Oh Christmas Tree

We had the most beautiful Christmas tree this year. It stood a towering half-metre tall and it came with the lights already on! All we had to do was plug it in. Dex was almost as tall as the tree which made it really easy for him to decorate it. Not that this effort took much; We only had one ornament to hang on it.

East Coast visit postponed

We were supposed to have a low key Christmas: a trip to rural Nova Scotia to visit Poppa and Nana, where there is not much to do except visit, relax, eat, and watch my son delight in the company of his grandparents.

But things started to derail two weekends ago. We took one of our cats, Cinnamon, to the vet because he started puking a lot and was refusing his food. I wasn't too concerned (he's gone through this spell before) usually from something he ate outside. He usually bounces right back after a couple of days. This time around, refusing the food lasted longer than two days so Jon rushed him to the vet on the Friday night. He arrived home later with no cat. Cinnie was quite dehydrated and needed an IV. They were also doing a bunch of blood work, x-rays and other stuff to find out what's wrong. By Saturday ($1,500 later, if I might add), we still did not know what was bothering Cinnamon but he was obviously benefiting from the drugs and the IV.

The next day, because our vet was going to be closed on the Sunday, we had to move Cinnie to the Emergency Cat Hospital in another part of town where he stayed another night. Luckily, his condition improved overnight and by Monday, we had Cinnie at home with a fistful of pills (antibiotic, antacid, anti-nausea), plus an IV that we can administer in case he goes through this again. The diagnosis: feline leukemia. This is not good news but at least now we know what we are dealing with. We thought about canceling our trip but within days, Cinnie improved (back to his normal self, really) and we felt better about leaving him in the care of a sitter for a week while we're away.

Dexter's turn

One day before our scheduled flight, I got a call from the daycare at 3 pm. Dexter has a bit of a temperature, was coughing all day, and in fact coughed so hard that he vomited. Off I went to the get him. Of course, this was the Friday Toronto got its worst snowstorm yet (25 cm in a day) with howling winds and whiteout driving conditions. The five-minute ride to the daycare took half an hour because I needed to shovel a path to and clear the car.

By the time I got to the daycare, Dexter was doing a little better. His temperature was under control, but he was still wheezing. I wanted to take him to the hospital but with the snowstorm, rush hour, and impossible driving conditions, we decided to go to a clinic that was a bit closer. The doctor confirmed what we dreaded: he had a touch of asthma brought on by the cold. And to top it off, surprise, surprise, another ear infection (his sixth this year). We went home with the antibiotic and the puffer, plus the doctor's advice NOT to travel with our sick baby.

Thank you nurses and doctors

Saturday. After half a day of using the puffer, Dex was not showing much improvement. He was still wheezing, not eating much, and when he did eat, he usually vomited. We decided to take him to the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital. Thanks to SARs, respiratory problems are treated as urgent so our wait at Emerg was short. After looking at Dexter's X-ray, the doctor recommended that we get admitted, but suggested we go to Toronto East General Hospital which is much closer to our house. We finally got to Toronto East by 2 am and I finally got Dex settled in for a sleep by 3. He has a respiratory virus that developed into bronchilitis and pneumonia. That's in addition to the asthma and the ear infection. Poor, poor boy.

It was Dexter's turn for an IV. We stayed at Toronto East for three nights. Thanks again to SARs, the respiratory infection meant that we were in "isolation," which basically meant being in a private room with lots of nursing attention. Dex got to watch a Thomas the Tank Engine video for the first time, and we did so over and over and over again. We couldn't do much about the virus, but Dex got some relief from the blockage in his bronchial tubes and the ear infection.

Home again

By the time we got home on the 23rd, we had a day and a bit to get ready for Christmas. We didn't really decorate our house since we were not going to be here so we had to make the house look festive and pronto. Jon, bless his heart, stopped by Canadian Tire for the $9.99 mini-tree special and got us some groceries (the fridge was completely bare because we were going away). He also put up the Christmas lights both indoors and outdoors to make the house look less Jewish.

On Christmas eve, Dex and I made paper chains to hang on our tree. We also cut out a carboard star and wrapped it in tin foil then pegged it to the tree with a chopstick. We also made garlands of cranberries and popcorn. With the Christmas music in the background, our house looked festive at last. Once Dex went to bed, Jon and I ran around the house looking for things to put in his stocking (we were going to buy most of the presents in Nova Scotia instead of carrying it with us on the flight). In the end, Dexter's stocking was full to the brim: books, raisins and oranges, and little toys Jon picked up at the last minute on the way to the grocery store.

Jon and I had very little in our own stockings, but the sight of our little boy excited on Christmas morning was enough to warm our hearts.

Merry Christmas

We are happy to be home for the holidays and we are grateful for the reminder to appreciate what we have.

It's not quite how we envisioned our son's second Christmas. Had we been at Poppa and Nana's, Dex would have seen the best tree ever that Poppa himself would have chopped down from his woodlot, shaped to perfection, then decorated by Nanna with antique ornaments. Had we planned to stay home for Christmas, we would have probably spent a small fortune on a perfect balsam, trimmed it with European-made, hand-blown glass ornaments with handpainted winter scenes and other expensive, precious things. We probably would have had more Christmas trinkets and decorations and certainly more presents under the tree. Quite the contrast to what I call our Depression-type decorating.

But you know, our son believed that Santa dropped by the house and left him with oranges and raisins and he's just fine with that. And in the end, after the harrowing two weeks, that's all that really mattered.

Every Christmas is special, but I think I am going to remember this one the most. It really brought back the true spirit of Christmas, as corny as that sounds.

One of the highlights of the holidays for me so far is watching my beautiful son, on the night before Christmas, standing side by side with his dad, looking at our humble tree with the most exquisite and magical look of innocent wonder.