Stomach Virus: Eleventy-Billion; New Year's Resolution: Zip

So our Christmas and New Year's celebrations were very nearly ruined by illness.

Sigh.

If you're a long-time reader, you're probably thinking this right now: Geez, the Cases seem to be sick a lot of the time. Which, really, is true. It seems that way. I mean, I'm sure if I looked at the calender year and assessed our sick-time and our well-time honestly, of course we'd be well the majority of the time. But dang, if we aren't sick a lot.

(A couple weeks ago I jokingly yearned for drama; Rae mentioned that being sick was probably as dramatic as it would get around here, and really, she's right. And it's drama enough for me, thank you.)

I suppose this is something that just happens with lots of small kids so close in age who share toys, drinks, clothes, and, generously, germs. Two years ago the boys suffered through 7 raging ear infections each in the span of three months, and a friend of ours, a surgeon with grown children of his own, assured us that yes, this was normal, and yes, this too shall pass. But really, I thought it would have passed by now. After all, they aren't sticking everything in their mouths anymore.

And I rashly made a New Year's Resolusion involving blogging 2 or 3 times a week, like the good ole days, and planned on getting a head start during our long and luxurious Christmas break.

And then J and I contracted the stomach flu a week and a half before Christmas, and certain members of the family were still vomiting 12 days later. C managed to catch said virus twice. As soon as the stomach virus decided we looked puny and meek enough, a nasty cold virus took its place, and we are all just now experiencing the final hacking coughs of this second illness.

Sure, I'm complaining. It was kind of a rotten December, and I'm glad to see it end. We had to cancel our planned Christmas trip to Michigan, meaning we missed visiting with extended family whom we see rarely. We were confined to our home, forced to conjure up weak imitations of Christmas magic while holding out barf buckets and warning friends away. Our children didn't go out in public for 2 weeks, during which time we all grew tired of one another and began to snipe, snipe, snipe. It's been very hard, and I think I maybe took 2 pictures of our Christmas morning, both of which turned out pretty badly. Plus they feature a sad and sick B, whipped as a kitten, curled up on the couch in his daddy's lap, trusty bucket near his knees. I would like to erase that memory, please.

What is the point of this post? I have no idea. I'm not going to edit it or read through for cohesiveness--I'm just going to hit "publish" and walk away. I'm sorry to gripe and moan. I know, in theory, that we have it good. My husband was, thankfully (oh so thankfully) home during this time, so that I could quietly be sick downstairs while he tended to sick kids upstairs. We had the money for a nice Christmas celebration at home, and our kids didn't go without toys, clothes, or books. We had plenty of food and medicine to nurse us through the worst of it, and I have sympathetic parents who were willing to expose themselves in order to lend aid and love. Our kids are young enough to not really understand what they were missing, and they have no idea that we had even intended to go Michigan this year. As rotten as it was, it could have, of course, been much, much worse.

So. On that happy note.

Happy New Year. Really, I mean it. I hope and pray you, my sweet readers, are blessed beyond measure in this new year. It's 2011! (I've been out of high school for 10 years! In less than a month I will be 28!) Let us all grow in wisdom and stature in this year, and let us not ever take for granted our many days of health and contentment. If nothing else, I hope our little family's weeks of agony this past month help in teaching me that lesson.

ps: Would y'all please, if you think of it, keep me accountable to my little resolution? It's easy for me to get bogged down in the trials of keeping a family of five happy and (relatively) healthy, and this blog shouldn't suffer, because it's so many things to me and a few other people. If you think it's too long between posts, please nag me. I'd be very grateful to you, sweet readers.