Holidays- Learn As You Go.

The day had its ups and downs. We went to a Christmas party and made it through lunch, then had a few glitches when it was time for the kids to exchange their gifts, but was still "ok." During all the down-time it got difficult, though. A lot of wandering and exploring since it was a house that we generally only see once a year. The house is constantly being renovated, and there are always new walls or floors or other major changes every year, and this confuses BW. He gets agitated and literally wants to touch every surface of the house, and every item in it. There are a lot of people at this party every year (45-50), and with larger groups, there's more people who don't understand, and more anxiety on BW's part. We're getting better at recognizing the signs though, and this time we got our coats on and said our goodbyes, and got all the way to the stairs before the howling ensued and RC had to utilize the fireman's carry. I had our medical equivalent of a fire extinguisher in my purse, but didn't use it. Like I said, we're getting better every time. I won't allow myself to get too confident with that though, because when I do, I get BLINDSIDED by a totally new kind of chaos...