Blowing Away the Ghost of Christmas Past

I had developed a significant case of Holiday-itis over the last few years, because autism had really sucked a lot of the joy out of the rituals we held dear as a family. Nick didn’t seem to care about presents. We couldn’t have a real Christmas tree for a few years because the mold made him so sick. When Nick was three years old he had such a bad ear infection on Christmas day, he sat at the computer stimming on a video while we sadly opened presents at the tree. He had a bit of blood draining from one of his ears. Desperate to cheer him up, my dad carried a bright, shiny, red fire engine to him. No response. He was too sick to participate.

Fast forward to the fall of 2012: with a huge thanks to the Universe, we are on a very different course this holiday season. Nick feels well. His health is robust, and he joyfully participated in his very first Halloween. At Thanksgiving, Nick enjoyed my brother Ian, visiting from London, in a deeper and more present way than he ever has in the past. Ian noticed that Nick now has full, consistent energy for the day and is no longer slouching on the couch and staring out the window.

Nick just turned eight years old. His most profound improvements have come within the last year. Apparently, they were wrong about the ‘window of improvement’ before the age of five. Window-schmindow I say! Here is to gains coming at every age, and if this holiday season happens to be crap for anyone out there (believe me I have been there, sniffling right into my lactose-free egg nog), try to remember that next year might be a TON better.