December 4th: Oh, Christmas Tree!

I had visions of choosing our Christmas Tree.  It was going to be special.  There would be laughing and singing and everyone would get along.  For the love of all things Christmassy, we would all wear something red and have mittens and hats on...

We went to a local restaurant that has a Christmas tree lot.  The girls were so excited because they said it felt like a forest.  We ate dinner in the restaurant first and secluded our wild bunch to a quiet section, which was easy because it was close to closing time.  In fact, most of the staff was already cleaning up while we ate.

 Before we went outside I thought a treat was in order since it was such a special night.  I bought one cup of gelato and asked for 5 spoons.  I'm not sure why I did this, except it was getting late, we ate a nice dinner and I didn't think we needed five cups of gelato.

She's looking a little pale here

 

 The girls couldn't wait to get outside and pick our tree.  They were choosing from the window, looking for the perfect one.  As soon as we got back down to the main part of the restaurant where more people were, one of my children looked at me in despair and then splat! vomited all over the floor of the restaurant, and then start crying loudly.
I want to pause here and discuss this, since it is my first public throw-up experience.  It is one of those moments where you're not sure what to first.  I didn't want to make eye contact with anyone else, but when I did, I mouthed "I'm sorry," like somehow I had control over what happened.  I didn't know if I should just grab a handful of dinner napkins and start cleaning or ask for a mop.  Instead of doing any of those things I grabbed my sick and now wailing child and took her to the bathroom.
This is a true story.
I took her shirt off of her and put her coat on and zipped it up.  There was nothing I could do about my shirt which had intercepted some of the mess...Enter my passionate about our Christmas tree daughter who starts to plea with me so that we could still get a tree, "Mommy, please, please, please please can we still get a tree," and repeat the sentence 20 times in one minute.  At this point, my small son entered the bathroom and starts running in out of the stalls screaming "Maggie's sick" and "this one's clear."  All of this is happening at once.

 To make a long and gross story shorter, yes, we still got a Christmas tree.  It was not the picture perfect moment I had hoped for, but nothing ever is I suppose.  The picture below is me trying not to smell my shirt.

 I told little Mags that I couldn't hold her because it made my arms to close to my face.

 This is as good as it gets.  Look at Maggie trying to be excited that we got one.

 By the time we got home with our tree, she seemed to perk up a little.  When I was playing with Coop before bed he licked my cheek and then threw up on me, so I'm feeling excited that we all shared an ice cream with Maggie before she got sick and then Coop licked me right before he got sick (I can't even believe I just typed the words "he licked me").
It's not looking good for the Jones family.  Fingers crossed it was nothing, but you know how that goes.  There's buckets and towels by everybody's bed tonight!
And that my friends is how you write a merry little Christmas post.

Happy Christmas.

xxx