Why does family togetherness always = vomit?

When I was a little girl, my mother always said, "Well, it's not Christmas until somebody throws up."

I don't know why, but, it always happened that way. It was the one time of year when my siblings and cousins and I were all at my grandparents at the same time, and, inevitably, somebody had a bug and gave it to everyone else, and, voila, the family that pukes together...well...maybe they SHOULDN'T stay together?

Anyway, with my brother-in-law visiting from Seattle, we were with family for the weekend, and, of course, now there is stomach flu.

Last night, I finally got my kids in bed at 10:00. Gabe was still up at 11:00 when he came out and asked his dad and grandpa and uncles to stop making so much noise playing cards.

I finally fell asleep at 12:30 after listening to my husband, brothers-in-law and father-in-law gruesomely discussing "Most Disgusting Ways to Assassinate Someone" over Euchre.

(Boys are weird, by the way.)

At 1:05 Lana woke up crying, and she cried on and off for 45 minutes until I gave up and put her in bed with Husband. I got in bed with Gabe, who proceeded to treat his mother like a kick-boxing bag for several hours, until waking up at 7:00 AM, telling me his head hurt, and rushing for the bathroom, where vomit ensued.

Then Husband started in with feeling queasy.

I drove us home with plastic emergency bags next to everyone, which were, thank goodness, not needed.

Husband is now in bed with a fever and shakes, and, all together, it looks like the family togetherness is going to put a damper, health wise, on the coming week, which is not helpful, since there was also illness last week...

Nothing says "family" like "shared stomach virus" I guess.

LM