Christmas Eve

Spaulding: T'was the night before Christmas... Teddy: And all through the house.... Spaulding: Not a creature was stirring... Teddy: Not even a MOUSE!!!! Spaulding: Well, that sure s'plains how our holiday season is going! Both: Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Teddy: Mice are stirring! Spaulding: And we simply aren't ready for Christmas yet! Teddy: Mommy and Daddy are having all sorts of problems, so we all agreed... Spaulding: ...and Teddy bmailed Santa to let him know too... Teddy: ...that we would postpone Christmas and have it next week some time! Spaulding: First, Daddy is still doing the treatment, but now it makes him sick all week long! Teddy: It used to make him beary sick for the first few days of the week, but at the end of the week, he'd feel better and could actually go out one day a week for a little while. Spaulding: Now it wipes him out all week long! Teddy: Plus, Mommy and Daddy had to get a new health insurance, which is difficult to or-gan-eyez to make sure Daddy can keep getting the treatment he needs to get better! Spaulding: Their old insurance ran out on November 15th, so Daddy ordered a month worth of drugs on the 14th, plus he already had two weeks left, so they thought they would be fine for getting his next batch in time to keep going! Teddy: Beary weird! The drugs make Daddy sicker and it would have been nice to take a couple of weeks off from taking the drugs, but Mommy kept fighting the insurance company to get his drugs! Spaulding: Yeah, but their big fear was that if he took the time off he'd have to start all over and he's almost half way through! Teddy (with a small smile): They laughed about that. Spaulding: Mommy cried several times fighting the insurance company! Teddy: It scared us, but the insurance company kept changing the list of things she had to do for Daddy to get the drugs! Spaulding: We now know what "jumping through hoops" means! Teddy: The insurance company made Mommy feel so, so , soooooooo... Spaulding: ICKY and angry and confused! Teddy: Two days ago, they changed their story AGAIN and said they needed more stuff!!!! Spaulding: Daddy needed his drugs for Christmas Day! Isn't that a stinky way to celebrate Christmas? Teddy: Mommy was so angry and confused and sad that she did something she wished she had done much earlier! Spaulding: She called a lawyer! Teddy: Daddy's drugs came today! Spaulding: She's going to wait until after the holidays before calling the lawyer about getting their insurance cards sent too! Teddy: The same insurance company has promised the insurance cards went out on the 3rd and despite Mommy telling them seven times that they haven't arrived, they still haven't come in. Spaulding: They just don't care! Teddy: They SHOULD care! This is our Mommy and Daddy and neither feel well enough to be treated like this!!! Spaulding: BUT, the crying is over and still, even through all this, Mommy has been helping us decorate for Christmas! Teddy: Christmas season hasn't always been nice to Mommy and Daddy! Spaulding: Last year, Daddy was too tired to do anything.... Teddy: ...and we didn't even know he was sick yet! We just thought he was sad! Spaulding: ...and Mommy was dizzy--for two months, counting Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and she bearly got to go to her family's get-together, and came home early, not feeling well! Teddy: But, Mommy likes to prepare early for Christmas presents, and they assumed Daddy would be working before Christmas! Spaulding: Daddy likes to have Christmas decorations on his desk at work, so Mommy bought him an 18 inch Christmas tree plus the tiny little decorations for it. Teddy: It ended up being our only Christmas tree last year, but Daddy gave it to us as a Christmas present. It's the perfect size for us! Spaulding: And, on their vacation a year ago last summer, Mommy bought a Christmas decoration for the big tree! Teddy: That was our first vacation together, where we got to know each other like bwuders! Spaulding: I remember! Teddy: Mommy buys Christmas tree decorations as souvenirs. Spaulding: This decoration was a little stuffed Teddy Bear angel holding a gold star. Teddy: His name is Kris and he was the only decoration out last year! Spaulding: So Mommy decided to make up for it this year! Teddy: She's still in pain though and Daddy is too sick still to help, so we decided to condense it all to this one room! Spaulding: This room used to be Daddy's study, so it has many bookcases! Teddy: Back when Mommy and Daddy first knew what was wrong with Daddy, they changed this room into our living room and computer room, because it's close to the bathroom and stairs are tiresome if you are sick! Spaulding: We helped Mommy though. We co-lab-or-eighted together and decided to decorate each shelf of the bookcases with gold garland, and each side of the bookcases with red, green or red and green garland, which hides the electrical cords for the Christmas village! Teddy: We wanted to help Mommy move all those books downstairs, but the books weigh more then we do, so we couldn't! Spaulding: But, Mommy was smart! She only took down bags of books when she was headed to the kitchen or basement anyway! Teddy: But, since our decorations are in the basement, she had to go down often! Spaulding: On one shelf, we now have Mommy's Na-tiv-ity scene.... Teddy: That's Jesus in a manger with Mary and Joseph on either side, plus the donkey Mary rode, plus the cow that lived in the stable Spaulding: A stable is like a barn! Teddy: and the shepards and sheep and the wise men with their gifts and their camel. Spaulding: ...and Mommy made it all by herself years ago... Teddy: ...before we were born... Spaulding: ...out of stained glass! Teddy: With the florescent light on the ceiling, it seems lit up all the time!!! Both: It's Beeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuutiful!!!! Spaulding: We also have a small village with four buildings, but we only had three free shelves to work with, so Mommy came up with a beary good idea! Teddy: She put the church above the books, the shall-lay (challet) and Santa's workshop two shelves below the church and added Santa and Frosty next to them, and then put the last house on the shelf below that and then added all of our Christmas Teddy Bears... Spaulding: They're little figurines of Teddy Bears dressed up like Santa with two little Teddy Cubs trying to reach the gifts. Mommy won them at a gathering of online friends called "The AOL Disabled Support Chat Reunion" a couple of years ago, so this is the first time we've seen them out for Christmas! Teddy: Now it looks like a fantasy village in the Alps, chalk full... Spaulding: "Chalk Full!" Nicely descriptive, even though I don't know what it means! :::::::::::::::::Both look at Mommy in hopes of learning what it means, but Mommy just shrugs her shoulders and agrees, even if we don't know its origins, it's still a good description::::::::::::::::::::::::: Teddy: C h a l k f u l l of snowmen, Santas and Christmas trees candles and ADORABLE... Spaulding: ...like us.... Both (agreeing): Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Teddy: Teddy Bear Santa and cubs!!!!! Spaulding: We also have a couple of stuffed angels above the bookcases and a stuffed snowmommy with her two kids, and we made Mommy put at least one decoration in each corner, so you can't look anywhere without being reminded of the season AND... Teddy: Wait a minute! Which is your favorite decoration?! Spaulding: I can't decide between the Na-tiv-ity scene or the Teddy Bear figurines! You?! Teddy: Oh, wow, that makes it harder! I really like the glitter ball with the Mommy and kitten kitty cats, where the little kitten broke a Christmas tree ball and afraid Mommy might be angry, but the Mommy kitty cat isn't angry! I was going to say that or our beary special Christmas tree just for us. But, now I like your choices just as much! I don't know which I like! Both: I like them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::Both look at each other, surprised to say the exact same thing at the exact same time:::::::::::::::::: Both: Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Spaulding: All those decorations have been up for about a week, but today.... Teddy: Today we helped Mommy decorate the Christmas tree!!!! It's the first time I've ever seen such a BIG tree!!! Spaulding: Mommy made us a great deal! She got to put on all the birds! Teddy: We have three red feathered birds, one ceramic robin and a bluebird on her nest with three eggs! Spaulding: BUT....she let us decide where everything else went!!!! Teddy: We kept choosing the decorations that fit our personalities! Spaulding: The girls put on the beary pretty glass decorations with roses on them and blown glass decorations and angels. Teddy: The kids put on the carousel animals, both horseys and other animals and butterflies, Spaulding: Axlerod put the Santa chef with his new batch of cookies and the other unique decorations. Teddy: And we put on Mommy's stained glass decorations and the stuffed critter decorations... Spaulding: ...like Kris, theTeddy angel with the star, and the girl porcupine next to him so he won't get lonely. Teddy: Wellllllll, we did have them face us at eye level so we could talk to them during the holiday! Both: Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Spaulding: We make beary good decorators! Teddy: I'm glad we're postponing Christmas, or we couldn't enjoy the decorations long enough! Spaulding: Mommy says that her tra-dish-shun was always to have the decorations done the weekend after Thanskgiving! Teddy: Wow! Then we NEED to delay Christmas to enjoy the decorations and holidays for longer!!!! Spaulding: We're about to bring out our whole family to enjoy the lit decorations and TV specials for the holidays, so we'll stay until OUR holidays are over! Teddy: We HAVE to turn on all the lights before they come out! They haven't seen it all lit up yet! Spaulding: Axlerod, as the oldest in our family, will help Mommy put the angel on top of the tree too! Teddy: Well then let's get going!!!! Spaulding: Sooooooooo, until next time.... Both: And from all of us, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to every one not postponing Christmas! And, "God bless us every one!" Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho!