Christmas spirit.

I have been such a procrastinator this Christmas season.
I have been so busy with teaching,
that I decided to not worry about decorating or Christmas shopping until I started my winter break.

Well, luck would have it that on my second day of break, I became extremely ill.

It started on Friday morning at 3:00am.

I woke Taylor up and told him I didn't feel well.

The next thing I knew, I was over the toilet.

It wasn't pretty on either end -_-

The worst part though was that I couldn't stay conscious.  

I kept blacking out.

I don't remember much of that night.

Other than hearing Taylor yell, "Kelli! Kelli! Wake up!"

over and over again.

And it took so much effort to come back to his voice.

Then I would be back in bed.

Then I was back in Taylor's arms in the bathroom trying to reach his voice.

Over and over again.

It was a nightmare.

I remember Taylor's dad coming over to give me a blessing.

(such a sweet father-in-law...it must have been 6 in the morning?)

And I remember seeing Taylor look pretty worried a few times.

Then, Taylor was taking me to the hospital.

His mom came and helped.

(I have the best in-laws)

The doctor gave me a huge shot in the hip.

And then I was back in bed and slept throughout the rest of the day.

Of course, in between, was more throwing up and more passing out.

Taylor keeps telling me things that happened, but I have no recollection.

Taylor said that at one point--in the middle of throwing up--I joked, "It's the haircut!"

I don't really remember this...but now our running joke is that I am Samson...all of my power was in my hair.

I tried to get moving yesterday morning.

I knew that it would be my last day to get the presents I had procrastinated.

How awful would it be if Christmas came and I had no gifts for my sweet husband?

So we went out for a couple of hours.

But by the end, I wasn't feeling so hot.

I slept for the rest of the day.

Every couple of hours, I woke up feeling so guilty:

Christmas was in just two days.

Our house was hardly decorated.

I hadn't finished Christmas shopping.

Our house was a mess.

How awful am I?

Then, this morning happened.

I woke up and went into the kitchen.

I couldn't believe it.

Our house was decorated.

Our house was spick and span.

There were presents under our tree.

I started to tear up.

After taking care of me all night and day long,

after cleaning up my throw up,

after catching me over and over again when I passed out,

after carrying me to bed and trying to get me to come out of the black out,

after taking me to the doctor's,

after giving me medicine,

after making sure I was hydrated,

after calling the doctor a few times because of weird symptoms I was having,

after making me soup,

after multiple grocery store runs for medicine, gatorade, and milk (apparently I really wanted milk? ha),

after little sleep...

my sweet husband cleaned our whole house.

Finished my Christmas shopping (for people other than himself of course).

And decorated for Christmas.

Seriously. This happened.

This is what Christmas is about.

My husband just gave me the best and sweetest gift he could have ever given me.

Love, service, selflessness, and charity.

This is why this man amazes me over and over again.

This is easily the best Christmas I have ever had.

And I haven't opened a single wrapped present.

I am so grateful this season for Taylor Ray Gilbert.

My husband and very best friend.

He even updated our chalkboard to make it festive ;)