The Holiday Curse and Santa's Surprise

Hi readers. I am writing to you from my couch in my jammies with a heating pad and big blanky....because I am sicker than sick. My entire body hurts, I am dizzy and nauseous, I am hot then I am cold, my nose is stuffy then runny, and it feels like someone dragged a knife down the back of my throat.
I have strep throat and a kidney infection. The kidney infection I have had for over a week but the strep I just got....on Christmas Eve. Honestly, I was not surprised; I was actually expecting it. Why would I be expecting to be sick on Christmas? Because I have a curse. Since I was born 27 years ago, I have been sick for every single majorly celebrated holiday. And I do not mean with the sniffles or the common cold, although I would love for that to be the case. No, I mean I have been actually sick with something that required a prescription for every Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. So why should this year be any different? Of course I have Strep Throat on Christmas.
And you know how it could only get worse readers? I have passed on this curse to my children. Thankfully, their's is not nearly as severe as mine is: birthdays, Easter and Halloween tend to be the worst for them. So I am sure you can imagine I am really hoping that they do not get this and stay healthy through New Years.

So now that I have explained the curse and whined about feeling icky, let's move on to the giant Christmas surprise that my tiny humans and I got this year. First, a little background:
My little sister is a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force and in July she was moved from being here with us, to California, three time zones away. She is my best friend and my tiny ones adored her. We were ready for our first Christmas apart. It was not something we wanted to do, but something we understood was going to become our version of normal--being apart on Christmas.
On Saturday December 21st, the love of my life, his three kids, The Nursing Nurse and her husband and I were all going out to dinner. (My tiny ones were at their BF's house.) When we got to where we were eating, my love and I took the kids and The Nursing Nurse's infant to the table and she said she was staying up front and calling her husband to see how long he was going to be. As we were getting situated at the table and I was getting the baby out of her car seat, my love kept telling me to sit down. So I finally sat down and I look up and The Nursing Nurse is walking to the table, holding her cell phone with a giant smile on her face.....with my baby sister behind her in uniform.
Very loudly I said, "What are you doing here? How did you get here?!" I froze. My mouth dropped, I smiled, and as all of the restaurant was watching me, I started sobbing. The last time I got to hug my sister was when she was leaving to go to California five months ago; I stood there and hugged her for what felt like an eternity. When we finally sat down, I do not think I let go of her the entire time we were there, even when we were eating. After dinner, she came to my house and we caught up before she had to go back to her moms house (we are half sisters, we have different moms) but before she left we came up with a plan to surprise the kids.
Both of my tiny humans wrote letters to Santa this year asking to bring their Aunt home for Christmas. Then, to make it even more heart wrenching, they asked him to bring her home again when we went to see him at our local Santa's Wonderland. It was hard for me, especially since I had no idea she would actually be here when all of this happened. So imagine how excited I was to be able to surprise them with her on Christmas morning! So we planned it out perfectly. I got the kids back from their BF at 9pm on Christmas Eve and they went to bed as soon as we got home. Once they were asleep, she came over and we wrapped a GIANT box--it was seriously big enough she could have slept in it. We cut the top off and wrapped the sides and then made sure we had enough to tape down on top after she climbed in. Then we hid in my bedroom all night and went to sleep. In the morning, I made sure we woke up first with enough time to get ready. My sister climbed in the box, we taped the wrapping paper down and then I woke up the tiny humans. They were really excited to see everything that Santa brought, and of course they wanted to open the big box first. When they opened it and their Aunt popped out, they were shocked! They asked her how she got there and of course she told them Santa brought her in his sleigh. They were so excited; it really was our best Christmas to date. But with that fantastic surprise, comes the tearful goodbyes. The day after Christmas, we went to breakfast with her, her mom and step-dad, and our Brother. We shared our last three hours together laughing and eating and talking. And we made the goodbyes quick; although not tear-less, this "See-ya" was much easier than the first time.
That readers, was the highlight of our Christmas. Not the gifts, not the food....our Family was together for the holiday and it was more than I could have ever asked for. I have always cried watching video's of servicemen and women coming home to their loved ones to surprise them but I never thought that YouTube video would be me....and now it is. I love her so much and I am so proud of her. I hope all of you out there had a beautiful Christmas and I hope your New Year is full of blessings!