Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve, one of my most favorite days of the year, and I am sick.  I am supposed to be cooking and baking and singing and cheerful, but instead, I'm snotty and achy and coughing and exhausted. 

The Elders are coming to dinner and I invited Brother Harris at the last minute to join us.  They were all warned.  I mean, even if I actually hadn't said anything about being sick, they could hear my coughing and loss of voice and I'm sure that they could almost see the pile of Kleenex trailing behind me through the phone.  I am a mess and I have no idea how catchy I might be.  I'm certainly, without a doubt, gross.  As I said, they were warned. 

I even explained to the Elders on the 23rd, that I wasn't sure what we'd be eating on the 24th.  I thought I could maybe convince Cesar to cook pancakes...  Well, maybe we'd do cereal.  A cereal bar!  The boys told me that Captain Crunch was their favorite.  We could do Captain Crunch. 

Did you know that the very first argument that Cesar and I ever had, was over Lucky Charms.  It was.  It turned out to be a hands down, all drag out brawl over breakfast choices.  In the end, he tried to play my Momma card and hollered out that he bet my Mom didn't eat Lucky Charms!  I said, "No she doesn't.  BECAUSE SHE LIKES SUGAR SMACKS!"  He was left with nothin'.  He exited the apartment while I hid out in the bathroom and cried my eyes out.  Eventually, Cesar returned and we ran into each others arms and cried while declaring our love for one another.  That sayin', he still cringes if I bring home a box of Lucky Charms once every blue moon or so.

Without a sure idea of what I was cooking for our Christmas Eve dinner that evening, I tried to tidy and clean the house.  The kids were three steps ahead of me.  I went upstairs to straighten the bathroom and was greeted by the sight of an entire, brand new roll of toilet paper balled and ripped to spreads before me.  Hugo had been hot on my heels and even he froze at the sight.  He sucked in a deep breath and quickly let me know that he hadn't had any part in that mess.  I slowly pulled my phone out of my jeans pocket to take a picture.  Hugo asked why I was doing that.  In a quiet voice I explained that this sight made my heart heavy and said at the moment, but that I knew one day soon, I would think it was funny.  I wanted the picture of the girls destruction of the bathroom to make me laugh one future day.