A Christmas Show We Will Never Forget

I honestly don't even know where to begin. I suppose I could start with Tuesday morning when Benny woke up at 5 a.m. puking. He obviously stayed home from school and though he only threw up twice, he was clearly lethargic and not his normal self. After spiking a fever Tuesday afternoon and evening we decided to keep him home Wednesday. I took him to the doctor, where a rapid strep test came back negative, and we were sent home with a diagnosis of viral infection. Today, Thursday, Ben awoke looking pale and still not having an appetite, but insisted he felt okay and wanted to go to school. I was thrilled as his holiday program was this evening and I couldn't wait to see him sing Jingle Bills with the rest of his class.

We arrived at school just after 5 p.m. and Ben eagerly showed us his classroom and posed for pictures with some of his best buddies: Kirin, Alex, Addy, and Andrew.

We settled into our seats with the rest of Ben's fan club, Oma, Nana, Bampaw, Uncle Craig, and Abby. It was just about 6:05 p.m., as the principal was apologizing for the delay due to a "minor mishap," that our neighbor came and tapped Dean on the shoulder, whispering "your kid just puked all over my kid!" Dean, Joey, and I took off to look for Ben and were told that he was on stage singing. We watched as he delivered a half-hearted version of Jingle Bells with the rest of his class. Ben then sat in the hallway with us and told us the whole, gruesome story.

He said he felt the vomit coming up right after they got into place on the risers and told his teacher he had to go to the bathroom. She said it was too late and he needed to wait. It was then that he "threw up like an ocean explosion" all over the HEAD of his friend (and our next door neighbor) Mason, who had the unfortunate luck of standing right in front of Ben, as well as Rommell, another little boy in his class, the riser, the curtain, and his teacher's pants. By the way, his teacher is 21 weeks pregnant and had just arrived at school after having her ultrasound determining that she was carrying a boy. Maybe she will name him Ben. Probably not.

It should be mentioned that the entire time Ben was telling Dean and I (and the laughing SPT parents working the bake sale in the hallway and listening to us) what happened, Joey was running around in circles asking if we could go to "El Rodeo" (our neighborhood mexican restaurant) for dinner. Um, no.

I was: A. Worried about my boy and B. Mortified. I am ashamed to admit that I was probably more embarrased than anything else. I bought the janitor who mopped up the vomit a $7 cookie tray from the bake sale and we took off as fast as we could.

Poor Ben. All I could picture was that scene from Stand By Me when the kid pukes on stage during the pie eating contest and it causes everyone else to start throwing up. Thank God there was no chain reaction caused by Ben.

Let's just hope this is not an indication of how the remainder of our holiday festivities will play out.