Or, to quote Homer Simpson: “That place where our beds and TV is…”
And its good to be home.
That said, this was definitely our nicest visit back to Ontario yet. Due, in no small part, I’m sure, to the amount of time we had to spend there. We got to see almost everyone we wanted to — and not in the usual whirlwind fashion of 20-30 minutes each. Instead we had some really nice visits with family, and some great friends.
The end of the trip wasn’t as fantastic, however. For New Year’s Eve, all three of us got violently ill at our friend’s Brian and Melissa’s house. Apparently there was a flu going around, and although we had no recollection of exposure to it, the other party goers — most of whom had babies younger than Benjamin — were happy when we quarantined ourselves for the night. We were only a little embarrassed about how many times we each barfed in their house. Benjamin’s retching, of course, being the most pitiful and hard to endure. At one point, around 2:00 in the morning, when Nic’s visits to the porcelain bus were causing false contractions and Benjamin had puked about 9 times, I seriously considered driving us all to the hospital — despite being near-delirious and having to crawl to the bathroom myself.
This is what’s weird, and I think someone with more medical expertise should weigh in with their opinion:
– None of us had been around anyone with the flu
– None of us had any symptoms prior to dinner
– All 3 of us had the chicken at the restaurant we went to
– All 3 of us became rapidly and enthusiastically symptomatic starting 2 hours after dinner, and all within an hour of each other
– All 3 of us recovered nearly completely after no more than 12 hours
I’m thinking food poisoning, but when I called, I couldn’t get the restaurant to agree with me. Any thoughts?
Anyway, whatever the cause, it turned out good, because it delayed our departure from Canada by a day, causing us to miss some rather severe weather on the roads, allowed us an excuse to grab a couple extra hours of sleep, and gave me the opportunity to have a nice long chat with an old friend. Despite a schedule that would put most other “hectic Christmas schedules” to shame, we made it home today in good time, feeling very refreshed and encouraged, and at peace with how 2007 ended up and where things are headed in 2008.
Thank you to Shannon for keeping our cat alive while we were gone!
Pictures to follow when I unpack the camera. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday too!