We invited Mom P to sleep over at our place on Christmas Eve so she could be with us for present opening on Christmas morning. She agreed to stay with us if we let her sleep on the couch. Luckily the kids were already planning to have a sleepover in brett's room so we cleaned Alana's room really good and had a nice guest room.
We had the kids sleep with the gabb watch in their room so that they could call us when they woke up. We couldn't let them come up to get us because then they would pass the presents and we all have to go into the family room together. Sean ended up taking Oreo on a little walk and then the kids called. We went down and Santa had left his annual letters to each of the kids. We read letters and then paraded up to the family room. Mimi stood at the top and recorded us coming up. It was a lot of fun to see the kids faces and enjoy them opening their gifts. They were super excited about everything including giving the gifts to us and each other that they had bought. One of my favorite things was watching Lizzie give a little gift she made to Bear and Goo =)
Santa came! He brought a huge cardboard train for the kids to color.
Sean and I agreed to exchange 1 gift each this year. I made him a minky t-shirt quilt out of his high school and early college t-shirts. Sean gave me a beautiful star necklace with an engraving on the back that says, "For you my Starlight".
The pickle was hidden under Oreo's bed in the family room Brett found it. The gift was a cotton candy machine!!
Santa didn't forget Oreo either =)
After opening all our gifts and enjoying pie and breakfast casserole, we drove over to Mom and Dad Z's. Mimi went to visit Brian and Neil's families. We exchanged gifts with my parents and my sister's family. Sam and Jared had decided to leave that afternoon because of a snow storm coming in. It was sad to see them leave, but we had a great time with them while they were here.
I didn't take pictures at their house that day. I was too busy being stuck in the moment and enjoying being spoiled by my mom and dad. I did get one pic of Sam and Lizzie =)
After Sam and Jared left we hung out with Mom and Dad for awhile and then I gave my Dad a haircut. We got back home and cleaned up as much as we could before Sean headed out to the airport to pick up Brandon and Michal's family. They stayed with us Christmas night and we stayed up late visiting and letting the cousins play.
The 26th was a Sunday and we decided to watch church at home because of rising covid cases. Sean still went to play organ but the rest of us stayed here. The connection was terrible though and so we did our own little sacrament meeting. Brandon conducted and played piano. Lizzie gave a prayer, Brett, Brielle, and Alana gave talks. It was super sweet. We made rolls and some orange jello salad and packed up all our stuff to head down to Neil and Rebecca's house. Rebecca was already hosting Brandon and Michal's family, but she invited us to come stay as well so we put Oreo in the pet hotel and stayed at their house for 3 nights. We had a second Christmas Eve dinner on Sunday night and did the nativity with the entire Peterson clan.
We had lots of piano performances including the famous Go Tell it on the Mountain.
We felt so incredibly blessed to have so much family to spend the Christmas season with. We especially missed Sean's dad though.
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