It seems grossly unfair, doesn’t it?  I got every single person’s cookies made, gifts bought and sent, and then became horribly sick with the flu.  So I had to spend the days before, during and after Christmas feeling really bad.

Luckily we’d planned to spend it at mom’s, so I didn’t have to clean, as I wouldn’t have been able to.  Nicky drove my car to Osoyoos and I sat in the back with the dog, leaning my head back onto a comfy pillow.

We arrived at 1:00 on the 24th and I put the brisket into the oven by 2:00.  Mom’s house was filled with visitors all afternoon.  Nicky stayed at the pink house with Luke so they partied around up there to their heart’s content.

Mom, Luke, Nicky and I had a quiet Christmas Eve of opening a handful of gifts and then eating the brisket and roasted potatoes.  It was fine, though uneventful.  The kids were somewhat surprised no one had bought them anything!!  I said hey you said you didn’t want anything, and then I got sick right at the time I might have bought them something.

Too bad.  But they make many times more money than either mom or I, so they can just go and buy their own dreck.  I don’t know what they want anymore.  I made Luke buy me an ice cream maker and Nicky bought me an exercise bike, so that’s the main thing.

On Christmas Day mom had invited Hamiltons and Millers, and they arrived at 4:00 PM.  We ate a traditional turkey dinner but sadly the turkey made so little liquid there was a tiny amount of gravy.  I was quite traumatized by that.

I haven’t had a drop of alcohol since early November, so that’s been an interesting way to live.  I still have migraines about two days a month, so I’m still trying to figure out what the heck is causing them.  They’re so annoying you have no idea.

So even though Christmas Day used to mean a bad hangover in the past, hangovers are now over.  That helped, as a hangover plus the flu would’ve made the dinner preparation even more challenging than it already was.

Luke, Nicky and I drove home on Boxing Day and Denis came over for a pot roast dinner.  The kids would rather die than eat leftovers so I made a nice Tupperware container for him to take home as he adores them.

Because of this horrible flu I haven’t walked the poor dog in a week, and thought I might today.  However with this wet snow he arrives home dripping, and I have to carry him straight into the tub where I shower off his undercarriage as best I can.  Nicky says he’s like a small yak.  He’s a lot like a mop.

I sold all but 3 fruitcakes so that was a good year as I hate having a lot of inventory leftover.  Even though in theory fruitcakes improve with age, I really don’t like to have old ones around as to me the new ones are always better.

My New Year’s resolutions are to conquer these migraines, and also to stop catastrophizing the things I have to do anyway.  Just get busy and get them done.