The Progression of the Flu

It all began at a Gingerbread House making party.

It was a fun-filled evening of kid chaos: candy, icing, graham crackers, and stickiness galore. The kids had a blast and loved their houses. Anna was the perfectionist (wonder where she gets that from).

Jesse ate all the candy off of his when our backs where turned. All that is left of his by the end of the night was a pile of graham crackers.

And that night we left for Wisconsin to spend Christmas with Joel's parents and Aunt. We drove through the night and were miserably tired the next day, taking turns napping while the tired kids ran a muck. We got a few texts from friends that had been at the same party saying that their whole families had gotten sick with some kind of flu bug. I shrugged it off in my haze of sleepiness. Then it hit on our 2nd day in Wisconsin. Joel, Anna, Josie, and I were all sick, immobile, that day.

Friday was better except Asher spiked a fever and we took him and Jesse to urgent care. Both had ear infections and Asher had some sort form of croup, brushed off by the doc that the ear infection antibiotics would take care of whatever it was. Christmas Eve looked promising until my Mother-in-law woke with the flu and Asher still had a fever. Joel and I still weren't eating. Jesse was running circles around us all. Lots of Christmas traditions get thrown out the window when you are sick. We had cookies and food stacked to the ceiling but no one could eat anything! We actually had soup for Christmas Eve dinner, much to my Father-in-law's disappointment.

Now Christmas day really looked better. Most perked up that Santa found us in Wisconsin and squeals came from everywhere as the kids searched for their stockings. That Santa is one sneaky guy.

Asher still had a fever (and a haircut! Can you tell my mother-in-law got a hold of him?)

Jesse as the most expressive to watch as he opened presents. Then something started to happen and his joy got less and less. He opened Cars 2 and then crawled into Joel's lap, and threw up. The flu wasn't on his list Santa! He was asleep before we finished opening presents.

Josie was just a joy to watch in her excitement of everything. She mainly loved the maze that presents provided.

and the tree ornaments where in danger every time we turned our backs.

The day after Christmas, we found ourselves in the ER for 6 hours with Asher, diagnosed with a bad case of pneumonia. It was a crazy experience in there and we can now see why the make TV shows based on this environment...a few of ours during this trip: a grandpa kicked by a cow, a woman with a chicken bone stuck in her throat befriending everyone, drooling while she talked and no one could understand her, a mother yelling in anger as she walked out about how they were going to here from her attorney, and a helicopter landing outside the ER doors. Poor Asher was miserable through and I wish I could get my hands on that urgent care doctor!

We extended our trip one day after all this hoping for some actual normal time with the grandparents and woke that day to find my father-in-law with the flu. We felt so bad! Joel's aunt also left that day and I am wondering if she is the one who got away without it catching up to her?

It was a Christmas to remember. It was hard to watch a lot of things get pushed aside...all those traditions you are looking forward to. But we realized the best part was that we were together as a family. Those moments are always treasured whether they were what you expected or not. The kids loved all their gifts and we still made Jesus a birthday cake (all though it wasn't eaten much), and we reflected in the best gift of all: Jesus Christ.