Hell's Bells

Remember Christmas Eve, when I posted all kinds of hope and gratitude?  Well, in that post, I made the grave mistake of saying that I thought the tummy bug that had been going around my family had finally abated.

Wrong thing to say.

I must have angered The Beast, because by 3am on Christmas Day, Child Number One went down.  By morning, Wee Three was sick for the second time.  By lunchtime, both Gramma and Grampa, who had traveled back with us from Stratford, were down-- but not before Gramma had stoically stuffed the turkey and put it into the oven.  (Seriously.  Raw poultry and gastroenteritis??  That woman is tough.)

In the end, we cancelled Christmas dinner.  My sister and her brood were sent home within minutes of arriving on our doorstep, and they took my brother with them.

"Save yourselves," I called as they skidded down my ice rink of a driveway in hasty retreat.

December 25 saw our house turned into a little hospital...  Thank God there were enough grown-ups left standing to run out to the 24-hour pharmacy for supplies, and to care for those who needed them.

It was no Christmas, that's for sure.

On that day, I was supposed to post a carol entitled "All Bells in Paradise".

Ha ha.  Very funny.

Today is December 27, but we're having a "re-do".  I've got enough food in my fridge to feed a small army, so we've recruited as many family members as are able to come and help us make a dinner of hot turkey sandwiches, mashed potatoes, two-veg and lashings of gravy.  We might even be up for a little steamed pud, although it just won't be the same without my mum and dad here to argue about exactly HOW MUCH brandy to souse it with, and set it on fire.  There's also an incredible load of baking to get through-- and it had better be gotten through, because after today, I am purging this house of all things Christmas with a vengeance.

The remainder of the week will be spent quietly, with me printing out calendars and making plans for the next few months.  One of the projects I'll be tackling will be the re-modelling of the second floor bathroom.  After spending an extended time in there on the floor with various patients, it has come to my attention that the fixtures in there are way past their prime.  That gave me something else to think about, as I was swilling the place down with as much bleach as I had on hand.

On the bright side, at least we are not among the hundreds who are still without power and heat in our town...  at least the weather forecast is predicting warmer temperatures, and we will be able to get outside to begin the long process of cleaning up our property.

We're on the mend.

Not out of the woods just yet...

But, I have faith.