Christmas Fever

I'm not talking about the 1957 song "Christmas Fever" by "Timmy Christmas"  (by the way - a great story about that song at the WFMU Beware of the Blog site here).  I'm talking real fever, of the Grinchy Christmas-stealing kind.  I had started antibiotics on Friday the 23rd to kill off a sinus infection, when all of a sudden, in swoops a virus.  Antibiotics HA! says the virus, and proceeds to give me a fever and bodyaches for the next three days.  My Christmas cocktails consisted of alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen, OTC dextromethorphan, OTC pseudoephedrine, and the usual scrips for the ol' blood pressure and cholesterol.  All under the watchful eye of the oldest Bingle child, who is in a Doctor of Pharmacy program.

Christmas morning was super, aided by 600mg of ibuprofen at 6AM, before the 7AM awakening by the Bingle children.  All was great with the family - me, my wife, the five children, and our son--in-law, the husband of our oldest.  Hung in there pretty well through about noon, then a nap took me (that's more accurate than "I took a nap").  45 minutes before time to leave home for the in-laws, temp was about 97.2.  I'm not dead yet, sire.  15 minutes before time to leave, temp was 100.5.  Der Bingle stayed home, the rest of the family left.  Temp peaked at 101.6 before the ibuprofen took hold again.  So, while the rest of the family enjoyed Christmas dinner and festivities with the extended family, I slept the afternoon away and drank lots of water.

All is well now, though.  Fever gone, antibiotics still fighting the sinus infection.  Feeling good again.

So what's the point of this post, besides relating the story to the world?  Well, one thought that really crystallized was that it's not Christmas day that I look forward to every year, it's Christmas season.  The season starts in earnest for me on November 1 and goes through the New Year.  So, instead of a year away, it's 10 months.  A shorter wait :-)  

I knew this all along, but not quite as clearly as I do now.  Our family does many, many things during the season, including candy making, lots of music-related stuff, usually attending a concert or play, Christmas cards, Christmas movies and classic TV shows, and more.  And to me, it's not just a build-up to the 25th of December, it's all a tremendous celebration of family, friends, and good feelings, spanning the last two months of the year.

So, I had an awesome Christmas season again this year, despite being under the weather on the big day.  Sharing music, getting new music, a trip to New York City, candy making, friends, family, shopping, watching the children unwrap the presents we'd given them - tremendous!