The Christmas Flu

I love Christmas, well let me modify that, I love everything from the day after Thanksgiving (although I haven't done it in awhile, I think Black Friday is awesome) to Christmas Eve. . Christmas Day, and the days immediately after though, I find them a big downer? I think there are a few reasons for that:

1- As grown-ups all the really fun stuff happens before Christmas, the preparation (love doing the baking), the excitement of waiting to see the excited looks on your kids faces after Santa comes, the food, etc. Then on Christmas day, the excited looks aren't as cool, because the kid got you up at 4:50, and you let him. You look at all the food you prepared, and realize "even though I've given out a lot of platters, there is still a bunch of treats, and who exactly is going to eat them? And now, well there isn't much to look forward to for a couple months, unless you count birthdays, and well your birthday at least stopped being fun around 40.

2- This is a personal one, but Jake's birthday always makes me a bit sad, well not really sad more wistful, as I remember back not only on the day he was born, but every year on the fact that I'm counting down his last days of being his current age. As I've told Jake every year as his mom just keeps getting better, but there is always that moment, when I realize that as much as I'm going to enjoy my 8 year old, I'm going to miss my 7 year old. Last night we were laying down watching Harry Potter (we're a bit obsessed lately, or at least one of us is), and Jake fell asleep laying on my shoulder, all cuddled in, and I realized "this may be the last time I get to cuddle with my 7 year old". There are many good years ahead, but the years go to fast, and at this time, I'm always afraid that I've been too busy to take it all in. I didn't move from that spot (even though I was really sick of the Harry Potter theme song over and over) for an hour, so at least for one night, I could take it all in, and say goodbye to my 7 year old.

3- The final reason I don't like Christmas, is that every year, I get the "Christmas Flu", I swear that on or after Christmas I have been sick more than I have been well. Last year I managed to come down with walking pnemonia Christmas Eve. This year I had some kind of stomach virus, which inclued lots of bathroom time, as well as a fever. A whole lot of people in the family seemed to have the Christmas flu, including Jake, and we ended up cancelling his birthday party because he's not feeling great, quite a few of his cousins aren't feeling great, and I didn't get anything done this week that I needed to get done to have a big party.

I am though happy to see the New Year, although January isn't my favorite month of the year, Spring will be coming, and I'm not going to tempt fate by saying next year can't be worse, but I have faith it will be better (even if just a little bit better).

(I didn't mean for this to be a big downer, we had a fabulous Christmas! And now I can make a bundt cake everyday if I want to (BTW gingerbread cheesecake bundt cake is awesome!)