Christmas Woes

So I have kind of neglected my blog lately. I haven’t really been feeling that great, and that isn’t really something one wants to write about, so I haven’t gotten around to posting about Christmas, even though now, it’s the 11th of January.

This Christmas was pretty much the worst Christmas ever. I got mainly clothes! Just kidding. That may be true, but it’s not why it was the worst Christmas ever. As I recently posted, I was very sick over Christmas. I was laying on the couch the whole time we opened presents. But that wasn’t even the beginning of what made it so terrible. For starters my brother Jared is in Afghanistan, so the fact that a member of our family is missing was the beginning of holiday misery. We also have no Christmas tree, and our house is still a mess from the flood this summer, so there were no decorations around our house. We piled all our presents around our piano instead. There was no other place to put them.

Then it turned out that Dad, Joel, and James all had to work on Christmas, so we decided that we should do Christmas on Christmas Eve instead. We also decided to do Christmas at Grandma’s on Christmas Eve. All the family that lives around here gets together in the afternoon on Christmas to exchange gifts, but with three people having to work we decided to move it up a day. Well, of course with me being so sick, I couldn’t even get out of the house, so I had to miss it, and Mom and Dad were also very sick, so they missed it as well. We had planned to open gifts that night after supper, but halfway through washing dishes mom got a call from Grandma asking her to come with her to the Emergency Room, because she couldn’t catch her breath. So Christmas was postponed indefinitely. We ended up opening presents a couple days later in between the time dad got off work, and Joel and James left for work.

The reason Grandma couldn’t catch her breath was that she was having a gallbladder attack, and ended up having to have it removed. I ended up in the hospital the same day she had her surgery. In fact, her room number was one away from mine. We were in different hallways, but still close. She made it through her surgery well, but afterwards she suffered a heart attack, and was transferred to Creighton Medical Center in Omaha. After she was released, she came home, wasn’t there more than a few hours, and had to go right back to the hospital. She had developed congestive heart failure, and her body had begun to swell up with a ton of fluid. Apparently they had a terrible time getting her clothes back on her at the hospital. Why they even released her is a mystery no one can figure out.

So the last few weeks have not been that fun. After I started to feel a little better I began going along with mom to visit grandma. After being pretty much house-bound for a month, even a visit to the hospital seems like an exciting outing. But grandma is doing quite a bit better now. Hopefully after some physical therapy she will be able to return home. My Aunt Ruth came all the way from Colorado to stay with her for two weeks, so hopefully grandma will get out before she has to return.

Now comes the fun part of today’s post. It’s not all going to be a tale of misery.

Here’s what I got for Christmas!

First the clothes.

I got this shirt from my cousin Shaina. We enjoy our puns. Plus I like mushrooms, so that’s a bonus!

I I got these 3 shirts from mom. 3 you ask? Yes, there is another shirt underneath these two. The material is pretty thin. It’s just a tan t-shirt though, so It didn’t need it’s own photograph.

Then I got a couple of fun t-shirts from mom also. As you may know, I am a huge muppet fan. So this shirt was perfect for me. (

Kermit the frog.

And if you’ve read my blog before, you probably know that I recently became a huge fan of Phineas and Ferb.

As soon as I saw this t-shirt of Perry the Platypus, I told mom I wanted it.

Next I’ll list the things I got that are not pictured.

My cousin Sarah made everyone bags of what looked like peanut brittle, except that it was made with dark chocolate and walnuts. It was so good!

My Aunt Sherri and Uncle Andrew gave all of my brothers and I gift certificates to the restaurant that my cousin Shaina works at, Border Fare. It’s a Mexican restaurant, and it is really good. One of the first days that I felt good enough to get out, we decided to go there for lunch. I had a chicken taco salad. It was really good!

Jacob gave me an iTunes gift card, and I got money from my Uncle Dan and Grandma. I have not spent all the money yet, but I did buy one thing on Friday. A piggy bank. Our Credit Union is selling them, and they were pretty cute. Plus, they are sturdy. You don’t have to smash them to get your money back, you unscrew the nose. I always save my change, so I decided that instead of throwing it into an old pencil holder as I have for years, I’d get myself a piggy bank.

You know you’re jealous of my pig.

Joel got me a blu-ray of the  mini-series Alice. I am a huge fan of pretty much all things Alice in Wonderland.

This version is a science fiction retelling of the story. It’s pretty weird, but the same can be said for the original too. I really like it though, so weird is a good thing to me. In this case anyway.

“What kind of a gift is that?” you might ask. Well, it’s a very useful gift if you also received a Zippo Lighter.

I had asked for one for Christmas, but I had seen three other designs in a store that I wanted. A horse, some dolphins, and a fish. Mom went online to try to find them, but came across this one and decided to buy it instead. She made the right decision. I love it!

My best gift is one I have wanted ever since I was little. A Swiss Army Kife.

My dad has always carried a red Swiss Army Knife, and ever since I can remember I have wanted one. I never thought about asking for one for Christmas though.

When we were Christmas shopping a couple months ago I came across a whole section of Swiss Army Knives, and I remembered how much I had wanted one as a kid, and decided to ask for one for Christmas, since I couldn’t really think of many things to ask for. Mom wanted me to write a list, but I just don’t have a whole lot of wants. (Affordable ones anyway… )

There are many versions of Swiss Army Knives, and my only requirement was that it have the scissors. Those scissors were pretty much the main reason I loved that knife as a kid, so if it hadn’t had them it just wouldn’t be the same.

So that was my Christmas. It was miserable, depressing and just downright awful, But looking back we still had fun opening presents really quick that one afternoon, and all the bad stuff is over with now. As time goes on, the bad memories will fade away, and only the good memories will remain. So it really won’t seem so awful after all. Just don’t ask me to relive it, cause that ain’t happening.

Hopefully next Christmas will be better. Jared will be back from Afghanistan, and he and Eva are already planning to spend Christmas here. As long as everyone stays healthy, next Christmas should be a vast improvement over this one.