'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!