Petersons Never Give Up: We had a birthday and December fun

A quick update on our sweet Alana since I shared about her struggles in the last entry. We kept taking steps to help her learn to swallow a pill. I put the pill on her plate one night and she froze up. We told her not to stress but rather to just get used to it being there. That night as I lay with her in bed planning to tell her about the fun things we would do in school the next week to prepare for Christmas she told me she decided she did not want to swallow the pill. She wasn't ready and she didn't want to keep trying. But she was tired of feeling so sad and anxious all the time and that she wanted to go back to drinking her medicine in apple juice. I was pleased that she wanted to try that, but Sean reminded me that what we say and think at night is different then when the medicine is in front of us the next day. Both of us were a bit shocked the net morning when she came down and said "I'm ready to take my medicine!" She has taken it each day since then, it has been two full weeks now and she is feeling SOOO much better. Life isn't perfect for her, but she is much more able to cope. I felt prompted to start adding some sugar to the apple juice to help it be a bit more palatable and with that I have increased her dose a bit and she has been able to tolerate it. It has truly been a miracle in our family and in her life!

Sean will often take the day of our birthday off of work. This year the 12th fell on a Saturday, so he took Friday off. We decided to make our gingerbread houses that day for school! The last several years we have had an annual gingerbread house party where we invite all the residents that we knew from St Marks. This year it wasn't' safe to have a big party, so we just did a little gingerbread party with the 5 of us. Sean and I are continually amazed at how creative and talented our kids are. They were experts at moulding the laffy taffy into oreo and reindeer and people. It was so fun and we had some very fun houses to show for our hard work.

On the 12th it snowed and we opened presents. Sean got me an apple watch!! This was a huge surprise! I got him a new light fixture for the front room that has three bulbs instead of two and it makes a huge difference. That is his favorite room to chill in and he of course uses it to play piano a lot so light is very important! Sam sent me bath bombs and ear covers for keeping my ears warm when waling Oreo. She sent Sean a Stitch mouse pad and a Zelda sweatshirt. Mom and Dad P gave us some Oreo mugs with Oreo holders and tongs and some super fun pop up cards. Lizzie especially was giddy about that! Brett, Alana, and Lizzie gave us the most thoughtful gifts ever. Alana made me a little box to hold my glasses on my nightstand, Lizzie gave me a card with a balloon and Brett gave both Sean and I a hot air balloon and an oreo wheel of command. Alana made Sean a snake and Lizzie made Sean a picture of Oreo. It was both of our favorite since they were so thoughtful and made the gifts all on their own with no prompting or help. Mom and Dad Z came and visited for a bit in the afternoon and brought us some new seaters and birthday money! We got take out from The Blue Lemon which was good but kinda cold and just not the same as eating out. But at least we didn't have to cook! We watched the Lindsey Stirling Christmas special together that night which was a ton of fun.

We have continued to have church at home and its been really nice to have the broadcast of Sacrament meeting and Sunday School.

Heres my new ear covers while out on a walk with Oreo.

We did a very fun Science experiment for school where we put candy canes in different liquids and made predictions about what would happen. We put one in hot water, one in cold water, and one in vinegar. The one in hot water dissolved the fastest and the one in vinegar dissolved the slowest.

My new shirt from mom:

Sean spent a lot of time the last few weeks putting together a Christmas memory montage of the petersons. Everyone contributed a favorite Christmas memory and Sean made a great 40 min movie compiling all the memories and music and photos. It turned out so so well. I wanted to share about a barbie house my mom and dad made for me one year for Christmas and grabbed the box of photos from my parents house to look for pictures of it. I couldn't find one, but I did find all kinds of cute pictures. I shared these fun ones of my sister and I on Facebook for her birthday.

Sean was a saint and made Oreo truffles with the kids!

Hayley and Nichole got Sean a new tie for his birthday.

Hayley and Nichole also sent us some new aprons and chefs hats for the kids!

As you can imagine Christmas season is a busy time for my work. Minky blankets made great gifts. We have also gotten lots of new beautiful fabrics that the customers and really excited about. I have been sewing tons of blankets for work as well as tons of blankets for gifts for our family and then on top of all that I decided to make 20 minky scarfs for the staff at Sean's work.

I made a blanket for my dad, Neil, Rebecca, Kaden, Alexis, Brian, Jill, Xander, Lucy, and Hayleys new baby.

Sean and Brett hit the slopes and had a great and exhausting time! Alana is now really excited to go skiing with Sean.

On top of all my blankets for gifts and work, my friend asked me to finish the edge on this darling quilt a customer of hers wanted her to do. She didn't have time and wasn't as familiar with minky edging. It was a challenge because the front was already attached to the back, but I figured it out and it turned out really cute!

We went to the cemetery to see my grandparents and the kids had a fun time tossing goldfish for the deer to eat and we even saw deer sitting really close to the grave. Its always a nice time to remember family and Christ's sacrifice that allows us to be Eternal Families.

We found a new light place this year called Cross E Ranch. They had a really cute guided drive through of Santa's workshop and then we went past the donut shop where they delivered apple cider donuts to our car. Then we drove through some nativity scenes with live animals. It was a lot of fun!

The kids have enjoyed making super puffy piles of blankets and pillows to lounge on.

Sean was able to get his first dose of the Corona virus vaccine on Christmas Eve and we felt so grateful. He had some mild side effects of fatigue, and very slight cold symptoms and a sore arm.

On The Sunday before Christmas the kids all got dressed up nice and Alana even wore a skirt (something that is difficult for her) I used my new watch to get some family pics in front of the tree.

Mom P had been asked by a sister in her ward to play Oh Holy Night for her. But Mom learned it in the wrong key. She asked Sean if he could do it and he already knew the arrangement in the right key so he accompanied the sister. We drove down and spent Christmas sunday with them. Sean went in just for the accompaniment and the rest of us watched the broadcast from home. The kids always like to play on Papa and Mimi's bed and watch Donald Duck cartoons. We wore masks up until our Christmas Eve visits and then we felt like it would be ok to celebrate without masks since we had been so careful for the whole month.