Our Christmas!

Christmas 2011

Christmas morning.

Adam and I were in bed by 1:00 am and the girls woke us up at 7:30am...not too bad!

The girls going through their stockings.

Gentry trying out her new bike.

Calli got her own cell phone plus we got a new extra family phone for Sadie and Gentry to use. Sadie and Calli got busy switching all their contacts over. Calli also got an ipod, ipod dock, a camcorder, clothes, shoes, JB Stuff, soccer ball, scentsy candle, Megamind, jewelry, jewelry box and a blanket that I made each of them. 

Sadie trying out her new Rip Stick in her new outfit. Sadie got an ipod, Idock, clothes, shoes, JB stuff, scentsy candle, Jewelry box, lanterns for her room, and a blanket.

Gentry playing with Go Go.

Gentry got a bike, a doll, doll clothes, game, look-n-find book, clothes, tea cup piggie, zuzu pet and a blanket.

Some of the things Adam and I received were: Adam-helicopter, clothes, leatherman, blood pressure monitor, hair clippers, toaster/egg maker, car tool, game and blu rays. Robyn-Camcorder, camera, blender, ipod skin, clothes, chopper, and sheets.

After opening our presents we played around until it was time for church.

We had 1:00 church for just 1 hour.

The girls in their new church dresses.

After church we had to get ready for family to come to our house for Christmas dinner.  I began cleaning up and putting stuff away, Adam started on the prime rib, turkey and potatoes and the girls played with their stuff and found new homes for it all in their rooms.

We had 55 friends and family over for dinner. It was a little chaotic at times but great to be with everyone.

Terry had received this shirt at the Losee Party as a white elephant and showed up in it to Christmas dinner. We all got a good laugh. (We all had shirts like these for a family reunion about 25 years ago.)

Hallee and Gentry got matching dolls and outfits. They loved that they got the same things and played and played with them the rest of the day.

Gentry and "Annie"

Everyone really enjoyed playing the new "Just Dance 3" for the Wii. It's a blast. Even grandpa got in on the action.

Several families stayed behind for a late night game night. We had a great time.

What a fabulous Christmas.

It was after midnight by the time we got to bed. Gentry all ready for bed with her doll and matching nightgown.

Christmas Eve!

Adam and I started a few of our own family traditions a couple years ago and have enjoyed keeping up the tradition.  We go out to dinner, this year we took the girls to China Palace. It's one of his mom's favorites and the girls had never been there before. After dinner we meet up with family and go to the Calvary Christmas Program at the Dixie Center. This is actually really neat. The music is awesome, they have a band with electric guitars playing the carols. It really gets you into the Christmas spirit. We usually head out before the sermon starts though. we then head home and get in our Christmas pajamas and open our gifts from each other.  At the beginning of December we drew names and then the girls did certain chores to earn money for that person. Then we all went to Wal-mart and went shopping. Adam had Sadie and got her sunglasses and finger nail art stuff.  Sadie had Gentry and got her a teacup puppy and a bag of cheetos. Gentry had Calli and got her an earring holder and earrings. Calli had me and got me some fuzzy slippers, candle wax blocks and body spray. I had Adam and got him a puzzle and chess. After we opened our presents we open a new family game and play it until bedtime. Then we track Santa and leave out our cookies, eggnog and carrots. 

This year we got the game "headbands" What a fun game.

Never a dull moment in the Peterson home.

Losee Party!

On Friday we had our annual Losee Christmas Party.

We went over early to give my grandma her gift since she wouldn't be coming out for presents.  Our famil gave her the book "The Night Before Christmas" that we recorded our voices for and read it to her.  She really liked it. Now she can hear our voices and listen to the story whenever she wants. 

We went to my parents house for the Christmas Feast and the nativity starring the grand kids.

Kevin was the narrator this year.

Calli was Samuel the Lamanite. She loved ad libbing her part.

Sadie was an innkeeper. She added a few of her own lines too, plus an English accent.

Gentry was a Wise man and took her part very seriously as she delivered her gold.

Some of the cast.

As an encore Sadie, Ashlyn and Calli came out as drummer boys and sang the rap from Justin Biebers new song.

After dinner and the nativity we came to our house for games and present.

We played pictionary/charades of Christmas Carols.

Then we opened family gifts. Brandon got a snuggie and was demonstrating how he could now answer his phone and use a remote without getting his arms cold.

The grandkids all got their pajamas from grandma and grandpa. The majority of the girls received Justin Beiber while the boys got BYU...

along with matching pillowcases. You could hear the squeals for miles.

Then as the adults opened gifts and visited the kids entertained themselves.

Sadie and Kassi

Gentry and Calli.

Temple, Lights, Cousin swap!

On Thursday my brother and his family came into town for the Losee family annual Christmas party, so we took them and my parents around in a big caravan to some of our favorite Christmas spots. 

On our way to meet up with them I looked in the back seat and saw this...Calli's playing on the Ipad, Sadie is playing on Adam's phone and Gentry is playing on mine...haha no wonder it was so quiet.

Our first stop was Maverick to get hot chocolates and then to the temple.

We looked at the lights and listened to the nativity. Then drove around and looked at Christmas lights. Here's a few of our favorites.

We love the musical houses.

This one is one we  go to every year, it is covered in lights.

This was a new one this year but by far our favorite. Its a Phinas and Ferb house, complete with music, video, laser show, fog, bubbles and ...

Santa.  The girls and cousins donating money and receiving a candy cane from Santa.

Another musical house.

This is my grandpas tractor sitting in front of my aunt and uncles house all decorated...soo cute!

Then we did a cousin swap and ended up with 8 girls at our house.

Jorrin, Jaicelyn, Ashlyn, Maddie, Kassi, Sara, Calli and Sadie. Gentry went to my moms house and had a sleepover with Emily and Jantzyn. I'm actually not a big fan of sleepovers but just a few times a year with cousins is okay. It was a fun night!



Peterson Christmas Parties!

On Sunday, December 18th Dad and Marilee had a Family Christmas devotional. 

The two families came together for a big family night of feeling the spirit and fun. 

All the grand kids helped with the devotional and then we had dessert. 

Then dad read us his Christmas story hat he wrote in college and that the yearbook published "The Necklace" When Adam was growing up it was a Christmas tradition for them to sit down each Christmas Eve and listen to this story. It was so good for the grand kids to hear it. 

On Thursday, December 22nd, the first day the girls were out of school grandma Marilee had a Christmas party with all the granddaughters.  They did a gift exchange, Christmas Bingo and made pizzas. They all had a great time.

Out of the 11 granddaughters there 9 of them were originally Lyman's and only 2 were Marilee's. She is so great at continuing to blend the two families and loving our kids like her own.

Christmas Traditions!

Just a Peek of some of our Christmas Traditions that I managed to take pictures of:

Parties and Santa Claus.

These were taken at our ward Christmas Party.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

The girls making their "graham cracker houses" 

Adam really got into this year and him and Gentry created this masterpiece.

Then Adam helped me build 14 more for my preschool class the next day.

KONY KIDS:

We usually like to do this as a family but this year I took the YW to do the shopping and they had enough Santas for the delivering. But Sadie did get to go out with Uncle Ben and Kassi as they delivered.

CHRISTMAS STORIES

Gentry reading us my all time favorite Christmas book "I Believe in Santa"

VISIT FROM JINGLE

Our family Christmas elf likes to pop in throughout the month of December and leave us surprises and to also remind us that he's watching.  This year he left a box of "Jingles" cookies.

DIY CHRISTMAS CARDS

And here's a peek at what it takes to finally get a decent shot of all of us together.

The end result

Peterson Family Christmas card for 2011

Peterson Family December 2011