Our CHRISTMAS EVE BABY...

The day before Christmas Eve I worked hard all day long making sure everything was caught up.  Especially the laundry.  And vowed to keep it that way for the entire holiday.  HEY!  13 people use a LOT of towels.  Anyway, I also started a "list".  I know, I know...But I made one anyway.  With all of the things that I needed to do on Christmas Eve in order to make the holiday less chaotic.  On that list I had:
1.  Get cornbread made for dressing in the morning.
2.  Get pizza bread made up for after Christmas Eve Service.
3.  Make 2 breakfast casseroles for Christmas morning.
4.  Make another batch of cinnamon rolls (to give to the friends who didn't get them in the first batch).
5.  Prepare for Family Cookie Cook-Off after Christmas Eve Service
6.  Go to the early Christmas Eve Service (at 4 p.m.) so we would be able to bake cookies

You get the idea, don't you?  Well, Caitlin, Kevin and Holli were a little late coming in that evening due to delays with their flights but they finally made it in around 10 p.m.  We all went to bed pretty tired but excited and ready for the next day.

Christmas Eve was the new Grand's due date but the "real plan" was to put Sarah on a monitor that morning early and schedule an induction for the 26th if she hadn't had the baby by then.  So, as I sat around in my robe, sipping coffee that morning, Justin and Sarah dropped Parker Ann off around 8 a.m. and headed out to the doctor's office.  As I said, I was just having a little bit of a lazy morning when Justin called Robby to say that Sarah was in Labor and Delivery at the hospital.  And she was 4 1/2 cm. dilated.  WHAT?!  OH.  MY.  GOSH.  We were actually going to have a "Christmas Eve Baby"!!  And, although I was really excited, I wasn't in any hurry to get down to the hospital because Sarah's labor with Parker Ann was about 20 hours.  Or close to it.  Well, it seemed that long anyway.  So, I began to move toward my room to get dressed while Robby and the guys headed over to a friend's house for a little traditional guys' Christmas get together.  That's when my phone started to blow up with text messages!

It hadn't been but maybe 15 mins. from when we discovered that Sarah was 4 1/2 cm. dilated when Justin send a message that she was 7.  The doctor didn't want to break her water because she had not gotten her epidural yet.  Believe me...Natural childbirth was NOT part of the delivery plan.  But THAT text got me to moving a little faster!  I sent Robby a message because apparently the guys were having too much of a good time to answer any of my calls.  Then I ran to get some clothes on, myself.  That's when I got the next text:  "Her water just broke".  OH NO!!!  We're not going to make it...And then, "The baby is here!"

                                  And so, Lila Kate, 8 lbs., 8 oz. was born on Christmas Eve.   
                                 (Natural childbirth was not planned, but it happened anyway.)                         

                        Parker Ann Couldn't WAIT to get her hands on her new baby sister!
                                        (That she said she had waited over 100 days for.)

                                                             Sarah with her 2 Girlies.

                                                                  And "Baby Makes 4

                                                          YaYa with "Grand Number 4".

  Poppi saying, "Hello" to his 3rd Grand Daughter.

                                                            Aunt CaCa with Lila Kate.

                Uncle Ryan Poo and Aunt Ally practicing for when Olivia arrives in a couple of months.

And then after all the excitement...We changed our "plans" for the day.  We took Parker with us to Outback for lunch.  Yes, on Christmas Eve.  Definitely a "first" and not in "the plan".  Then we all regrouped and decided to go to the later Christmas Eve Church Service.

                                               The little ones, of course, looked adorable!

And this picture is just priceless.  You have to wonder what Beckett is thinking...Perhaps, "Another GIRL?!"

In all the hustle and bustle, there was no traditional family photo around the church Christmas tree.  Caitlin wanted one of us with Holli so here it is.

And then when we got home afterwards I got to face "the rest of the list".  That hadn't gotten done.  And the fact that my house now looked like a bomb had gone off inside of it (sigh...).  Well, there was only one thing to do.  Prioritize and get to work!

I made the pizza bread because everybody was hungry and had to be fed.  While that was baking (and Ryan was making gingerbread cookies), I started on the breakfast casseroles.  Because we had to eat on Christmas morning and I sure didn't want to be cooking during all of the gift opening.  Next, I tackled the cornbread dressing.  They ate the pizza bread.  I put my casseroles and dressing in the refrigerator, decided to postpone making the cinnamon rolls and then... remembered the stockings...(yawn...).

I stuffed all of the stockings and finally made it to bed around midnight.  It had been a busy day.  A full day.  And the next day would hold more of the same.  I closed my eyes and thought about Lila Kate.  Our little Christmas Eve Baby.  Our little miracle.  And how very blessed we are to have her join our BIG, FAT SOUTHERN FAMILY.  Oh, how full my heart was right then and there. 

                                                 For Christmas is about a baby, after all...

                                                    A baby who came to save the world.