christmas 2015

with the hustle and bustle of the holidays (not to mention throwing in a birthday and our anniversary in the same week), a post on our Christmas has been put on the back burner and i've been itching to get to it. i love looking back at the pictures and remembering such a treasured time of the year. the girls were both really fun and super into all of it. we spent 99% of our time with family and that is the most important of all!

we started the celebrations on the sunday before Christmas at james' grandma's party. there was a potato bar, soups, and desserts. the kids put on the nativity, where brooklyn dressed in a unicorn dress-up and was the donkey for the second year in a row. she takes her role very seriously. and afterwards, she volunteered to sing frosty the snowman for everyone. not scared one bit and it really was so sweet.

tuesday and wednesday was spent getting the house clean, wrapping one last Christmas gift, and packing for a few days to be spent in coalville. one of my angel young women invited brooklyn over to her home for a gingerbread house party on tuesday. if you know brooklyn, you know she was more than excited and she literally sat by the door until it was time to go. this allowed me to get sooo much done, with brooklyn gone for a few hours, and kendall napping for a couple hours, i got most of my to do list checked off. it was a Christmas miracle and i will never forget how grateful i felt for such a wonderful act of kindness. brooklyn came home elated and was so excited to show me her gingerbread house.

 on wednesday evening, we made it up to coalville, after a scary drive through major wind and snow, for the petersen family Christmas party. it was soups, crackers, meats & cheeses, desserts, and we were all spoiled by my grandparents. they always give us such thoughtful gifts and include their testimony and love for us in a letter. they are treasures to me. late that evening, the kids and dads swam and then it was home for bed. kind of. the adults stayed up way too late. i really am getting too old for it.

Christmas eve was spent in pajamas, eating crackers & cheese ball, football on in the background, sledding in the backyard, and dinner prep. it was a nice relaxing day and honestly my favorite day of the whole year!

the girls loved sledding, especially kendall. at one point, she was going down head first and backwards. she loved it!

dinner got started a tad late because we had to watch the raiders win in over time. such a good Christmas present for my dad. after we ate, we had pie and sang happy birthday to whitney and then opened pajamas.

once those are opened the excitement of santa sets in and since it was later than usual, our family picture ended up like this.

hopefully she's smiling next year.

Christmas morning finally came and brooklyn could hardly believe it was here. counting down the days was torture for her! i was so relieved the girls were excited about what they got. i'm happy to say they did not get spoiled and were thrilled with everything. as a mother, you want to give your children everything they've ever wanted plus some, but most of the time it is not possible. i went to bed just praying they'd be happy with their loot, and went to bed that night so grateful that they were.

after presents, my dad read the Christmas story and my mom had the kids hold up different pieces of the nativity. it was a great way to end opening presents and the kids loved it.

in the afternoon we were on our way back to bountiful to spend the rest of the day with james' parents who flew in from hawaii that morning. the girls were excited to see them and that evening we all gathered here at our house to open presents. 

the girls got princesses galore and couldn't have been happier about it. my mother in law had everything sent to our house and since there wasn't much time to wrap, she sewed these cute little bags in a hawaiian print with their gifts in them. those bags were not only great for that but now i'm using them to keep things organized! also, there are no pictures of this part of the day because my phone had died at that point and was upstairs charging. we do, however, have video of my mother in law opening her gift, but i doubt she'd appreciate that on here :) besides the gifts, brooklyn was just excited to have her nana and papa here, knowing that they'd be spending the night and staying here for awhile. she loves house guests!

it was a wonderful couple of days spent with those we love, eating too much delicious food, and staying up way too late, but man, that's what it's all about right? i feel blessed to be surrounded by so much goodness on such a special holiday. i'm grateful for my Savior, His birth, and His life. without Him i would not have my family forever and what is life without that? i truly feel blessed to be a daughter of God and have the blessings of the gospel in my life.