally had something of the gastric variety which landed me in the hospital for the week prior to Christmas. It was awful and dastardly. I think it was food poisoning because I've never been quite so sick at my stomach before in such a wierd way. The hospital was no fun and lonely as it always is. I did watch Divorce Court out of sheer boredom and I had some funny stories to tell the family when I got home. Well, needless to say the plans I had for Christmas gifts, cards, decorations, activities with the kids, and generally everything pre-Christmas fell by the wayside. Although I was released a few days before Christmas, I still feel seasick and am nursing a Ginger Ale most of the time. I had to cancel my Remicade appointment because it fell during a time when I was running a fever. I feel very blessed, however, because they were able to fit me in just one week later. Ususally if I miss, I have to wait weeks to get back into rotation. Since Remicade is the first treatment that has shown any promise, I hate gettting out of sequence and waiting to get back in. I'm supposed to be taking a Methotrexate shot once a week also, but I just stopped them throught December. They make me so nauseaus and also knock me out for about 24 hours. I decided to resume them next week when the kids go back to school. I've been nauseaus enough lately, and I've missed too much time with the kids as it is. Over the holidays, we put pergo-type floors throughout the house. So now we have tile and stone on the middle level, and faux hardwood on the bottom and top levels. We hope this will be easier to keep clean, and will also harbor less germs and things that get into our lungs. That was the motive behind the change. The floors are georgous and it's almost like having a new house!! Everyone seems to be enjoying them, except, they are a lot more noisy than carpet. But I think we'll adjust. Some of that carpet had been in the house since 1989 and I'm sure was laden with all sorts of not-too-nice critters. We've had a few cold and wet days, which are incredibly painful for my joints - but for the most part the weather has been warmer than usual for Georgia in December. I hope it stays a little on the warm side!