My 7yo DS has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, it's an incurable muscle-wasting condition. Between the ages of 8-12 he'll lose the ability to walk, and during his teens he will lose the use of his arms due to his muscles wasting and becoming too weak. He'll become dependent on a ventilator and will die from heart or respitory failure, probably during his early 20's. He has 3 younger sisters ranging from 9 months to 3.5 years.
We've decided that as he won't get as many Christmases as most people, plus with everything else he has to go through that he deserves an extra Christmas each year. It may be a bit bonkers but on 15th July we'll be celebrating Christmas, Aussie style (I can't face cooking turkey and all the trimming in our kitchen/sauna in July, so BBQ it is!). We'll be having presents, Christmas carols, our family tradition Xmas eve buffet and even decorating the Xmas tree. I've even asked people to send us Christmas cards.
So I now have 3 weeks to plan and countdown to our bonus Aussie Christmas!