Our Thanksgiving Weekend

The weekend before Thanksgiving Magnolia came down with a stomach virus. She made it almost ten months without an illness & to see her sick for the first time broke my heart. It all started Friday night after we went to bed, she woke up crying and I knew she had a stomach ache. We sat up in bed for a little bit & then all of sudden she vomited everywhere! My first thought was that the toast she had with dinner was too grainy for her little belly to digest. We soon realized it was more than just a simple belly ache, as she continued to get sick every time she nursed. Saturday morning we took her to the doctor and got specific instructions to make sure she stayed hydrated and we spent the weekend at home cuddling our sweet girl & giving her Pedialyte each time she got sick.


I was quite paranoid I'd get it too. I figured if I had the immunity to this stomach virus she wouldn't have got sick in the first place, as she is still exclusively breastfed. I tried to be as careful as I could be, but the only place she had to get sick was on us! Sunday night came and I was still feeling good. Ryan had to go out of town first thing Monday morning. Magnolia was doing better, but still getting sick off & on.


Monday night I laid in bed and thought to myself, 'my stomach doesn't feel so good!' By one am I was on the bathroom floor puking, as Magnolia sat on a towel by my feet watching. With shaky hands I called Ryan and woke him up with a "YOU'VE GOT TO COME HOME EARLY!" plea. My sweet Ry is a very nurturing soul & I knew he'd be home as soon as he could be to take care of both of us! I could have called my mother-in-law or sister, and they would've been over right away, but they were both hosting Thanksgiving. There was no way I'd risk them getting sick and ruining Thanksgiving for the whole family.


Waiting for him to make the six hour drive home was seriously one of the hardest days ever. I know that sounds quite dramatic, but all I wanted was for someone to take care of me & I had my sweet girl needing me to take care of her. I couldn't stop getting sick! My body ached, my head was pounding, & despite my terrible thirst I couldn't keep water down. I wanted to curl up in bed & close my eyes and I couldn't. It was awful.


By two the next day Ryan came walking in the door with Gatorade, coconut water, Sprite, Squirt, oranges, popsicles, ginger tea, and all the groceries a sick momma could possibly need. I went to bed for a few hours & woke up to sips of Gatorade and could finally believe I'd start to feel better again soon.


We thought that our first Thanksgiving as a family of three would be spent at home on the sofa watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Thankfully I woke up on Wednesday feeling so much better & I felt confident that by Thursday I'd be back to normal.


Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude & I know all of us were counting our blessings. This year I was thanking God even more fiercely for our health and my loving husband. Being ill like that for just a short time span made our health an even more evident blessing. I know to never take it for granted. There is a feeling of peace like no other to know that if I call my husband in the middle of the night in tears, asking for him to be by my side as I'm sick, that he'll be there as fast as he can be.


Thankfully the stomach virus didn't stop us from going to our family's Thanksgiving Day lunch & dinner. We got to spend time gathered around the dining table with our loved ones eating the traditional feasts. We feel so very grateful to have added our sweet Magnolia to the celebrations this year. She is the light of our lives!

On Black Friday, Ryan worked in the yard as it was an unusually nice day, while Magnolia and I did a little bit of shopping. We had to find new decorations for her first Christmas tree. On Saturday we started a new tradition - hunting for the perfect tree at a Christmas Tree Farm! 



As soon as we walked into the farm, the very first tree I laid my eyes on was exactly what I had in mind for ours. It was a Blue Spruce, pre-cut from Michigan. We decided to walk around the farm, just to make sure there was nothing else that caught our eyes, as I hoped that the first one we saw was still there waiting for us.


We had never been to a Christmas Tree Farm before, and the smell, oh-my-goodness it was just as you'd imagine. The wind smelled of Christmas pine & it makes my heart happy to know that Magnolia's first Christmas season started with the scent of fresh cut trees!



Once we found our way back to the pre-cut trees we were happy to find our tree was there waiting for us to take it home. We put our name on it, went inside the barn to sip on hot chocolate and let Magnolia get her first glimpse of Santa Clause. We decided to hold off on the actual - sitting on Santa's lap - for a later time.


We loaded up our tree and merrily drove it home as Magnolia snoozed in the back of the truck.



When we got home Ryan hosed it down outside as the owner suggested to prevent allergies. We turned on classic Christmas music, brought our tree in, & layered it with twinkling white lights and pastel ornaments.





She's mesmerized by all the sparkle & shimmer and it'll be a full-time job keeping all of it out of her curious mouth!



Watching her dream under the Christmas tree is truly what my dreams are made of. Being her mommy & Ryan's wife is the greatest blessing.