It was one of those Christmas’s that in a few years – heck – probably even next year, we’ll remember and laugh about. We’ll laugh about the fact that two days before Christmas, my parents spent 8 hours wrapping gifts in their room because what they usually do over several weeks, was forgotten about until then. We’ll laugh about the fact that none of us went to pick out the tree with Dad, partly because it was freezing, and partly because he had a secret errand to run for a special Christmas gift for Mom. We’ll laugh when we remember how huge the tree was that Dad picked out and how he had to saw off the top of it so it would fit, and as a result our poor angel looked like it was drowning in the tree. We’ll remember Christmas Eve, the day we decorate our house, when, due to lack of sleep from last minute shopping, wrapping, and cleaning, our tired parents took a two hour nap when we were going to the earlier mass for the first time in several years.  We’ll all remember the purely magical feeling of watching the snow fall around us, giving us a White Christmas for the first time in a long, long time. We’ll probably have a good laugh too, because we all were feeling that it was set up to be the most perfect, wonderful Christmas ever.

We would open presents, while eating pumpkin bread and drinking tea. We would have our traditional Christmas brunch of Eggs Benedict, followed by Dad’s family coming over. The rest of the day would be filled with good food, exchanging more gifts, games, laughter, and a big ham dinner. Just like always. We even had plans for Wednesday morning, all the girls in my Dad’s family were going to go see Les Miserable together. Thursday we were going to my mom’s family’s annual Christmas party/reunion.

But none of it happened that way.

I’m sure next year we’ll find it hilarious that it took us to 3:30 in the afternoon to finish opening gifts – not because we had a million – but rather because in the night, half of the family fell prey to a violent stomach bug.

As a result, none of  Christmas plans happened, nobody came over to house, we didn’t make the Eggs Benedict or the ham dinner, we didn’t see Les Mis Wednesday (have no fear, I did get to see it on Friday), and we didn’t go to my mom’s family party Thursday.

But you know what?

It’s okay. In fact, despite it being an extremely messy Christmas Day (quite literally), it was a great day. We watched Brave and Bedtime Stories together before crashing into bed. And over the past week, we’ve hung around the house, resting, recovering, enjoying new gifts, watching new movies, and being together.

It was a different sort of Christmas, but it could have been worse, and we still have the rest of the Christmas Season to make up for our somewhat crazy and definitely abnormal Christmas Day.

And today, on New Years Eve, we’re finally having our Christmas Dinner with my dad’s family, and later we’ll open gifts and play games and talk and welcome in 2013.

I hope you all had a blessed and merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

~Mary Kate