Christmas Party and Our Trip to Instacare

Yeah, I don't like when those two things are put together either.

We had our Christmas party with my side of the family last night. We got the bright idea to reserve the church so our large group could run around in the cultural hall instead of crashing and trashing on of our houses instead. (Not that we trashed the church -- it got cleaned up at the end!)

Dinner involved tasty sandwiches from Jimmy John's (if you haven't been there before, I highly recommend it!), and each family brought a side and dessert. So simple and so tasty. I made my mom's cheeseball recipe and some cookie dough brownies. Audrey, of course, ate very little. I don't know how she's even growing. Nathan ate a vegetarian sandwich (still doesn't care for most meats) and a ton of fruit and sides.

The kids ran around, had paper airplane contests, and the older girls performed a dance for everyone.

Halfway through the evening I took a double take at Nathan's face, his eyes in particular. His left eye had looked a little irritated for the last day or so, and I had assumed he had rubbed it a little too vigorously. Well, now the goopy stuff was showing up in the corner of his eye. This was not boding well. I had my mother take a quick look at him and she said it might be conjunctivitis, which come to find out later that night was highly contagious.

Using my brother's smartphone, we quickly found the nearest Instacare and cut our night short at the party. Thankfully there was no wait and we got in to see the doctor quickly. After holding him down for all the checking the nurse did, he was indeed diagnosed with pinkeye. Oh, and a surprise ear infection too! The doctor asked me when his last ear infection was, and I had no idea. My kids don't show any of the classic signs of one, and if they do, I don't know what they are.

So Nathan finished up, got a sucker for his trouble, (which made his sister jealous) and we headed off to get his prescription filled. Also found out he weighs more than Audrey too. (Not surprised at this at all.)

When we got home, we sent out an email to everyone telling them what it was and to scrub all their kids. This is one Christmas present I hope not to repeat.