The Very First

Zane brother and his wife, Mary

Baby Jane with Kirsten

Making our homemade pizzas

We watch Elf EVERY Christmas Eve

We also are sure to put blankets over our heads when we walk by the presents to the stockings

My dog loves plopping himself in the middle of everything

I always thought my first Christmas as a wife would be memorable, but not in the way it actually was. The night before Christmas Eve Gil woke me up and told me he had just thrown up. He continued to be sick with a stomach flu (we think) all day on Christmas Eve. My family was having a little Christmas Eve party at my parent's that I really didn't want to miss. So he gathered up all of his energy to get in the car and off to my parent's we went! We didn't want him to get anyone sick and he was pretty tired so we made him a nice little bed behind the pool table while we had the party upstairs. This way I could be with my family and still check on him.

At this point he was very sick. Every time I went downstairs I would hear him moaning and shivering. He wasn't throwing up anymore, but he had a really bad fever. I couldn't help but be jealous of the pictures on Instagram I saw of all my other newlywed friends who were able to have a jolly Christmas together. Of all the days to get sick why did the sick monster have to attack my husband on Christmas Eve? I hated thinking about how much pain my husband was in on this special holiday.

In order for him to call me if he needed me (while I was upstairs with my family) I pulled up my name on his phone and told him that all he would need to do is press the center button and the phone would call me.

About ten minutes later I got a call from Gil so I ran downstairs to discover that he had lost all the feeling in his hand and his hands looked like they were paralyzed. I immediately burst in to tears and got my mom (who is a physical therapist) to come help. My parent's said he would need to be taken to the ER. We got out the insurance card, my mom changed out of her Christmas Jammies and we got all ready to go. In the mean time, my sister and I massaged his hands to try and bring back feeling and we forced him to drink Gatorade as he was very dehydrated.

He started to feel his hands again--luckily for us that meant no ER. We brought him upstairs so we could keep an eye on him and I was able to have Gilbert and my family party in one place. It all worked out nicely. And the best part was that he felt better by Christmas day.

So yes, I was indeed right in thinking my first Christmas as a wife would be one to remember! But despite all of this we all had a good Christmas Eve/Christmas day :-)