Unfortunately, we were a very sharing household this Christmas season, but not just with good tidings and presents. We shared a really, really nasty stomach bug.

Well, the week went like this:

Monday – snow storm that ended up with school being called off early and the elementary Christmas concert being cancelled.

Tuesday – life resumes to normal, although, without our knowledge, my 70-year-old dad decided to help work a couple-hundred head of cows.

Wednesday – woken up by a phone call from my Mom saying that Dad was taken by ambulance to Aberdeen. He appears to have had a heart attack. The boys’ Christmas program was rescheduled for Wednesday morning, so I go to the program, then to Aberdeen afterward.

They put Dad in ICU, run tests, perform an angiogram and find that miraculously, his by-passes from 11 years ago are still open. His legs are completely blocked, meaning that if he doesn’t quit smoking, he will more than likely lose one, if not both, legs.

After midnight, Wednesday/Thursday early morning – Scooter is having a sleepover at Grandma’s with some of the cousins, he throws up during the night, but they write it off as having too many sweets at school that day.

Thursday – Everyone is playing well, Dad decides that he’s coming home, whether the doctor wants him to or not. It is confirmed that he did have a mild heart attack, and his blood pressure is giving him some trouble, which is a new problem for him. He tells doc, “I have 14 grandkids waiting for me at my house. I’ll be better there than here.”

Friday – I head to town early, run to Aberdeen with my sister for some last minute gifts. Come back and get ready to church, to find that Big Bro has become ill. He stays home from church. We have a great Christmas Eve service, come back to my Mom and Dad’s, where another grandchild becomes ill. We’re starting to notice a pattern.

In total, three grandkids become ill on Christmas Eve, but we didn’t cancel the festivities, because they had already exposed everyone, so what was the point? We did find that only having one bathroom was a bit of an issue, but it worked out.

On Saturday, everyone was feeling a bit better. No one new became ill. Some of the family traveled home and we had a great meal together.

On Sunday, I became ill. Yuck.

The only thing that I have had since noon yesterday is a half a glass of juice this morning. The good news is that I won’t have to worry about putting on that dreaded holiday weight. The bad news is that I won’t be able to look at turkey again for a long, long time. Yuck.

Oh well, it seems to be an appropriate end to a crazy year. Here’s to starting 2011 on a better, and lighter, foot!