Best Worst Christmas

On Christmas eve we had delicious duck with bucket-loads of trimmings. Blake ate a little and the rest was obliterated by the two of us. Well, there were left overs, but by now they are also almost completely gone. We all hung around the living room and Blake suddenly rediscovered the big inflatable soft ball that was lying around the living room for the last nineteen months - it was Blake's first ever birthday present for his first ever birthday. We played happily, but we were all unusually tired and turned in at ten.

Blake is encouraged to go to sleep in his own bed, but most nights he'd prefer to go to our bed. It's something we're still working on ever since he got his own real bed instead of the cot and now can get out whenever he wants. But it was Christmas so we let him join us (he's got us wrapped around his little finger, yes). 

Turned out Blake wasn't as sleepy as us and he kept bouncing around in the dark all over the bed happily. Miron managed to fall asleep somehow. I decided that I can just as well go down and do the dishes if I'm being kept up. Blake followed me down, but by the time I was done he was gone. When I went up I saw that he already went back to our bed and was fast asleep. I was wide awake at that point so I played some games on my iPhone and then went to bed as well.

Christmas morning arrived. We took Blake down to the presents and started we opening them, but Blake was uninterested. He was being a bit miserable. I tried giving him breakfast, but he ate very little. He was also very warm. We checked his temperature and it was over 39 degrees. Poor puppy woke up sick on Christmas morning!

A bit of Calpol and Blake was almost back to his old self and he managed to enjoy the numerous additions to his Thomas the Tank Engine collection. He also got three books, two of them about Thomas, a magic drawing board, two miniature animals for his collection (it's getting difficult to get ones he doesn't have yet!), some posh candy and a big fluffy Tigger.

Thomas loot

New bestest cuddly friend

We didn't go crazy with presents this year. I'm hard to shop for because I usually get the stuff I really want right away as soon as it is available and if we can afford it. I told Miron I don't want an iPad, Kindle or X-Box Kinect. I did jokingly mention I need underwear so I expected one box as a joke. Instead I got three boxes of underwear and a Chinese cookbook. Hooray! Miron got two books, toffee sweets and crappy massage blobby thingie. It didn't matter. It was all about seeing Blake reactions to his presents. The dogs also got bones, pig ears and toys and were very excited and happy.

Our turkey was delicious, but Blake ate very little. Regardless, we all had a great time doing a whole lot of nothing and just hanging around with each other.

Blake had a very rough night and since he slept with us, so did we. His temperature reached 40 at one point and he was utterly miserable. He kept waking up crying which not only disturbed our sleep, but was also heartbreaking.

Today Blake was getting better. He ate some cereal for breakfast and lots of chips for lunch. His temperature was gradually getting better, but in the afternoon he got cranky again. I put him down for a nap from which he woke up screaming. I tried singing to him, tell him stories, sooth him and even show him some videos. Nothing helped, not even CSI: Miami. I took him to our bed and I realized that all he really wanted was for me to shut the hell up. With silence and darkness he fell asleep again.

Blake woke up since and ate some sweet corn and now wanders around being his old self. So there you go. Blake's first proper Christmas was actually not that awesome, but that's OK. Because it means it can only get better. For example he'll get two Tiggers next year, not just one! Bring on Christmas 2011! 

--Mickey