A Christmas like no other

Maggie where all cats like to be at Christmas

I like to plan things. And I don’t like it when the plans change. My husband says I lack spontaneity. He’s probably right.

So picture me on Christmas Eve morning as I awake anticipating our yearly ritual of driving to my mom’s house, lugging bags of gifts and essentials (including plenty of baby accessories this time around). Only THIS Christmas Eve I awake to my fourth straight day of sickness — this one worse than the previous day that had allowed me a mere two hours at work before I had to bail and head home to the futon.

I was miserable. I was confined to bed. I had a Nyquil hangover. I had gotten my husband sick. I had spent just scant minutes at a time with my baby since Monday. I was without any good reading material. And I had just determined that I was so sick that I probably couldn’t make the short one-hour trip to my mommy’s. (I was also in full-out whine mode, which reduced me to calling her Mommy. No pride left at that point.)

Tears.

Yes, I cried. I was frustrated and sad. I’ve only spent one single Christmas without my mom in my lifetime. One. This was not the year I wanted to be the second one. Especially with a new baby. This was a big event. Not a stay-in-bed-moaning-and-groaning event.

Well, I’m here to tell you that good things can come out of the ashes of such a minor tragedy. My mom, the cool mom that she is, explained that she would drive up to our house on Christmas Day instead. She was just as anxious to see us as we were to see her. So they hauled the loot — and the dinner fixins — on up and we celebrated with a quiet family holiday that turned out to be just as special as all the rest had been.

Except, maybe, for the fact that technology does have its flaws. Turns out that all the pics I took of my son’s first Christmas — him adorably reaching for an ornament, watching Grandma open her gift, sitting in Daddy’s lap as he opened his — registered as corrupt files on my computer. The only three that survived this glitch include the one of my dear cat above. Not that I don’t love her, but I was thinking at least one of Devin would have been nice. Ah, well.

Thanks, Mom and Louie, for making this Christmas so special. It really meant a lot to all three of us!