December 24, 2014

'Twas the Night before Christmas at the Miller's

'Twas the night before Christmas,
When all through the house
The germs were multiplying,
faster than we could douse;
Though the flu mist was given
to the children with care,
In hopes of healthy holidays
 we never had a pray'r;
The children were propped up
all snug in recliners,
In hopes the position
would help them breath finer;
Lucas in his Hillsdale shirt,
 I in sweatpants from gap
Had just settled down
for the briefest of nap,
When out of the monitor
there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed
to see what was the matter.
Away to the twins room
I flew like a flash,
To find both the twinners
beginning to thrash.
The Christmas lights shining
on the humidifier mist
Gave a luster to the
feverish heads that I kissed,
When what to my worried
ear should I hear
But them coughing a cough
sounding very severe,
With a mother's intuition
so ready and quick,
I knew in a moment
how to tend to the sick.
More rapid than eagles
to the medicine cabinet I came,
to gather my remedies,
I know them by name:
Now Delsym! Now Hyland's!
Now Ibuprofen!  Now Zarbee's!
On Vapo Rub!  On Tylenol!
On Halls and Honey!
To the aid of the Twinners!
To their aid with my haul!
To dash away symptoms!  
Dash away one and all!
As dry  leaves that in
the wild wind fly,
I stumbled, hit an obstacle,
and stubbed my toe with a cry;
Yet to the twins room
with great speed I flew,
With arms full of remedies,
for my babies two.
And then, in a twinkling,
I measured each dose
rubbing on soothing vapor
and wiping away all things gross.
As I drew back my head,
and was turning around,
I heard one more cough,
and turned back at the sound.
They were in Christmas jammies,
with cute penguin feet,
the humid air caused their hair
to curl up tight and neat;
their favorite stuffed toys
were snuggled under their chins,
and they looked like 
the most angelic twins.
Yet signs of fevers
were making me wary!
Their cheeks were like roses,
flushed bright as a cherry!
Their droll little mouths
drawn up like a bow,
revealing baby teeth (and 2 grown up)
as white as the snow;
the stem of thermometer
placed gently 'neath tongue,
validated my fear of fevers
when brightly it rung.
I put wet washcloths on forehead,
and VapoRub on belly,
which made them scream with hate
for mentholated jelly.
I soothed them to sleep,
set glasses of water on a near shelf,
and smiled as I left them,
quite proud of myself;
A wink of my eye
and a twist of my head;
Soon sleeping on the couch
my new Christmas Eve bed.
Awakened many times
I went straight to my work,
calming coughs, soothing symptoms,
not a thing would I shirk,
even spraying saline mist
inside of their nose,
which made them scream,
and washed out things that were gross;
Then sprang back to the couch,
to sleep a small mite,
until coughs called me back
through the un-silent night.
But it was worth it when they called,
whenever I walked out of sight,
"I can't wait for Christmas, Mommy!
I love you! Night, night!"

In case you hadn't guessed, Influenza has taken over our house (despite our best efforts at prevention!).  Even worse, we've given the germs as our gift to the family who came to celebrate in our home (causing them to leave early and us to cancel our plans to visit all far away family...not only are we sorry for the unfortunate gift, we are sorry for the loss of time...).  Not our best Christmas ever, but still with plenty of moments that lived up to the anticipation.

Merry Christmas to all!