Ah yes Christmas..........The rest of the family is going through the motions this year as Michael is now 12 going on 50 and outside of getting the gelt and not being in school, has little enthusiam for the holidays. Karen and I are both bogged down in the real world but all of us have Tris to bolster our spirits and make the season a wonderful and fun time of year.......providing none of us kill him before it's over.

We are putting the tree up tonight so that I can get some sleep. The other night he had me up every hour:

"Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?"
......hunh....er.....uh what....er.....yeah...
"Daddy? Daddy? Daddy" Daddy"
What?
"Daddy? Daddy?"
WHAT Tris?
"We gert reetomahrow?" (We get tree tomorrow?)
Yeah Tris
"We gert reetomahrow?"
Yeah Tris we will.
"We gert reetomahrow?"
Yes Tris! We are going to get a tree tomorrow Okay?
"Okay Daddy, we gert reetomahrow!"
Right Tris We will go and get the tree tomorrow....Now go to bed.
"Night Daddy. We gert reetomahrow"
Yeah Tristan...You're right! We are going to get tree tomorrow. Now GOOD NIGHT!
"Night Daddy"

An hour later I am awakened again and we have the same conversation. Every hour through the night Tris comes and wakes me up and we repeat the above. It generally doesn't matter much because I can't get back to sleep anyway. Tris on the other hand lays down and drops off immediately. Oh well..............

One of the "Joys of Autism" is what we refer to as "Rain Man Syndrome." Tris has a compulsive need to know exactly what is going to happen and when and the routine must be firmly established in his mind so he quizzes us to be sure we have everything just right. If you're not complete in your answer he repeats things until you are. For Michael it is the worst thing Tris does and he simply can't take it. The other day after playing a similar conversation with Tristan about the tree, Michael lost it and told Tris where he was going to put the tree! Tris ran off crying, "Mikey going to put tree in my butt!" While Karen consoles Tris, I go off and find Michael and we have yet another talk. Truthfully, Michael does very well with Tris and when he has to he becomes Tristan's biggest supporter. He knows that one day Tristan will wind up as his resposibility and that's a lot to have on your shoulders at age 12.

For the most part, Tristan is one of the happiest young men around and that enthusiasm rubs off on those around him. It just doesn't always lead to a good night's sleep. But I have to feel good about him. I know that unlike the rest of us who grow weary with age of the things that used to make us so happy, Tris will always be joyous. Maybe that's the trade-off for the mental retardation and speech problems. I look at myself and wonder just how much unlimited joy is worth. No, you're right, it's not worth the learning and understanding difficulties but it certainly is a blessing........as Tris is to us.

Hope your Christmas is joyous.

Spaw