Oh, Val, I feel so bad for you and yours. Take care and get well soon! And watch your step when taking out those buckets. Those little reindeer where everywhere last night.... ;-)

Kris

Hey Kris - thanks for the wave. And as for the reindeer....get out the scooper woman! Don't let those little nuggets freeze :-)

Val

Feel better! See, this is why we need a converstions area!

Hope you and your family feel better soon Val.

Lloyd

Thanks everyone - didn't really intend for this to become one of those mushy, feel sorry for me threads LOL

Thought maybe some of you would post some of your "worst" holiday moments.

Guess I should have stated that, huh? My excuse is the flu.

Val

How about a busted water pipe in the downstairs bathroom and the roof of my greenhouse caved in because I didn't clean the snow soon enough. Should have done that before clearing the driveway and the street. Those will NEVER cave!

Rude nasty family members that you are forced to be nice to every year...can't get any worse than that

I worked 3 days in a row; 12 hour shifts. Came home, helped Hubs fix a coupla things, went to MIL's and fell asleep. Was too tired to drive up to the big family (mine) bash so ended up coming home and falling asleep - for 14 hours.

On the plus side, Santanonymous dropped some foo-foo girly beer off at work for me on Christmas Eve. Coffee or beer, coffee or beer - what a choice to have to make tonight while working on garden plans for the coming spring!

My Christmas was OK. All eight compost piles would have had to catch fire or explode to ruin X-Mas.

I'm sorry to hear about your terrible Christmas. I hope you are all feeling better. I used to have a secret habit of watching Jerry Springer when ever I was feeling ugly, poor, and/or stupid, and miraculously, I always feel super smart, beautiful and rich after seeing the characters and situations on his show.

So, in the theme of pick-me-ups, here's a story to make you feel beautiful, rich, smart, healthy, etc (it's true and it was my Christmas this year):

First, my wonderful old cat died. I felt terrible and a week later, decided to get a kitten. I took the kitten to the vet before bringing him home to make sure that he wouldn't give my current pets anything.

Vet said he was fine, but had either a virus, probably the flu virus, or bacterial infection. We opted to wait and see (instead of putting him on anti-biotics right away.) The vet also said that he wouldn't pass the virus to my other cat because my other cat had probably already been exposed.

Three days later, my husband is sick with the flu, the cat is still sick. And, I decided to have all of my existing pets given an exam/blood work, etc., because I was still upset about my other cat dying and decided to get everyone checked out in the spirit of prevention. So, the vet took blood from the other three pets.

The kitten is still sick a week later, and goes on anti-biotics for two things that haven't clearing up (what appeared to be a flu virus and something that is making his tongue red--I forgot the name)

Three days later, the dogs and I come down with ringworm and I catch my husband's flu. And, the vet calls and says that all of the blood they took from my pets froze because the lab pick-up service didn't show up to get it. The vet has to redraw all of their blood.

Meanwhile, I spent $100+ on cleaners, bleach, extra vacuum bags, lysol, cleaning clothes, anti-baterial/fungal cleansers, etc. This is not including vet bills, the medicated pet shampoo (that I'm using on myself as well) and ringworm pills (pills cost $100 for 5 days for 1 animal).

I give everyone (4 animals and myself) baths in the medicated shampoo) 3x per week--they have to let the shampoo sit for 5-10 minutes before rinsing so it takes forever; I vacuum twice daily, wipe every surface with either a bleach solution or the cleaning wipes, wash everything that is washable (curtains, table clothes, throw pillows, you name it), in bleach; wash everything that I wear, dog beds, wash my sheets and towels after one use, etc.

dishwasher breaks. I'm thankful that it's not the vacuum or the washing machine.

The dogs start getting better, but the medication makes their stomachs upset.

My husband's employer decides to require everyone in his division to take 2 weeks off for Christmas (whether or not they have enough time off saved up to cover it.) Since he's new, he has to take a full week of unpaid days. Meanwhile, I'm working full time through the holidays.

The kitten, who has no signs of ringworm (we've decided that he's an asymptomatic carrier: Typhoid Mary) gets the worst diarrhea on the planet. Watery, mucus stool all day long--going on for 4+ days now. So, I have to feed him little bits of raw meat six times per day (cats can't do the typical liquid-only diet for diarrhea).

Meanwhile, we get more snow than usual and while I'm not paying attention, my neighbors have this brilliant idea [insert sarcasm here] of shoveling the snow only from the street gutters, not the side walks or anywhere else, creating a dip, followed by a mountain of snow, at the end of my driveway. The snow freezes solid and my car high centers when I was backing out in the dark the next morning.

There's more, but I'm going to stop now and see if I can find old episodes of Jerry Springer somewhere online, I need one right about now.

Badkitty - you win!! I can't take anymore. I feel truly blessed that we all had the flu :-)

Good lord woman, hope things start getting better for ya!

Val

I had to work, and I know this will shock and dismay a lot of folks here......we actually ran out of dip for the veggie tray!

Lloyd

P.S. And the cookies were a tad on the dry side.

Lloyd, is there a trick here? There's no dip so the veggie is for the compost.
And the cookies too?

I was trying to garner sympathy for my plight but alas, it appears that this crowd is too tough. Fear not my compost compatriots, we ate it all, dry cookies and dipless veggies, nary a crumb was left for the CPs, and for this I feel no guilt nor shame. (plus at -25C it was too nippy to be out and about the CP so eating it seemed the sensible thing to do)

Lloyd

I feel no guilt nor shame

You might not feel guilt or shame but did you feel a little tingly around the mid-section? Raw veggies and dry cookies. I hear the TUMS calling me.

Val

Gak! I had to quit reading after Val felt she had to throw well-meaning cookies into her compost pile. I can't imagine a more disgusting Christmas than that. Val wins. Hands down.
Gak!

Val, you and yours feeling better now? Ready to meet the new year? Sure hope so. :-)

Kris

Well, it wasn't my WORST Christmas ever, but like Lloyd, I did suffer terribly this Christmas. I caught a sniffle the day after we got home from a week on Maui. And so when we got together with the whole fam-damily on Chirstmas day I felt compelled to wear a surgical mask so no one else would catch my sniffle, and then of course I had to endure everyone addressing me as "Doctor Sis" while I opened by gifts. (heavy sigh) Maybe next year will be better.

Cheryl

badkitty - I enjoyed your writing . You have excellent style in composition and grammar . Do tell us more - I would love to read about the rest of your adventures .
Any good news ?

Seamommy - go to your room! A week on Maui indeed! I would have gladly suffered everything mentioned on this thread for a week in Maui. *Sigh*

I'm so depressed now.

Val

PS - Kris, everyone's all better, including the dog (who also was sick!) Yuck....nothing like cleaning up dog barf when you ain't feelin' so hot yourself.