As you may have read in Julia’s post, 10 out of the 13 people who were at my house for Christmas Eve are now sick with a stomach bug.  We’ve been trying to track down the cause, which has been narrowed down to two possible sources: my little cousin, John, who was just getting over an illness, or some hand-made chocolates from my Aunt Mary.  Either way, just about everyone who was at my house feels rotten right now.  As a result, our flight to Tulsa was moved from today at 5:30 p.m. to tomorrow at 2 p.m.  We arrive in Tulsa at around 8 p.m., two hours after the veterinary clinic where Data has been boarding is set to close.  Julia’s parents have offered to make reservations for us at a hotel in Tulsa for Thursday night and we will retrieve Data on Friday before moving on into Arkansas.

As for today, Julia will stay in bed as long as necessary.  If she is feeling up to it, we will head back to West Suffield tonight, which will shorten the commute to the airport tomorrow by 80 minutes.  Hopefully this illness will clear up soon!

However, soon after settling in to make a post and get to bed I started to feel very sick. Now, 12 hours later, things really haven’t gotten any better. I was violently ill throughout the night and spent about half of it on the bathroom floor. Both Brett’s mom and brother are also sick, and so we must have shared a stomach bug that Brett’s immune system obviously fought off. The fact that I basically can’t stand up without being sick indicates to me that the possibility of feeling well enough to drive 1.5 hours to Brett’s house and then the airport, followed by time in the airport and two separate flights, isn’t really a possibility. Because of this, Brett’s mom is trying to find out if it’s possible to change our flights to tomorrow, assuming that what we all have is a 24-hour bug of some sort. We will wait to hear from her before deciding how to proceed with the day. For now Brett is back to sleep and I’m about to do the same. I’m just really thankful that I can be sick at home and not on the road or while sleeping in the car.

UPDATE: 10 out of 13 people who were at Brett’s house on Christmas Eve are now sick with a stomach virus. Ann was thankfully able to change our flights, without a fee, so that we arrive tomorrow evening instead. We plan to spend the rest of the day in bed, and I will be drinking as much ginger ale as I can keep down. Here’s hoping that a) I’m better by tomorrow, and b) Brett doesn’t catch the bug. Please keep your fingers crossed!

On a lighter note, I hope you all had a truly wonderful Christmas!

<3 J

Christmas Eve.

Location: West Suffield, CT

We were able to arrange a stay for Data at Sheridan Road Veterinary Clinic in Tulsa, so we dropped him off at 7:30 a.m. We were booked on a 9:40 a.m. flight from Tulsa to Chicago to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT, which is less than 10 minutes from my house. When we arrived at the airport, we learned that our flight out of Tulsa had been delayed due to bad weather. The estimated arrival time in Chicago would have certainly caused us to miss our connecting flight, so we were able to change flights. We were routed through Dallas/Fort Worth and our flights went smoothly. We landed in CT at 5 p.m., an hour after we had originally planned. My brother picked us up from the airport and brought us to my house. We had about 30 minutes to see him and my mother and the various pets around my house before other relatives began arriving.

My dad’s sisters came by with their families – my Aunt Mary and her son John, Aunt Fran, her husband, John, my cousins, Vergil and Veronica and their significant others, Allison and Chris. It was nice to see everyone and spend time relaxing in a familiar environment. After things wound down, Jared (my brother), his girlfriend, Sarah, Julia and I played a game of Scrabble before heading to bed.

I wasn’t at all strange to be home, which was somewhat surprising. Little has changed, so it was easy to feel at ease. Although I wasn’t sold on the idea of coming home for the holidays (I felt as though it would be cheating, in a way), it was nice to visit.

Here is a photo from Christmas Eve. Click “there’s more to this” below the post to see all the photos from both days.

My mom, wearing one of her Christmas presents. It lights up and everything.

Christmas Day.

Location: West Norwalk, CT

Jared, Sarah, mom, Julia and I had breakfast together before Julia and I left for Julia’s house this morning. We had scrambled eggs and monkey bread, our traditional fare. We left for West Norwalk, a 90 minute drive, at 11 a.m. As we approached Julia’s house, Julia called her parents and began telling them that we were driving through Tulsa after having a crummy meal at a small diner. She could tell that her mother was bummed that we weren’t going to be around and didn’t appear to be doing anything special, which was a good sign for us. We hoped to make it to the front door undetected, but were seen as we crossed the front lawn. Nevertheless, Julia’s family were genuinely shocked and extremely happy to see her, which was truly great.

We spent the entire day at Julia’s house, except for a short period during which we visited two families that live on her street. We had dinner, after which we played two games of Scrabble while my berry cobbler baked.

We are staying at Julia’s house tonight before driving back to my area before our flight to Tulsa at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow. Julia isn’t feeling too well at the moment, so we will head to bed as soon as we can and try to get a full night of sleep.

It’s been great to be home, especially for Julia. I’ve been lucky enough to see my family three times during the span of our trip (despite the first time being due to unfortunate circumstances), which has only made worse the fact that Julia hadn’t seen her parents at all. I know that both she and her family would have been disappointed if things had not worked out in this way, so it’s very nice that we were able to get home to see them.

Here are photos from Christmas. Click “there’s more to this” to see them all, or just visit my SmugMug.

An ornament on Julia’s Christmas tree.

My Aunt Fran and mom.

My Uncle John and Aunt Mary.

Manny.

My cousin Vergil.

Vergil’s fiancee, Allison.

My cousin Veronica.

My cousin John.

Vergil.

Veronica.

The Mickelsons. Notice my hair – the result of not having showered for the three days prior.

George.

Julia’s mom and Lucy.

Julia, her dad, Lucy and a lobster claw. I don’t know what is going on here.

The Boltons.

Julia holding Squirt (who does not want to be held).

Emily, Julia’s sister, and Lucy.

Julia and Lucy.

Julia’s dad’s Christmas present.

Apparently hats are a big thing at Christmas in the Bolton home…