Fletcher's First Christmas

A child's first year is special for their family.  While they won't remember the many milestones and "firsts" they'll experience, it is a special time for their family to experience those things with them for the first time.  I am needing to remind myself of that as I write this post, because Fletcher spent his first Christmas really not feeling well.  As a family, we still made a lot of wonderful memories, and Fletcher being sick willy really stand out in our memories as time goes by.

Since Christmas was on a Sunday, school was out starting the previous Thursday.  We had family gatherings starting Friday, so Thursday was our day to relax and prepare.  I woke up that morning not feeling well, and so began the circle of sick that filled our house this holiday season. 

Saturday, our tradition of opening gifts at our house with Billy's parents continued.  Fletcher wasn't sure what to do at first, but he quickly started to get into it.  He loved ripping the paper off, and then he either wanted to pull up on the big boxes so he could hit them and make noise or try to eat the paper from the smaller boxes. 

The evening of Christmas Eve, we went to church.  Fletcher was more interested in eating the candles for the candle-light service than listening to the sermon, but he LOVED the music.  He was clapping and smiling the entire time we were singing Christmas Carols. 

Christmas morning, Fletcher awoke with a runny nose and red eyes.  I figured he had caught the cold that I'd had before it turned into a sinus infection.  So, we opened gifts at home and then headed to Litchfield to celebrate the day with Billy's family. 

He was a trooper the whole time we were at Granny's house, but he was extremely clinging and tired.  He still let everyone hold him and seemed to enjoy watching everything going on around him.  He did eventually take a good nap after Aunt Angie rocked him for a while.

We ended the day at my parents house with my dad's family.  By then, Fletcher had a fever and just wanted to snuggle.  He ended up taking another nice long nap, but his fever didn't break until I gave him some Tylenol the next day. 

Fletcher ended up having an ear infection and pinkeye when he went to the doctor a couple of days later after we noticed his eyes had lots of gunk in them.  He is back to normal and enjoying all of the fantastic gifts he got, even if he wasn't very excited about them when he first opened them.