Our trip started out just fine. Andrew and I both had colds, but nothing major so we didn't think much about it. By the time it was over, I had no voice, Andrew was on antibiotics, and Joel had his first ear infection. Not the stuff dreams are made of, huh. But we all had a great time with family.
We celebrated with my mom's side of the family on the Saturday before Christmas. Joel loved seeing everyone and opening gifts. Joel loves his great grandparents and by gosh they love him. I just love seeing them together. My parents have needed new flatware for years, so Sister and I finally just took it upon ourselves to buy it for them since they obviously weren't going to make a decision. Shockingly, we picked a set they loved! MB's family didn't come this year, so we FaceTime'd with them as we opened gifts. Mom and Dad flew out and spent Christmas with them. By Sunday, Joel was going down hill fast, so I went with Dad to the McGinnis Christmas with my mom's parents. Yep - the in-laws and out-laws are included, ha. Andrew and Mom stayed home to take care of Joel. We loaded up and went to Macon a day early to get Joel away from Mom's weak immune system. Good thing we did - he was running a fever by the time we got there.
We spent Monday trying to get well and relaxing. Everyone arrived on Tuesday. We had a great time and even though he was feeling bad, Joel played and played and played. Andrew's uncle Tom had been in the hospital over the weekend with heart issues but was able to come home on Tuesday. His wife came over Tuesday night to see everyone and bring over our annual, much loved, gifts of Tom's bbq sauce. Wednesday morning we had the Beall Christmas Eve Brunch. We had a wonderful time laughing and sharing (and drinking) and opening gifts. But we were missing Tom and Stephanie and Mr. Charlie - he woke up with a stomach bug so he wasn't allowed out of the bedroom. By lunch everyone had gone their different ways and we were enjoying some down time again before church and gifts. Well...that's when we got the call...Tom had a massive heart attack and passed. Yeah, not the stuff dreams are made of. Andrew's sister and I decided that by gosh we were going to have Christmas because Tom loved, loved, loved for family to be together and to have fun. So once everyone got home from the hospital, we had our "normal" Christmas. We didn't make it to church, and honestly that was okay with us. We were in the mood for pj's and pizza not dress clothes at that point. Like I said before, we made the best of it - and were just glad to be together celebrating Christ.
As planned we came home on Christmas day. Joel was fine when we loaded up, but 6 hours later - he had his first ear infection and was running fever again. Santa came to our house while we were in Georgia so we did our little Christmas as soon as we got home. Joel's favorite time right now is bath time, but he had no bath toys. Santa took care of that problem. The rest of the family covered him in toys, clothes, and books - so I would venture to say that we are set for a while!
Hilariously I forgot that NOTHING is open on Christmas food wise. We had nothing in the house. We had decided on the ride home that we would just HAVE to go to Waffle House. We knew that option was a no-go when we got home with a fever, so thank goodness we discovered that the Chinese buffet was open. Andrew got us take-out from there for Christmas dinner - whoops, won't make that mistake again, haha!
After our crazy week, we curled up on the sofa together and were thankful for the time we had laughing with our families..and that is the stuff dreams are made of.
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