DeAnne Peterson: Christmas 2013

We spent this Christmas with my Dad and Brandi. We had a great visit that was extremely relaxing. It was nice to be at my Dad's for a change, since we almost never spend Christmas with them. On the 23rd, we had family home evening which consisted of reading from Luke 2. We also read from a new book that my sister in law Gretchen sent us, called "I Believe In Santa Claus". It talks about similarities between Santa Claus and the Savior, such as they both wear red, have white hair, love children, give gifts. It includes scripture references from the Bible as well. Then it also talks about the symbols of Christmas, like the wreath, the star, the tree, candy cane, etc. After our discussion we let the girls open the presents that Grandma and Grandpa Peterson had sent, as well as the gifts from Erik and Gretchen's family (my brother and sister in law who had us this year).

On the 24th we loaded up all of our gifts for the girls and about half the house and left for Mt. Vernon. The trip went really well. We had great weather, the pass was clear and mostly dry and we only made two stops, which is pretty good considering we have a baby this year. She was a champ! We made it there by 4:30pm and at 5pm we went with Brandi to Bethany Covenant Church for a family candle light service. I really enjoyed it. There was mostly singing, a lot of which the congregation sang along with. There was a really cute video about the birth of the Savior and some of the Pastors took turns saying a few words or offering prayers.

At one point they invited all the kids to come up front to ring some bells. Katelyn didn't want to go up, but Alaina jumped at the chance. They then had the kids parade through the aisles while we all sang Go Tell It On the Mountain. Alaina had a smile from ear to ear as she marched through. It was awesome!

A very wiggly Elisabeth sitting on Granpa's lap

Later the girls got to open up their Christmas jammies before going to sleep to wait for Santa to come

The big deal for Christmas this year was that the girls really, really wanted an American Girl Doll. A few of Santa's Elve's helped us make their Christmas dreams come true! I made the bedding and Justin made the beds. I just love how they turned out. It took the girls a while to get to sleep before Santa could set things up. We couldn't wait to see their reactions in the morning. Here are a few pictures.

Katelyn's doll, Rebecca

Alaina's doll, Caroline

Here they come!

I love their faces! And although they were really excited about the dolls, they were very quickly side tracked by their stockings and got busy tearing through them before playing with the dolls.

Happy, chocolate stained face of Katelyn

When I found out a friend from church was heading to Germany, I asked him to bring me some Kinder Eggs if he happened across any. This is a fun memory from my childhood when we lived in Germany for a time. There was a German candy store not far from where we lived and I used to love getting these chocolate eggs that have a tiny toy inside of them. This went in all of our stockings.

Alaina enjoying her chocolates

Elisabeth helping Granny B open a gift

After the girls went through their stockings, we had a light breakfast. Then we opened the rest of our gifts and were joined by my Uncle Pat, my Dad's twin brother who lives there now. After opening the rest of our gifts, we had waffles and bacon!

The rest of the trip was pretty relaxing and involved Starbucks, going on some walks with Brandi and Eli (the dog), eating lots of good food, watching movies and taking Katelyn shopping for some new clothes. I think she's had a growth spurt! By the end of the week the girls were starting to get a little stir crazy, so I took them to the mall the play on the toy and then we stopped by PetCo and looked at all the animals they had.