We had celebrated with our family days earlier so we did have some great family time before ... well ....before the chaos..
Since our family Christmas was over we kept Christmas Day pretty simple. It was just going to be our youngest son and his wife and their new baby and my mother here. I decided on a stress-free dinner and asked Brian to pick up some fried chicken from Kroger the day before. Kroger chicken is pretty good and that would prevent me from being in the kitchen slaving over the stove. Mom was bringing her famous potato salad and her amazing pumpkin pie. Sounds great, right?
But things do not always go as planned.
Christmas morning mom called to tell us that her back went out and she was not going to be able to come. That was disappointing because we never know how many more Christmases we get with our parents but things happen ... oh man, do they ever. Turns out, that was just the beginning.
Mom sent the food she had prepared with our youngest and we settled in for a quiet, laid back day..
Except...
Brian had not gone to Kroger to get the chicken. He went somewhere else. That became apparent when we sat down to eat. It did sort of remind me of the scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie where they cut into the picture perfect turkey and it immediately turns to ash. It wasn't as bad as all that, but It was really pretty horrible. I'm not sure what anybody did to that chicken but man, it was the worst. Logan kept digging through it to find something that resembled fried chicken. He was not successful.
Our daughter-in-law became sick after lunch (probably the chicken) but found some relief in some over-the-counter medication so we hoped a little indigestion was all it was. We all blamed the chicken.
After everyone left, Brian and I visited a couple of people who can't get out and stopped by mom's to check on her. It was nice to bring a little joy to some folks who see very little of it. They truly are surprised, which is a big part of the fun, and they appreciate it so much.
I'm not sure why we were so wiped out after that but Brian and I crashed on the couch and watched some mindless TV. To be truthful I can't even remember what we watched. We were THAT tired.
At some point Brian's sister called. Turns out she had pranked us and we weren't even aware of it. we're quick on the draw like that. She had sent a package of baked goods for our family at Christmas. The goodies have been sitting on the counter in the kitchen for the past week or so and we have eaten them here and there throughout the week. I had intended to write her a thank you note to thank her and tell her that I'm a bit picky about fudge and hers was good. Last night when she called she asked how we liked it. We told her it was good and wondered why she was laughing so hard. Turns out she had made the goodies - all of them, with crickets!
That's right. Crickets. Those nasty little bugs that crawl around in the yard and chirp loudly. Now it was my turn to feel sick. Thankfully no harm was done. Apparently if you are allergic to shellfish and eat crickets, you can have the same allergic reaction. Our daughter-in-law if HIGHLY allergic to shellfish and the goodies were on the counter throughout Christmas Day. Thankfully she did not eat any.
Speaking of my daughter-in-law ...
About 9:30 p.m. my son called to tells us that he was taking her to the Emergency Room. At 1:30 a.m. he called to say they had admitted her.
And as I type this, we are waiting for her to go into surgery. NOT what she needs with a newborn baby.
So yes, our Christmas was a memorable one. Not in the way we had hoped, but memorable.
We are blessed to have a great family that enjoys each other's company, good or bad. We are there for each other. And my sister-in-law had better be watching her back because I'm not afraid to seek revenge for those dang crickets.
No comments:
Post a Comment