We celebrated Christmas with a month of events and fun. Lydia shone in her school advent night performance and church Christmas Pageant. She loved getting dressed up in her new Christmas dress and sparkly black ballet style flats. She made us chuckle as she sat in the front row of her school performance and diligently listened to the story of Jesus' birth and sang with the arm and hand motions shared by her teachers. The evening also included a beautiful walk outside on the nature trail lined with luminaries and accompanied by Christmas carolers.
The Church Christmas Pageant told the story of Baby Jesus' birth through song and narration. Lydia played the part of a lamb in the manger and sang beautifully with the other children. We were proud of her performance!
Other Christmas events included a ride on the Polar Express at Wildlife Prairie Park, a walk through the candlelit Luthy Botanical Garden's poinsettia show, a Christmas night at Jump Start, the Santa Parade in downtown Peoria, the Yule-Like-Peoria-Walk downtown, the Junction City Holiday Walk, a Communication Junction Holiday Signing event, and more! That's a lot of festive cheer for one month!
In the midst of all the celebration, Mya, our North Pole elf kept us entertained at home. She watched Lydia and reported to santa on a nightly basis regarding her behavior. Mya as spotted ziplining down the stairs, diving into the cheerios and taking a bath in the bathroom sink filled with ornaments! Mya keeps the magic of Christmas alive in the eyes of one special four year old!
As December cascaded into the Christmas season, the pregnancy symptoms I felt initially began to subside. The first trimester included bouts of evening "morning" sickness that resulted in me feeling nauseous and needing to go to bed not soon after we tucked Lydia in for the night. The doctor assured me that "morning" sickness can be felt at any and all points of the day and that it would likely subside as I progressed through the first trimester.
We celebrated Christmas Eve with a performance at Northwood Church entitled "HARK" followed by traditional Candlelight services at our church, First Federated. The candlelight service is awe-inspiring and centers us in the true meaning of Christmas. I can't help but get tears in my eyes as we sang "Oh Holy Night" and "Silent Night" as we illuminated candles through out the sanctuary. It was breathtaking.
We drove through a nearby subdivision's luminary display before driving back to our home. Mya left Christmas Eve pajamas for each member of our family, including Lydia's American Girl Bitty Baby. We changed into our PJs, enjoyed a ham dinner, and went to bed. Lydia awoke at 2:30am insisting to open gifts from Santa, but reluctantly went to bed until 7am. She raced downstairs to see the tree and the gifts beneath them. The theme for this year's Christmas was princess! Lydia enjoyed gifts featuring Doc McStuffins, Princess Ariel, and Sofia and First! After opening gifts, we packed the car and headed to Iowa. We returned home the following evening to then celebrate Christmas with the Pierce Family.
With Christmas celebrations still fresh, we packed for Florida to prepare for our journey to the Outback Bowl. Lydia was a trooper! With over a 16 hour drive, she did so well in the car! We drove through the night and arrived in sunny Tampa where we were greeted by warmer temperatures and an opportunity to enjoy a warm beach day before cheering on the Hawks at the Outback Bowl. We didn't walk away with a victory, but have many memories to treasure of the beach party, Hawkeye Huddle, and YBor City New Year's Eve Parade!
The highlight of the trip was our adventure at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. To experience Disney though the eyes of a child is incredible. She was in awe of the wonder and enchantment of each Disney Princess or character. She waited in lines patiently to ride the unique rides and stayed up past midnight to enjoy every last minute. With a short nap during the light parade, Lydia topped off the night with a personal encounter with Mickey Mouse. If you ask her, her highlights include riding the Barnstormer roller coaster and having a character encounter experience with Ariel. If you ask us, simply seeing the joy in her face was our highlight! We can't wait to take her and Baby E #2 back!
Upon arriving back at home, we were greeted by Arctic temperatures and snow that resulted in two additional days of vacation in the form of severe weather days. It was a blessing in disguise to catch up on sleep, laundry, and our daily routine.
Today, I had my 17 week prenatal appointment. All things look and sound good. The heartbeat was a 147 and my blood pressure was within normal. The doctors are watching that closely as it became elevated later in my pregnancy with Lydia and needed to be monitored. The Chinese Gender Prediction Chart indicates that the baby should be a boy. It was accurate with Lydia's gender, but it does have a 50/50 chance of being correct. It's just a fun wives tale that I felt the need to check out. We are still planning on having the gender of this baby be a surprise for us and looking forward to that. The baby is currently the size of an onion. In 3 weeks, I have a sonogram and will get to see our bundle of joy at that time too. I've already started feeling fluttering and movement of the baby and it's a not-so-subtle reminder of the miracle that is growing inside me. We are beyond blessed and thankful to expand our family!
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