This has been a very different holiday season for me. I arrived home on Christmas Eve to enjoy our family party with all of my relatives. We had dinner, played games and sang Christmas songs; the usual activities for our holiday celebrations. My oldest sister was not able to join us because she started feeling sick as the party began.

On Christmas day most of us were feeling weak and so we got off to a slow start, opening our presents around 4pm. After the opening of presents we watched a movie together and my mom was the next victim on the sick list.

The next morning I woke up with a horrible stomach ache and realized that I had caught the nasty bug as well. We made a few calls to our extended family and sure enough most of them were sick too.

The culprit of this plague was my nephew. Being a baby we passed him around throughout the night on Christmas Eve and one by one we each received the gift that would keep on giving for days to come, a stomach virus. My stomach still hurts and it’s looking like I will not be able to participate in the highly anticipated ski trip with my sister tomorrow.

Despite being sick it’s been a very loving holiday season. I’ve enjoyed the time spent with my family and am grateful for the many holiday memories that we will always share.