My brother and his family arrived here at 12:45pm. Shortly there after, my brother made a run for the bathroom, citing a "code brown". He was up there quite some time. He eventually re-joined us. We all visited for a bit and then started to hand out gifts. My brother disappeared again. This pattern kept going and my brother was fading fast. Turns out the whole family has had a stomach bug over the last week or so and it appears that it was my brother's turn. He ended up crawling into my parents' bed and napping for a bit. My niece was asleep in the playpen in one room and my brother was sound asleep in the next room. LOL.
Once they both woke up, my brother tried taking some medication to make him feel better. It kind of worked. He threw up, which made him feel better. He decided that he was feeling well enough to go out to dinner.
It's tradition in our family to go out for Chinese Food on Christmas Eve and then drive around town looking at all the pretty Christmas lights.
So off we all go to the restaurant, with our neighbours joining us along the way. The place we go to is always busy on Christmas Eve, so there's a little bit of a wait for food. My brother and his crew had beat us to the restaurant so they already had a table for us. My brother had apparently already made a trip or two to the bathroom. After getting drinks, he asked me if there were any spare napkins around as there wasn't any toilet paper in the men's room and he'd been wiping his ass with paper towels and "it's starting to hurt". Sigh. I did the good big sister thing and went into the women's washroom and stole him some tp from there. The poor kid really wasn't looking good. So they decided to leave as the food wasn't going to be ready for a bit. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, my grandparents and great Aunt and Uncle arrived. They always stop for Chinese Food too before heading to church.
To add to all the chaos already happening, a woman with a 6 month old baby approached our table and asked if anyone could give her husband a boost as their battery had died. My dad and one of our neighbours jumped up and hurried off to help the guy out. My mother then went over to where the lady and baby were to talk to the lady and help keep their baby calm. While all of that was going on, our food arrived. This left my neighbour and I alone at the table with 5 plates of food. I looked at her and said "Well this has been an interesting evening". She laughed and we dug in. Everyone else returned shortly and the 5 of us had a very nice dinner. After I was done, I moved over to the table where my grandparents and aunt and uncle were and I visited with them for a bit. Then something else happened that really made me smile. The man who my dad and neighbour helped had driven his wife and child home once the car was running again. He came back to the restaurant to pick up their order. At the same time, he brought my dad and the neighbour each a ziplock bag with home made shortbread cookies in them as a thank you for their help. How sweet is that?
After dinner, mom, dad and I piled into the car, cranked the heat and drove around town looking at the lights. We oohed and ahhed and laughed and pointed out things that were the same as last year and the things that had changed. When we got home, I made a nice cup of hot chocolate and we sat down to watch a Duck Dynasty mini-marathon. LOL. Not exactly a typical Christmas Eve show but it was highly entertaining and they did show a Christmas episode.
As I sit here and write this, waiting for Santa to come, I can't help but chuckle at the afternoon/evening we've had. It makes me smile. I've learnt that there really is no such thing as a perfect Christmas. Something is always going to go wrong. But just because things don't go as planned doesn't mean that things can't be awesome. Because they still were. I got to spend time with both of my nieces. And a nice couple with a baby got to see how kind strangers can be. I got to spend an evening laughing and smiling with family and friends and got reminded of what awesome people they all are. And I got a pretty good fortune in my cookie too.
I really hope my poor brother is feeling better tomorrow and I really, really, REALLY hope that mom, dad and I don't catch it!!
One last thing before I sign off: Before I started writing tonight's blog, I checked my stats. I have published 155 blogs and now have over 5000 page views. Wow. That still blows my mind. Thank you very much for reading.
I need to get to bed now or else Santa won't bring me anything.
Whoever you are and where ever you are, I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!
Good Night,
Sarah
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