Looking Forward to Christmas

We're looking forward to Christmas a little early this year -- and probably with a lot more anticipation and anxiety than ever before. It is the day that Baby Evans is due to join our family!

Spencer and I are thrilled, of course. Here are some answers to questions you may or may not have.

Did you plan on a Christmas baby? Um, no... who would do that to a child? At the same time, we are happy for the prospect of a growing family on any day of the year. We are also excited that we'll probably have some extended family in town for the holidays when the baby comes.

Will you name a boy Jesus or a girl Mary? You never know what Spencer might pull out of his sleeve on blessing day. One of my nephews, in a moment of sheer brilliance, suggested Santa.

How are you feeling?
Pretty good, considering I'm growing another human. I'm about as tired as anyone might be while growing a baby (read: very). I think I have fared pretty well compared to all the stories I've heard. I'm starting to get over it, but for the first 12 weeks I hated the thought of planning or preparing meals. I would gag: at the grocery store, while putting away groceries, retrieving anything from the refrigerator, trying to plan my dinners for the week, trying to prepare any meals (especially anything with meat). Thankfully, this seems to be improving.

Do you guys think it's a boy or a girl?
No strong inklings yet. When I imagine the doctor handing me a baby at the hospital, it's a girl. When I imagine a small child (gently) tearing the house apart, it's a boy. I'm not sure what this means. In a poll taken of our nieces and nephews, the nieces think it's a girl and all but one nephew thinks it is a boy. We're definitely planning on finding out the gender (this should happen in early August). I can't wait to start painting, sewing, and shopping for our wee one. We'll be thrilled with a boy or a girl and are only hoping for a healthy baby.

How did you tell your families?

We found out that I was pregnant in mid-April and decided that Mother's Day (May 9th) would be the perfect occasion to share the news with our families. Both sets of our parents, Spencer's sister Carol, and my grandma Betty would be at our house for dinner. I wanted to do something clever to make our announcement, but wasn't really sure what. About a week before Mother's Day, my sister Mollie sent me an email suggesting that we create something similar to this for our mom's gift. Unbeknownst to Mollie, this was the perfect solution to my "telling the family creatively" dilemma! Everyone on both sides of the family took silhouette photos and emailed them to me so I could create the charts; one for each mom. Here's what we came up with:

I printed, framed and wrapped them up for our moms. Carol (Spencer's mom) noticed the newest posterity right away. My mom remarked on how lovely it was and passed it around the table for my dad and grandma to see (to my mom's credit, I think the new baby is not quite as obvious on the Madsen chart). I told my mom she should look a little closer... Soon enough, the whole family was in the know and smiles and misty eyes were everywhere. We emailed the final product to out-of-state siblings and called them to share the news that day.

Have you picked out names you like?

We both have names that we like (I have lots of favorites; Spencer's list is a bit shorter). There are several that we agree on. I have a name philosophy (and rules to boot) that probably merits its own post. We probably won't name our baby before we meet him or her, just settle on a few strong contenders and then make a final decision once the babe is in our arms.

I am a little more than 14 weeks along and things seem to be progressing perfectly. Now we're just counting the days until Christmas...