Catching Cold, Catching Up

It's not surprising that over the holidays the whole family fell prey to whatever flu-like illness is going around this year. Once the pressures of school and work let up, our bodies' immune systems pretty much collapsed without the constant adrenaline reinforcement. (Skeptical? Here comes the science). It lasted 24 hours for me, a bit longer for the kids, and a stubborn strain laid Debra low two separate times, leaving her weak during the intervening week. Thankfully, after a massive surge of homemade turkey soup, emergenC, and prayers for healing, it appears as though we've finally got the bugs on the run. And so, time to once again blog instead of bluurgh.

While not being sick these past weeks, various members of the family enjoyed doing typically seasonal things -- including a visit to the reindeer at Meijer gardens, a wonderful Christmas worship service at CoS, a gourmet meal prepared by my nuclear radiologist brother-in-law, lots of fun conversations with uncles and aunts, an afternoon of bowling with cousins (it would have been sledding, except for, well, global less-cooling, I suppose), and the sorry embarrassment that was the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

Of course, there was also our only moderately reluctant ritual participation in the pagan Santa cycle of acquisition/consumption/disposal (thanks, Dell deChant). It yielded a Lego Star Wars ship for the boys, an iPod Nano for Mia (see her next year depicted here), a book of Roz Chast cartoons for Deb, and a Kalimantan mahogany djembe for me.

We can hope that by doing our dharmic duty we have once again appeased the gods of the Economy. But I'm not taking any chances when it comes to divine retribution: I'm playing my djembe in church on Sunday. That way, I sound my gratitude to the God of the Universe with the instrument of my placation to the god of the economy. If either is the appeasing kind, that should do the trick. Don't know how Deb and the kids can swing something like that with their gifts. Let's hope they don't incur some sort of punishment. Like getting sick.