Merry Christmas and Tummy Troubles

Merry Christmas! Today my husband and I had some folks from his side of the family over for holiday cheer. We did something new food-wise this year that tickled me to pieces, as I am NOT a cook: we ordered Indian carry-out. It was delicious, and completely fuss-free. I hope this becomes a tradition. What could be more Christmasy than curry?

Ian spent the day at his apartment with his roommate, and opened all the gifts he didn't open at our house on Christmas Eve. His caregiver took some pictures, and here is one of them:

He also got a slinky for Christmas, and here is the result of Ian's "playing" with it:

I literally laughed out loud when I saw the result of Ian's idea of how one should interact with a slinky. This is just so Ian. Why play with something the way it is intended to be played with, when you can come up with something more creative? Bless his heart.

Unfortunately, as I walked in the door today to visit Ian, I came upon Kandace finishing up the last cleaning-up touches after his roommate had just dislodged the contents of his stomach all over the carpet, himself, some toys, and his shoes. Poor Ron was kind of limply sitting on the floor looking the worse for wear, and occasionally making ominous coughing noises  (Kandace told me he was making these same noises right before he threw up the last time!)  Several ominous coughs later, up came more "dinner." As Kandace rushed to try to turn Ron on his side so he wouldn't throw up on himself again, she tripped over him and landed hard on her knee and back. The scenario: poor Ron orking, Kandace's daughter (who very fortunately was there as well), dealing with Ron, Kandace clutching her leg and saying "Ow, ow, ow!" I rushing to get towels, and Ian blithely sitting on the couch totally unfazed by all the chaos.

We finally got everyone sorted out with Ron going to bed, Kandace taking ibuprofen, and Ian just doing his Ian thing. I am crossing my fingers that this was just a short term food poisoning situation, and not the stomach flu. Argh! I seem to catch the stomach flu with startling ease; when I worked at a day care center, I had it five times in one year! So believe me, I washed my hands compulsively when I got home. I also went home with some...er....aromatic laundry to wash. Yuck. Poor Ron! It's very hard on special needs folk to be sick, especially when they are non-verbal. They can't tell you where it hurts, and it's hard to get them to comprehend what is happening to them, why they feel so awful, and why you are doing certain things to them.

As I said to Kandace---Never a dull moment! I hope you all had a very merry Christmas, and that neither you nor your loved ones vomited.  God bless us everyone! Oh, and here is a picture of Ron today before things took a bad turn tummy-wise.