Another Christmas in Oregon

This year for Christmas we decided to stay in Oregon. With our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving we felt it would be good to stay at home and enjoy a Christmas with our little family. Something to know about me is I love the holidays and I love to make them fun. I especially like to plan fun activities when I know we won't be with family. That way I don't have time to miss anyone and I get to just enjoy time with Ben and the kids.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went up to Mt. Hood to go sledding. It had been raining for weeks straight at our house and I just wanted to see some snow! So to Mt. Hood we went with some sleds we borrowed from our friends.

We weren't disappointed. There was A LOT of snow!

Ben and Nayeli headed down the hill!

Ben decided the snow was just perfect to dig a snow cave, so we all dug in

We had so much fun! The weather was great and everything was BEAUTIFUL!

Our final snowcave- about the time the kids were tired and wet and we called it a day.

We had to have snow chains on our car since all the roads on the mountain looked like this

All the trees were beautifully frosted with snow

Once we arrived home, we got to cooking dinner. After enjoying a yummy ham dinner, we frosted gingerbread men to leave out for Santa and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, even though Nayeli told me she was too afraid of the Grinch to watch it (she's a very sensitive child when it comes to entertainment). 

This is how Ben rigged up our snow clothes so they would dry- genius.

Once we finished the Grinch, we acted out the Nativity story. Nayeli was Mary, Teddy was Joseph, Ben was the donkey and I was the angel.

After that the kids soon fell asleep and Ben and I readied the house for Santa to come. The elves had worked very hard to make fun stick horses for the kids and were so excited for the kids to see them!

Santa came! And we were even all in bed by 11pm.

The next morning at about 7am Nayeli came to my bedside and said, "Mama, can I lay by you?" I let her crawl into bed with me, wondering if she had forgotten that it was Christmas. Then she excitedly asked, "Do you think Santa came yet?" to which I replied, "Well, we'd better go see". 

Stick horses! They were so excited!

A pink flashlight!

Elsa and Anna bandaids! Whenever anyone asks what she got for Christmas, that is the first gift she mentions. 

Teddy got a dinosaur from Grandpa Dave!

Elsa and Anna figurines from Grandpa Dave!

Teddy got an airplane and wasted no time in making it fly.

Our friend Veniece gave Nayeli unicorn slippers

Of course Santa had to bring Legos

The Christmas morning mess is the best mess of all

Stick horse rodeo!

Showing off her gifts. Can you tell her favorite color is pink?

After we opened gifts we ate breakfast casserole and berry drink. That was Ben's family's traditional Christmas breakfast growing up and we have adopted it as our own. As for the rest of the day, we stayed in our pajamas and didn't leave the house once. It was wonderful.

Ben spent the entire day flying this mini-drone that I surprised him with for Christmas. He has always wanted one, so when I saw one at Costco in September for a great price, I jumped on it. He loved it.

In return, Ben surprised Nayeli and me with tickets to the Nutcracker ballet. She has been into ballet for months and so she was thrilled. It was performed by the Oregon Ballet Theater on the 26th downtown so we made a date night of it. It was so great!

My favorite moment was twenty minutes into the performance when Nayeli turned to me and excitedly asked, "Mom, are they doing ballet?" She was so well behaved and I loved it. It was magical.

In our seats

In summary, it was such a great Christmas. We had so much fun as our little family making traditions together. I'm especially grateful for the time I had to reflect on the gift that the Savior was to the world. Every Christmas I feel closer to him. It's because of Him that I have all that I have and love. I couldn't ask for more.

Feeling the Christmas Spirit

We've been feeling the Christmas Spirit around our house. Here's a little bit of what we've been up to:

We started the month out right by getting our Christmas tree. Usually we cut our own, but Ben spotted a tree farm not far from our house with a camel. That pretty much sealed the deal so we went to Frog Pond Farm for our tree this year.

Visiting the animals

Meet Betty the camel. She is a BIG animal- the owner said she weighs 1,500 pounds and eats A LOT of food. I can only imagine. My kids were a bit afraid of her, but I think they liked it.

 Frog Pond Farm

 This place is just magical.

Free hot chocolate!

 You may remember from last year, but typically we get trees that don't fit in the car. This year Ben was ready and so proud of his ingenuity.

The tree in all it's decorated glory, before the kids tore it apart. It's like a big toy to them, which is okay, but I'm a little worried that we won't have any intact ornaments left for next year. Teddy's wrath knows no bounds, you know?

As a side note, see that tired man lying on the couch with a bowl close by? Right after we got home from the tree farm and set up the tree Ben started to throw up. He was SO sick- by far the sickest I've seen him in our marriage. He threw up all night and the next day too. I think it was just a bout of food poisoning because he was fine 24 hours later, but those 24 hours were bad ones. Poor Ben.

Another Christmas tradition we have is to make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and decorate them. This year we put Teddy to bed before we did said project because, poor boy, he doesn't know his own strength. I felt bad he missed out on the fun but also... he'll get plenty of years of decorating in once he knows not to smash all the things.

 Our finished products

Nayeli also dictated her first letter to Santa this year. Then, to my surprise, she wrote her name at the bottom for the very first time. She wrote the letters in the right order- she just didn't put them in the right order. Details, details. It was such a proud and exciting parent moment for me I didn't care.

Mailing our letters!

 Decorating felt ornaments with glitter. Lots and lots of glitter.

One weekend Ben went camping with scouts and I stayed up until 3am sewing Christmas projects. Two of the projects I did were these Christmas pillowcases. Growing up my mom had special Christmas pillowcases that I always loved so I wanted to make some for my own kids. They each picked their own fabric- doggies for Nayeli and monkeys for Teddy. I used this tutorial to make them with the burrito method- a quick and easy method to make a pillowcase. I would highly recommend it.

It's been a great month and I think it's safe to say that we're ready for Christmas to come. Let's be honest- we've been waiting all year long for the magic this season brings.

Christmas in Utah Part 2

CHRISTMAS EVE

Ben's family had planned to all go skiing on Christmas Eve, so I made plans to go down to Provo and eat lunch with my mom. When I arrived, however, my poor mom was so sick and had no energy to get out of bed. I was a little bummed that my plans with my mom had fallen through, but luckily I was able to con my dad into taking me to lunch (he went willingly :) ). We headed to Kneader's because there is no Kneader's in Oregon and, oh, is it delicious.

My dad is a really great man. He is so patient, wise, loving, funny, and kind. It was really fun to take a minute with just him a me- an opportunity that doesn't present itself very often. We had a great time chatting. It was also wonderful that the kids got to spend time with him. This trip was the first time he had met Teddy. As you can see from the following picture, Teddy was quite taken with him.

I then drove back to Salt Lake to meet Ben at Jane's house for some festivities. It had kind of been a bust day for me with many plans falling through, so by the time Ben arrived we had to have a good discussion about how Christmas Eve should be a day for our family to be together. All I know is that I sent Ben an irritated text earlier in the day and he wrote back, "I'm sorry you're having a bad day. I should have stayed home with you. How can I fix this?" He's a winner, I tell you.

We had a delicious dinner and then celebrated the evening with Gary's family and kids. Of course we had to have a nativity.

Ben and Teddy. Ben was the innkeeper and Teddy was the baby Jesus.

Nayeli was a shepherd

Later that night we did a little photo shoot with the kids in their Christmas pajamas.

She smothers him with love. Usually he tolerates it, but sometimes...

We have a pair of pajamas that Ben wore when he was a baby. They say "Merry Christmas" on them and we have tried to get a picture of all the kids wearing them at Christmas time.

December 2012- Nayeli in Ben's Christmas pajamas

This year it was Teddy's turn

One day he'll be big enough to pummel her, but until then she's definitely got the upper hand

Before bedtime we had to follow the Petersen tradition of reading the Polar Express. We then left out cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer and the kids went to bed.

It was then time for Santa to work to work his magic. We set the stockings up on a ski pole between the piano and the couch so we could have our own area to open gifts.

We had brought a few gifts with us from Oregon, but the big family gift for this year was a inflatable kayak that we purchased in Utah. Ben grew up riding down the Weber River on rafts like this, so he has been wanting to get one for years. We're planning on taking it on the rivers near our house- we live by quite a few. It's going to be really fun and we can't wait.

Santa came!

CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas morning we awoke to snow! Santa had left a blanket of beautiful snow on the front lawn for us to play in. We couldn't wait. But first we had to open presents...

He was so quiet and then I saw he found the sugar...

Teddy trying out the raft

They were pretty excited about the "boat" (as Nayeli calls it).

We had delicious Christmas breakfast and then, of course, we headed out into the snow! Nayeli LOVES to eat snow and can not be deterred. Isn't that some sort of essential childhood experience anyway?

Teddy with Grandma Jane

We had planned to drive to Provo that day but due to the snow and my mom's illness we decided to stay at Jane's. It was wonderful to relax, eat good food, and enjoy our gifts. It turned out to be a very relaxing Christmas Day. It was the first day of our trip that we didn't drive anywhere.

The 26th the weather had improved and so we drove down to Laura and Gordon's house. Ben had not seen the addition on their house yet and Tina ended up driving down too. We all sat in Laura's beautiful living room and looked out on their snowy yard while we chatted. It was so fun to be together.

Matthew pulling Nayeli, Bridie and Eleanor on a sled. They had so much fun playing together in the snow.

We stayed the afternoon, then said goodbye so we could meet up with Ben's dad for dinner. We met at a Cafe Rio in Salt Lake because a trip to Utah MUST include a trip to Cafe Rio. Of course. Anyway, we had a great time chatting with Grandpa Dave and were so glad we got to see him one more time on our trip.

I know this isn't the greatest picture of Ben's dad, but I had to include it because it shows how Teddy grabs at people's faces and shows no mercy. In this case he was pretty taken with Dave's mustache.

The 27th was Saturday and the day we were to head home. We had driven up and down the Wasatch Front more times than we could count, but my mom was finally well so we drove back down to Provo to spend the morning with her. Sam and Laura came up and we all visited while my mom laid on the couch. I realized this trip that my family loves to visit and Ben's family loves to play. It's a good mix to hang out with both families on our trips.

The other thing I realized about my family is that we love houses and we love to see each other's houses. Why? I love to see the way my sister's and sister-in-laws decorate, plus we're all just a little house obsessed. Ben jokingly says it is strange, but as different as we all are, it's something that we all have in common.

That's why Saturday called for a quick visit to Christina and Julia's homes. I wanted to see the color Tina had painted her living room, and it was fun to see some other updates she had done after one of their bathrooms flooded. Then on our way out of town we stopped in Perry, Utah to see Julia's new house. She and Terry have designed much of it and are doing a lot of the finish work themselves. It is gorgeous and she has done such a good job making it look stellar. Julia and I have always joked that I may be book smart but she is street smart. It was extremely evident in the way she has been able to manage the building of their house.

We then headed toward Boise, trying to beat a snow storm. We hit it just before we pulled off the freeway, and worried the rest of the night if we'd be able to make it home the next day. When we awoke Sunday morning, it was clear it was going to be snowy roads much of the way home. We debated whether or not we wanted to go to church, then decided that we needed to put the Lord first and ask for his help on the ride home.

We attended a 9am Sacrament meeting near Mark's house and headed west on the snowy roads. It ended up being a long, long drive with some harrowing moments going over the Blue mountains, but we really felt like the Lord protected us and helped us along the way. The kids also did great, and we stopped at Emily and Darren's to have a few minutes break for dinner. We arrived home that night after spending a total of 16 hours in the car on the way home, 29 hours round trip.

Bottom line: it was a long, long trip, but so worth it. Being with our families over the holidays was wonderful and our time with them was irreplaceable. I don't think however that we'll ever drive it again. It'll be airline tickets next time for sure. But we made great memories and that's all we'll remember.

Me: Nayeli, why did you draw on your face with marker? Nayeli: It's supposed to be cool Mom!

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