She was expected to be born a week ago, but Kassidy E. Lyons didn’t start making her way out of her mother’s womb until noon on Christmas Eve. She seemed to be stubbornly waiting to make her entrance into the world on Christmas Day.

And that’s exactly what the 7-pound, 14-ounce baby did at 6:18 a.m. Tuesday in Samaritan Medical Center after putting up a vigorous 18-hour fight that wore out her mother, Elizabeth M. Lyons. Her daughter already has started exhibiting the qualities of a perfectionist who makes sure she gets what she wants, said the new 25-year-old mother, whose husband, Joseph A., is stationed at Fort Drum.

“She definitely wanted to make her appearance on Christmas,” she said, smiling. Kassidy — who wailed and cried loudly after being born — was sleeping soundly in her father’s arms during the evening. She wore stylish pink booties resembling retro Converse All Star sneakers. Because her birthday fell on Christmas Day, the couple decided Kassidy deserves the privilege of celebrating her half-birthday, too, on June 25.

“I originally said I didn’t want a Christmas baby because she wouldn’t have a party, but it was destiny,” Mrs. Lyons said. “Everybody keeps telling us we have to throw her a half-birthday party, and we’re for it.”

The couple moved to Watertown this summer from Lawton, Okla., where Mr. Lyons, 27, was stationed at Fort Sill for more than two years before deciding to transfer here, which is much closer to their families. They grew up together in the town of Oppenheim, at the southern tip of the Adirondack Park. They met while attending Oppenheim-Ephratah Central School, where he was best friends with her brother. But they didn’t start dating until January 2011, when Mr. Lyons was home from Oklahoma on leave. He proposed shortly thereafter in March 2011, when she visited him at the post, and they were married the following July.

Mrs. Lyons, who made the move from Oklahoma to the north country while five months pregnant, said she never could have fathomed her future would catapult as it has in the past two years. But as she looks at her Christmas baby resting in her husband’s arms, it seems like she finally has her feet planted on solid ground again. She feels peace.

“Everything was kind of a whirlwind for us, but it’s been exciting,” she said. “It took a while for us to get the ball rolling, but once it did, it rolled fast.”

The couple hasn’t planned an official Christmas-baby celebration yet. But they’ll bring Kassidy, the only baby born on Christmas Day in the north country, along to a large family gathering in their hometown on New Year’s Day, where she’ll be the center of attention. She’s going to be the center of attention, they now realize, for many years to come.

“She’s definitely stubborn,” Mrs. Lyons said with a laugh. “Every time we did an ultrasound, she would cross her arms over her face so we couldn’t see her.”

But maybe that’s just a natural way for Christmas babies to behave.

“I think she’s going to be little Miss Perfectionist,” she said. “She’ll be the center of attention.”

Kassidy was the only baby reported born on Christmas in Jefferson, St. Lawrence or Lewis counties.

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