Halloween is not usually my favorite holiday, however after Christmas and New Years this year I am having fond memories of what I have often considered the black sheep of the holiday family.

From this picture you can see that Halloween came complete with a princess bride, mighty spiderman, and thing 1 and thing 2 all seated peacefully upon the laps of their smiling mommy and daddy. 

If one had been so unfortunate as to have snapped a holiday photo of the Clark family at either Christmas or New Years the scene would have looked quite differently.

Let me paint you a picture.  Christmas Eve and Christmas day would have excluded Daddy, that is unless of course the rest of the family had piled in bed with him as he battled (or whined) his way through the much touted H1N1 virus.  A personal record was set by the family patriarch as he slept for over 40 of the 48 hours of those two days.  But in spite of their fathers weakness, the family had fun, mom read the Christmas story, Santa showed up, and the kids opened the presents, and dad slept through almost all of it.

Then the day after Christmas, after a not so brief visit to the local urgent care by Daddy and his little princess, off the Clarks went, loaded with antibiotics and presents for loved ones in distant snow covered Ohio.

The day after arrival a visit ensued to Mi-Ma’s place where an uncle (who will remain unnamed) was the silent carrier of another strain of that dreaded family of viruses called flu.  Unknown to him, this was not H1N1, but the more traditional variety that brings with it total loss of control over bodily function.  After a fun filled night in which he held and kissed everyone of my kids (he’s a great uncle) we went back to Grammies house for the night.

Two uneventful days later the dawn broke with the news that this beloved uncle lay sick in bed after a night of multiple unpleasantries.  I looked at my wife and verbally repented of traveling to see my family after such a brief time of recovery from the swine Flu – hoping that by some chance – the Ghost of Christmas present might pass this new virus right over our house and onto some family who deserved it less.

My hopes however were unfounded and I got what I deserved.  For rather than being the carrier of the dreaded H1N1 to those I loved and cherished I and my family were the recipients of some dreaded Ohio strain of the common flu.  That night Jake (thing 1) woke up in a pool of vomit, the next day Grady (thing 2) joined the party. 

The following day, with both the twins feeling somewhat better and no longer projectile vomiting we embarked for our journey home.  We have the trip down to a science, I have blogged about it before and will spare you the details of the trip, however let me just say that we have never had four of our family members get violently ill while we were in the midst of the 10+ hour drive home.

With over half the trip to go, Rylee lost it – all over everything.  After a pit stop, change of clothes, filling of two kitchen garbage bags (which I paid $3,000 for at a gas station somewhere in Kentucky) with a variety of puke covered items we got back on the road.  Rylee feeling terrible and her parents feeling worse for her.

Then one hour later Kade joined the party, suddenly and without warning!  So two more garbage bags later (no further cost as I got 15 bags for $3,000) we got back on the road – two kids moaning and two parents wishing we could take their places.

But don’t worry – we both got too.  I will save you any more details as this has been a fairly disgusting post.  Let’s just say that Daddy got what he deserved.  Mommy got sick for the first time in our eleven year marriage.  Then we somehow managed to juggle two healthy twins and two sick kids from the time we got home at 3am on Sunday morning until we both felt quite a bit better this morning.

Suffice it to say – I miss Halloween. 

I’m also grateful for health and for my wife because truth be told – I think the only thing I did yesterday to help out was make a piece of toast.   Which I then ate.

God is good – especially when he allows little things like the flu to remind you of how good you have it.

Josh