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12-22-03
Wishing for a healthy Christmas
I'm
dreaming of a....... healthy Christmas.
I am going to have to scour my bible for information, because I
really wonder if that very first Christmas, all those years ago in
Bethlehem, involved germs, fever, and a bucket- just in case. I wonder
if Mary and Joseph, as they were be turned away at inn after inn, were
taking turns putting cool cloths on each other's heads to break the
fever and if the stable that night was punctuated with sounds of
coughing. I am curious if the shepherds, as they made their way towards
the star- had to make a few pit stops while they were sick in the sand?
I wonder all of this because Christmas to our family has become
synonymous with illness. Who can forget the Christmas of '96 when we
threw up so much that a mattress had to be left on the curb for the
trash? We then traveled to my parents where we infected my mom and dad
and sister; and spent most of the visit with everyone confined in bed.
It goes on like this every year. Just after the annual bedecking of my
halls; the halls become filled not with the sound of singing or laughing
but of coughing, whining, and vomiting.
This year, though, I thought we were home free. As all our friends and
people around us suffered through bouts with the flu and colds; we
remained healthy. I forced vitamins on everyone from my hubby to
the boys; choking down super-sized supplements myself and being smug
because it was all working out- we were not going to be sick Christmas
'03- no sirree, this was going to go down in the Christmas annuals- the
Christmas where every member of my family was healthy as a horse.
"I don't feel good." My youngest son told me yesterday when we
all went to the health club to exercise. He was going to swim in the
heated indoor pool with his brother and two of his best friends- one of
his favorite activities in the world. Usually, we had to bodily remove
him from the pool when it was time to go- this time, he could barely be
roused off the couch to leave.
"You'll feel better after you get a bit of exercise." I urged.
"Come on."
By the time we retrieved him from the pool area, he was shaking
violently and it was obvious by the high color on his cheeks that
something was wrong. Just a couple of days until Christmas and another
holiday under the influence of influenza; bacterial infection- the jury
was out but the result was the same- a listless holiday spent
nursing the sick and cleaning and disinfecting- hoping the rest of the
family wouldn't succumb to the old Grinchy illness that had once again
made its way into the bosom of our Christmas holiday.
I am not one to question God's timing but I have to wonder at a Savior's
birth which comes right smack dab in the middle of the cold an flu
season. For my family, at least, a nice June Christmas would mean
that there would be about a 99 percent chance of Yuletide health; a
December holy day usually translates to "holy smokes- we need
another bucket!"
This year, as I was calling the doctor for my youngest son to visit and
get on the prescribed round of medicine which would hopefully nurse him
back to health, I had the feeling of deja vu. I remembered wearing the
same red holiday Christmas sweater, the identical shiny black patent
leather boots- and sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office
last Christmas eve waiting for the doctor to see one of my children- or
was it me? The details were lost in an endless procession of
Christmas's past- all equally filled with horrific illnesses- and I
wonder now if I should ever know the happiness of a Christmas which does
not involve kleenex, ibuprofen, retching, fever, and strange barking
coughs in the night?
It doesn't seem likely. Next year, though, I am certain to do my best to
try to hold illness at bay. I promise myself that Christmas '04 is going
to be different- I am single handedly going to disinfect every square
inch our home, cars and feed my family such healthy, nutritious fare
that not since penicillin will a single force fend off more illness than
I. But for now, that Christmas future is a distant dream, and I have
sheets to wash bearing the reminder that once again, we aren't so lucky.
Still,
a gal can dream; and I am dreaming of a healthy Christmas.....
just like the ones I've never known.
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