Merry Christmas -- a day late!

My wish for all of you is that you had a very Merry Christmas! I hope that there were smiles on everyone's faces, that you were able to put any problems in your life aside, and thoroughly enjoy the day. That you were surrounded by laughter, and memories were created. I hope that the children were spoiled by Santa Clause and that somehow they celebrated the true meaning of Christmas.

Let me start by saying, we had a WONDERFUL Christmas Eve. Thanks to my sister for all her hard work and wonderful food, and of course wonderful company. We celebrated the evening with my Mom and her boyfriend John, my Grandma Carrie, my Uncle Larry, Aunt Kathleen, Aunt Betty Ann and Uncle Don and of course my sister, Lauren, her husband Vinny and their 3 angels Gianna, Dominick and Anthony. This year we also celebrated with John's son Johnny and his wife Bridget and their son Johnny. As I said, everything was wonderful. I told Chris on the way home that it was the best Christmas Eve that I've had in a long time. We sat down to eat around 6:00 pm with the first dish of angel hair pasta with my sister's marinara. Then came out the fish. Us Italians love our fish on Christmas Eve. Lots and lots of yummy shellfish and regular fish, cooked in different ways. YUM!

Afterwards, we relaxed a little, while the children played. We all agreed that it is the sounds of the children playing that make Christmas. It amazes all of us just how close the kids are and just how well they get along -- 6 kids in the home, and not one argument. It is PURE love between all of them. It is beautiful to see. Shortly after Santa Clause showed up! The kids LOVED it. Santa had a gift for each child. Gianna and Dominick got a Webkinz and Carmela and Joey got a book that they wanted. Anthony got a little train. All were ecstatic with the gifts, but most importantly seeing Santa!

After that, came the gifts. Total mayhem as we handed them out and who wanted to open who's gifts. Who was throwing out a gift with the wrapping paper. It was the way Christmas should be, total mayham, yet laughter and memories in the making. We all laughed as Carmela thanked everyone with every gift she wanted and with her "this is what I always wanted"..... she was so thankful to everyone. Joey just wanted to play with each gift he opened. They were totally spoiled by everyone. I asked Carmela what her favorite gift of the evening was and she said "they all are". She really meant that too.....Joey had many favorites as well.

After the gifts came the dessert. Lauren out did herself again with the thousands of different kids of cookies, including my favorite her italian cookies! YUM! She also made her ice box cake and my Mom made her traditional cheesecake. We ended up staying there until 11:30. A few times I looked at the clock and thought I should put Joey to bed, yet he was being SO good that I let him stay up to play with the kids. The kids were really good. They just adore their cousins and their aunts, uncles, mom-mom, etc. They were in their glory.

On the way home, the pain started. I wasn't feeling well at all and was thinking that I was paying for eating all that delicious food! I had a very restless sleep that night. I was up more than I slept. By morning, I was trying so hard to run the motions of Christmas Day, but I was plainly in pain. I sat to watch the kids open their gifts, but the next thing I know I am screaming in pain. Luckily, the kids were done opening their gifts, when I had Chris make the call for an ambulance. I didn't want Chris and the kids to spend their day in the emergency room, so I figured I'd go by ambulance and the kids could play with all their toys. I literally couldn't get off my hallway wood floors and I just cried in pain. Carmela came running and she lost it when I told her I had to go to the hospital. She and I cried together, and of course my heart was broken that this had to happen on Christmas, when all I wanted was to see my kids' smiles. I went to the hospital and on the way, they gave me pain medication. That took the edge off and I was able to get to the hospital with no real issues. When we got to the emergency room, blood was taken to check on my gallbladder and appendix and everything came out well except for my white blood count. That was extremely high. So they knew something was going on somewhere, so ordered me a CT scan. We found out that I have colitis. They are pretty sure its ulcerative colitis, but they put me on antibiotics and pain medication. I have to go to a GI specialist and go for a colonoscopy to confirm what type of colitis it is, and to rule out colon cancer. They said that such an attack can last up to a week, but that in 48 hours I should be feeling a bit better.

I got home around 5:00 pm feeling guilty for ruining everyone's christmas. We obviously weren't going to go to Chris's sister's house then, but my sister had offered to take my kids to her sister in law's house since it was up the street from my house. So we decided to take her up on her offer. My kids adore their cousins and I knew they'd have a blast there so off they went. I was right. They had a wonderful Christmas with the Servedio family. Lauren offered to take the kids home with her as well to spend the night, which again we took her up on the offer. Right now rest is so important for me because Chris is going back to work on Monday and I don't have a week to get better. So Joey had his first sleep over on Christmas. He was very hesitant at first, but now he's having a blast.

And that was our Christmas. I feel blessed on this holiday that I have such a wonderful sister that really came through for us and helped us with the kids. She made their holiday a good one despite our little hiccup....thanks Lauren!