Thanksgiving

The week of Thanksgiving was special for many reasons. It was our first big holiday with a little one on the way, my whole family was coming to our house to help us celebrate, and we held our gender reveal party!

Mom and Dad arrived on Tuesday, and Em, Drea, and the boys arrived on Wednesday. 

Given Duncan’s experience last time everyone came out for Thanksgiving two years ago, I wanted everything to go perfectly this year. Em and Drea may have had a little PTSD…

Two years ago, two-year-old Duncan didn’t want to sleep. They’d tried letting him sleep on a crib mattress on the floor (similar to how he took naps at his preschool), but that did not work. 

Out of desperation, Drea and I went to the store so she could buy a crib. She had me come with so I pick out a style I liked. They’d give it to us in the hopes we’d soon be pregnant. 

And the crib certainly helped. Duncan finally slept, but then he got sick… the day they were supposed to leave. They ended up staying a few extra days. 

All in all, it was a little traumatic for them. 

Though he’s no longer in a crib, I wanted to make sure 4-year-old Duncan wouldn’t have any trouble sleeping. I got a new bedspread for the twin bed in my office–one that was covered in tractors and construction equipment (Dunc’s faves!). 

For their short stay, Dunc and Connor would share my office (thank goodness we still had that crib!). And it definitely seemed to work. 

Thanksgiving arrived, and it was a busy day. A lot of cooking, but it was fun. And thank goodness I’m in my second trimester. I’ll tell you all about the symptoms I experienced throughout the first trimester in an upcoming blog, but they all eased up before the holiday. 

We had a super delicious Thanksgiving dinner, but I was definitely wiped out after all that cooking. 

The next morning, we went to the Ice! Show at the Gaylord Hotel. It was many ice sculptures all themed from “The Christmas Story” movie. While it’s my least favorite Christmas movie, it was a fun experience! It’s amazing what they can make out of ice!

In addition to the sculptures, there’s also an ice slide you can go down. Overall, it was a very fun morning. 

And then Saturday came. The day we’d all been waiting for. The holiday was great, but Saturday, we’d planned our gender reveal party!

Not too long after we found out we were pregnant, I gave the envelope with the gender information of our embryo to my friend Jami. She was going to be the keeper of the gender until we were ready for our party. When it got closer to party time, she shared it with my neighbor, Lorelei, so she could make us special cupcakes revealing the gender!

We opted to do it the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My family would be here, but it also would be good for anyone who wanted to buy us baby stuff for Christmas. They’d know what gender of items to buy. 

We decided to do a baseball theme for the reveal – would Baby Jackson be a baseball player or a softball player? 

I was on team boy (that’s been my inkling all along), and Nick was on team girl. But the truth is, either of us would’ve been happy if we were wrong. We’re just so happy to be starting our family, we don’t care what the gender is. 

But since we have one boy embryo and one girl embryo, we wanted to be surprised just once. 

So, without further ado, Baby Jackson is a…

Thank you to Jami and Lorelei for the amazing reveal party. And also for keeping the gender secret. It was such a fun day, and Nick and I are so appreciative of you!

Also, I’m going to give myself a small pat on the back for not even attempting to trick Jami into telling me what Baby Jackson was. I didn’t try and sneak a peek at the envelope either. (Jami can confirm both!)

And while I’m giving out pats on the back… I have to give huge props to Harvey. He was a saint with Duncan and Connor. Connor (who’s name means “lover of hounds”) was especially taken with him. Harvey was followed nearly everywhere by Connor who was yelling, “Doggo!” and ready to poke and pet him at every turn. And Harvey took it all in stride. 

He’s going to be an awesome fur brother to Baby BOY Jackson!