Well, “Merry” is a bit of a strong word for our very first time hosting Christmas in Tucson with Grandpa and Maria’s mom, brother, and sister. We were super excited and decked the house with all sorts of holiday decor. Maria hand-made everyone’s stockings, and I had some big plans for Christmas dinner. But alas, things didn’t go according to plan. Holly, who hasn’t been with us for Christmas in about 7 years, came down with a nasty bug the day after she arrived, leaving her basically bed-ridden through her whole trip! Then Joe got sick a day or two later, forcing us to cancel all our dinner plans and festivities! We were able to get everyone out of bed for an hour or two on Christmas Eve to open presents with Grandpa and the kids, but that quickly disbanded once the last bits of wrapping paper settled to the floor. Then, on Christmas day we were all supposed to regroup for stockings and Santa’s presents, but Grandpa awoke with a stiff bout of vertigo that kept him home and we barely got Joe and Holly out of hibernation long enough to partake 🙁 Needless to say, no one was keen on Christmas dinner later that day either!
Even after our Christmas was officially over, Murphy kept his foot on the gas! Holly started to feel somewhat human the day she had to leave for VT and Joe regained an appetite just in time for us to have a belated dinner with Grandpa before he and Mom had to cut their trip short to try and beat a rare NM blizzard! So all in all, our first Christmas was a flop, but the kids really seemed to enjoy it, and it was good to see family, even if it was only during the moments they crawled into the kitchen to reload on Nyquil! Maybe next year….
