JEM Truly Outrageous: A Christmas Poem

Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
The boys were snuggled in for a Christmas Eve nap,
and the hot water flowed in the tub from the tap.
As I sunk down into the tub, I heaved a happy sigh.
The day had been splendid and the Christmas Eve service was nigh.
Everette and I gave our gifts and wrapping paper littered the floor
The day was so perfect I hardly noticed my back was a bit sore.
As the evening approached we hustled and bustled
Bending and twisting and moving our muscles.
I simply bent over to pick up a cup,
one could hardly believe this bad luck.
As I bent down I felt a great snap.
I promise I only shouted "oh Crap!"
I fell to the floor and made a great clatter,
and Everette came in to ask "what's the matter?!"

So Christmas Eve we were getting ready to head to our first of two church services, and as I bent down to pick something up my back gave out and I fell to the floor. Did I mention I was leading the singing for both services and Everette was doing sound. Not really knowing what else to do we loaded up and headed to church. At first I was ok sitting down, but as the night progressed so did my pain. My parents and sister joined us for the service and I managed to survive. During the break and the next service, I spent every available moment laying flat on my back in the sound booth with Everette. My dad-bless his heart, was planning on taking Jonathan home after the 1st service, offered to take him to our house and put him to bed, which meant we could come home right away. Everette and I (and my mom and my sister) celebrated a festive Christmas Eve dinner with Chinese food from Lyn's Wok.
Thankfully I was kind enough to buy Everette a heating pad for Christmas which I promptly stole upon returning home and carried it around like my own presonal blankie.
I found some leftover painkillers which resulted in a bizarre night of less pain, lucid sleeping and a morning of naseua and weird trippy feelings. After eating some food and stopping by the Mary Mills Pharmacy, I switched to a different painkiller and Laura found a real pharmacy and got me some icy-hot patches.

So here are some pictures from our Christmas adventures. Most of them are from my perspective.

Everette and I got Jonathan a wooden tool box, which he opened Christmas Eve (right after my back died).

That is me on the floor and Jonathan with his favorite part of Christmas--Grampy's Train under the tree.

Every year Everette's brothers Brad and Grant have an esalating present wrapping competition. last year it involved old pantyhose and a reindeer. This year I think Brad thought he did pretty well as you can see above he wrapped it in an old miltary chest and filled it with all sorts of random crap. we were all impressed until.... Brad opened his from Grant...

This is Meghan (or Grant's artistic interpretatioon of her) Brad's girlfriend. Grant papier mache-ed Brad's present inside Meghan's head. He instructed Brad he had to break his girlfriend's face to get his present.