Petersons Never Give Up: Christmas 2016

I have been so busy celebrating and playing that its been hard to keep up on my posts. Thats a really good thing though!
Sean was still working on hospital service on the 23rd, so we invited Neil and Rebecca up to our house to play so that Sean could sneak away whenever he was able. I had decided to make 2 kinds of soup for Christmas dinner and then serve them in bread bowls so I started making a cheesy potato bacon one that morning. It smelled so good and everyone arrived around lunch time and we were having sandwiches so it just fit perfectly. We gobbled that up and still had leftovers to heat up on Christmas. The kids had a fantastic time running around and playing. The only hard thing for them was not being able to go in the kids bedroom when Lizzie was napping, but they managed to have tons of fun anyway. Sean got home about 1 and was still on call till 7 but it was so nice he could be home with us! He got out the DDR pad and everyone had fun dancing, especially the kids! Then we decided to go see Moana! I was really worried about taking Lizzie because holding her through sacrament meeting lately is so exhausting-she is just so wiggly! Sean ended up having to take only 2 short calls during the movie and I just stood and held Lizzie till she fell asleep. We all really enjoyed it, even Alana who sobbed on the way out because she was scared of Maui. She has in the weeks since requested the music over and over again =) I think she just gets really overwhelmed by the big screen, loud music, and dark lights. She is also too small to hold her seat down so it scares her =(

Brian and Jill went with Neil and Becks to spend the night at their house. The Neil Peterson family was going to the Christmas in color drive through so it made sense for Brian and Jill to join them to see the pretty lights. It also gave them a chance to hang out. Brett wanted to make them a present while they were gone so he wrote this lovely card and drew this lovely tree. He is so thoughtful!

On Christmas Eve, Sean, me, Brett, Alana, and Lizzie met Grandma and Grandpa Z at the mall. My parents had bought gift cards to Build a Bear for the kids and we all wanted to surprise them that morning. Build a Bear is nigh unto a new bike in our kids heads I think. Alana got to make one when she was potty trained and every other time we have gone to that store it is with the complete understanding that we are just looking. I don't think Brett even knew it was an option to ever get one. So when we walked into the store and my parents told them they could build anything they wanted, Brett got the hugest smile on his face and said his dreams had come true! It was so cute and so magical! Brett ran over and picked a sonic he had been eyeing when we went there with his cousins a few weeks ago. Alana chose Branch, a troll from the Troll movie. Sean and I took Lizzie and walked around because we wanted the kids to spend some special time with Grandma and Grandpa. We went to Charlotte Russ and I found some cute boots for $20 =) We went back and watched some more of the magic. When the stuffies were all built we went to the Corner Bakery for some breakfast since we started this whole excursion at 8:30 and getting all 5 of us out of the house that early is kinda hard.

These photos are from Christmas Eve morning when we were all hanging out in Sean and my bed =)

Alana told my mom during this moment that she never thought she'd be able to build another stuffed animal. She loved to brush Branch's hair!

When we got home from the mall both kids played and played with their new stuffies!

We did some cleaning and packing up and then headed down to Vineyard for our Christmas Eve celebrations. Sean and Neil had fun playing Mario Kart and Kaden and Brett had fun downstairs playing Super Smash Brothers. Alana and Lexi were pretending to sleep and playing all sorts of fun games.

We got all dressed up for the Nativity play before dinner because the kids just couldn't wait to get their costumes on. You can tell which pictures were before dinner and which were after because before dinner Lizzie was the donkey and Alana the angel and after dinner Alana was the donkey and Lizzie the Angel. Neil and Lexi were Mary and Joseph. Kaden was a sheep. Brett was a shepherd. Brian was a shepherd and Jill, Rebecca, and I were the wise men. We sang lots of songs and Brian narrated with lots of scriptures. We also used the fun handbells for some of the songs. It was crazy and chaotic and super spiritual. There was a moment where Brian was reading from Isaiah where the spirit was so strong!

Rebecca made ham, twice baked potatoes, rolls, jello salad, corn, pear salad, and then coconut cream cake and ice cream for dessert. What a feast!

These are photos I took before we left our house of the kids in front of our tree

We got home about 8 and the kids went straight to bed. Brian and Jill made the breakfast casserole for Christmas day while I got all the ingredients in the crockpot for the BBQ chicken chili we had for Christmas dinner.

The kids were very cute with their new friends all tucked in next to them.

We went straight to bed but when I came down in the morning to get the donuts this is what Santa had done to our front room =)

On Christmas morning the kids woke up early and we had donuts in bed then went downstairs to open stockings.

Lizzie loved her donut!

Brett was so surprised to see Santa had left him a train!

Alana got her pez right away which was wonderful since it was the only thing she had asked for.

We had fun opening stockings and looking at a few things Santa had left before we headed off to church.

We woke up to a very white Christmas so Sean got dressed and headed out to shovel walks. Then he went to pick up the missionaries with Brett and Alana. Brain, Jill, Lizzie and I finished getting ready then started to walk but Sean picked us up half way there. We only had sacrament meeting which was really nice. It was a lovely program with lots of congregational singing.
We came home and Lizzie went straight to sleep, she was soooo tired. The rest of us opened presents and had a great time seeing all the fun things we got. Santa brought Brett a remote control car which he was thrilled about! He brought Alana a pretty horse that can have its hair combed. The kids got tons of books and toys and clothes from everyone. I got pajamas and bread pans and baking utensils and a new cookbook and a photography class and lots of other awesome things. Sean got pajamas, shirts, ties, a new belt, new headphones, DDR games, a tie and tons of other cool things too!

Brian and Jill were very spoiled and declared this the year of games since they got soo many. It was so fun to have them with us!

Lizzie finally woke up and had some lunch and opened her giant stack of gifts from Santa, us, and Papa and Mimi. Her favorite gift is these little fabric blocks that Mimi and Papa got her. They have removable cores that shake and rattle!

One of the things Sean picked out was some car painting kits. Brett and Alana had a great time painting them under Grandma Zaelit's supervision.

My parents came out around 11 and watched us open some gifts then they went to get Grandma. She came out and enjoyed painting, more gift opening, the Muppet Christmas Carol, and dinner. I felt so honored that she would come to our house for Christmas dinner!