Christmas in Illinois!

After a month, I figured it is time to get this up! Christmas with my family was so special this year for many reasons. One, obviously we have Miss Mia this year and all of my family had not had the chance to meet her yet..so it meant a lot to Jim and I to finally introduce her to them. Secondly, since my parents moved to Florida permanently three years ago we have not all been together on Christmas as a family. We typically all try and get together for New Years down in Florida and some of us will be there for Christmas but we really wanted the chance to have everyone back together and we decided the best place for this would be back in Bloomington. Or I guess I should say I thought the best place would be Bloomington. Little did I know, what the weather was going to be like. Some years we have snow some we don't..but this year it was pretty bad and COLD! Thirty minutes into our road trip Jim and I ran into freezing rain and ended up making the 8 hour drive in 12 hours. Jim drove 40 miles per hour the entire way! We saw so many car accidents and cars sliding into ditches that it really was scary. All we could do was pray and take our time. Mia did wonderful in the car despite the bad weather...I think the 12 hours would have felt like year had she been upset. So thank you sweet Mia.
Since we don't have our home in Bloomington anymore, we decided to stay at a Bed & Breakfast there which was perfect! It really felt comfy and like a home rather than a hotel stay! It was all decorated for Christmas and we were able to sit around the fire just like it was our home on Brookridge Court!
It was great catching up with my Aunts, Cousins, Brothers, Sister-in-laws, Nephews, Nieces, and how could I forget my parents.
Unfortunately, our Christmas made a turn for the worse on Christmas Eve when Mia started to get a fever and runny nose. Mia has never been sick but she spent her first Christmas very sick. I think our love for our daughter grew so much after seeing her go through all of that...it really breaks your heart. We would have done anything to take it away from her. A lot of Tylenol, vapor rub, a vaporizer and 4 days of rest and she was better. Even though she felt terrible, we could tell how excited she was to see everyone and play with her little cousins.
On Christmas Eve we all went out for a nice meal and then headed to church..we enjoyed a great time of worship at the church I grew up in. After church we headed back to the B&B for the Christmas story and present time. Since Mia was feeling so bad we saved her gifts for Christmas morning. She was definitely in to the box and paper more than what was inside.
As always, the trip went by really fast and we were limited on what we could do since she was sick. We were hoping to get some pictures of her in the snow, but we will just have to go back again soon.
Here are tons of pictures from Mia's First Christmas! ENJOY!