Christmas 2015

Mallory's gifts-- I snapped a few pictures before they woke up

Hayley's stuff

Brittney's things all ready

Christmas morning was wonderful! The girls woke up at 8:05 and ran up to our room. Scott and I had been awake about 20 minutes, just waiting for the girls to wake up. 

Ready to head downstairs and waiting for Mom to get the camera ready and take a picture!

When we all made it down to the living room, all three girls grabbed a gift that they wanted Scott and I to open first—they didn’t touch any of their own presents until after Scott opened his new church shoes we had found for him and I had opened a nice pair of black boots (the girls and Scott went shopping on Wednesday night). After we had opened our gift, then the girls started to open theirs. Later, I was asking Mallory what her favorite part of the day was. She said her favorite things was when Scott and I opened our presents. I told Mallory how sweet and kind and giving she it—she truly is more concerned about others than herself (most of the time)—what a sweet and Christ like attribute to have. I hope she will continue to cultivate this attribute throughout her life. 

Scott opening his new church shoes

Mallory received clothes, books, fabric quarters, flair pens, a small hymn book with her name on it, the Piano Guys Christmas CD and piano ornament, a new quilt, earrings (lots of different ones) and a coupon and money to get her ears pierced, movies (“once I was a Beehive” and an American Girl Collection), a BYU shirt and other things. Hayley gave Mallory some mint green skinny jeans and Brittney gave her a new 3 ring binder (a cute one) with pencil pouch.  

Mallory checking out her stocking filled with candy, lotion, EOS's, and other small things

Mallory's binder from Brittney

Mallory was just a little excited for this movie (she has held it in her hands many times at the store over the past few weeks asking for me to buy it!!

Mallory's new hymn book

Mallory with her BYU gear-- we love to watch the BYU Women's Soccer games on TV

Mallory's "Piano Guys Christmas" CD and piano ornament

Mallory's Santa Gift tags

Hayley received clothes, an Eiffel tower lamp, books, fabric, movie (the new Cinderella one),  flair pens, a small hymn book with her name on it, earrings (all beachy things like starfish, turtles, etc.) and a coupon and money to get her ears pierced, movies, a new quilt, a BYU shirt and other things.  Mallory gave Hayley an Eiffel Tower jewelry holder and Brittney gave her a 3 ring binder with a pencil pouch (again, a cute one).

Hayley was pretty funny--she was so excited she kept falling off the couch onto the floor-- Hayley with her new watch

Hayley's Eiffel Tower Lamp for her bedroom-- she loved it!

Hayley checking out her Eiffel tower jewelry holder from Mallory--She loved it!

Hayley's new binder from Brittney

Hayley in all her cuteness!

Hayley and her hymnbook

Hayley opening her Real Salt Lake soccer scarf

Hayley's Santa Gift Tags

Brittney received clothes, a new coat, white ear muffs, panda mittens, movies (Hotel Transylvania, Inside Out, and The Wizard of Oz), books, fabric, flair pens, a small hymn book with her name on it, a card of Aloha earrings (about 20 pair) and a coupon and money to get her ears pierced, a BYU shirt and other things. Mallory gave Brittney some leg warmers and Hayley gave Brittney a cute green shirt with a hood.

Brittney reading her coupon to get her ears pierced-- Santa also left money in the envelope to pay for their earings.

Brittney has wanted ear muffs for quite some time-- she was pretty excited to get these fuzzy white ones!

One of Brittney's new shirts

Ear piercing Coupon straight from Santa

Ears pierced coupon

Brittney with some of her Fat Quarters for sewing

Brittney's Santa Gift Tags-- luckily they all said "nice"!!

Scott received new church shoes, a few shirts, “the Infinite Atonement” book, beef jerky, two lint rollers plus several other things.

Scott

Scott checking out his new book

I received some cute black boots, some fuzzy and very comfortable slippers, some moccasins, a scarf, new glasses for dinner and a coupon to get a new iPad or kindle (since Scott has taken over mine for bishop stuff) and new pots and pans. It was a wonderful Christmas! We are so blessed!

My moccasins

I just love my fuzzy slippers-- I wear them all over the house since they are so warm and comfy--LOVE THEM!

After we opened gifts, we watched “Once I was A Beehive” together. Scott saw it last week with the Young Women and wanted to have all of us watch it together. Mallory was over the moon excited that she received the movie—she gave many hints that she wanted it. She had it in her hands many times at the store and since I had already purchased it a few weeks earlier—I kept telling her “maybe another time” or “not today”. What a cute movie!! We laughed and I cried several times. The girls and Scott all looked at me as I started singing the camp songs along with the movie—they were shocked I knew them—it’s a girl’s camp thing. They sang “The Noah Song” and the “Mormon Boy” song (but I learned it as another song back in my day but the YW this year taught it to me. I shouldn’t have sung my version to them—but I did—it doesn’t sound so good now that I’m an adult and was their leader—it wasn’t one of my smartest ideas.)

We were able to FaceTime with my parents on their mission. I bet they were sick with the girls moving the phone around so much and so quickly trying to show them everything. I finally took the phone and had each of the girls come to me with something they wanted to show so the camera stayed steady. It sounded like my parents had a great Christmas too with the other senior missionaries (there were 12 of them together celebrating-- Canadian and American style).

We went sledding out back again today. Morgan and Grace Bailey came over to sled and then our girls went to their house too. I guess they have a huge, man-made hill in their backyard.

Hayley and Brittney going down the hill the girls have created over the past two weeks out behind our home

Mallory pulling Brittney back up to go again

Hayley heading down the hill Scott helped create yesterday

Mallory and Brittney going down again after Scott gave them a big push

Scott’s mom and Clark came by to visit and they stayed for about an hour. The girls showed off all their gifts.

We went to visit Scott’s dad later in the evening. Scott's brother Wayne and his wife Christy and son Michael came while we were there too! It was nice to visit with everyone.

It was a wonderful Christmas. We ended with talking about Jesus Christ and the gifts of ourselves we could give to Him this coming year when we got home. We watched “Hotel Transylvania” together (I fell asleep about 15 minutes into it—I had to watch it on Saturday since I had never seen it).

Christmas Eve 2015

Christmas Eve turned out to be very nice! The girls have created a small sledding hill just outside our back gate. They have had lots of friends come and sled with them. Scott took the shovel and wheel barrow out and helped them build the hill up a little higher. We all took turns sledding down the hill. 

Mallory sledding on the path behind our house

I stopped in Brittney's room for a minute today and noticed she kept Santa up to date all month and she even made sure he was grammatically correct today! Love our Brittney B!

We had one of Mallory’s friends, Morgan, join us for Christmas Eve dinner. Everyone decided that they wanted Papa Murphy’s Pizza for dinner so luckily I remembered to pick it up earlier in the afternoon. We had Chicago-style Pizza with no tomatoes nor onions (plus black olives), Cheese Pizza, Pepperoni Pizza, Cheesy Breadsticks and Sprite for dinner! I love easy dinners!

We had a nice relaxing evening—we watched “The Nativity” and talked about the lamb in the nativity. The girls were excited to open their Christmas jammies and were anxious to get to bed. 

Brittney fresh out of the shower ready to open her PJ's. She promptly went to change after she opened her new jammie pants.

Hayley loves her penguin jammies. She dropped several hints over the last few weeks of exactly which pajamas she wanted this year. Luckily, I listened the first time and bought them as soon as I saw them. I knew she would be pleased, and she was!

Mallory loves her owl pajamas too!

And I love my new pajamas with my new pair of fuzzy socks!

All set for bed!

Our stockings still do not have names on them. The girls each made their own signs. (Hayley wanted to write on her stocking with a sharpie marker or puffy paints! I nixed that idea pretty quick!

Brittney wrote a note for Santa—for his slice of Pizza and cup of Sprite—we are so unconventional over her at the Ropelato house.  

Scott and I had all of the presents from us to wrap—I was so unprepared this year in this department. It was nice to do it together!

Ogden Mission Christmas Musical Devotional

This afternoon, the girls and I went with our good friends, Danielle, Abigale, Preslie and Adalynn to the Ogden Mission Christmas Musical Devotional. We got all dressed up and went to the Ogden Tabernacle. We were there plenty early and had a great choice of seating. It was amazing! We were so glad we went! The missionaries read the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew and sang songs in between which fit with the scriptures. 

There is a lot of musical talent in the Ogden Mission. There were several pianists, a large missionary choir, a cellist, two saxophonist plus several vocal solos, duets and small groups. They sang songs like “Mary Did You Know”, “Homeless”, “O Come All Ye Faithful” plus many many Christmas hymns. The spirit was strong and the message was one of joy and hope and love. The devotional just made me feel happy and I couldn’t help but smile! I have been trying really hard this December to keep Christ at the center of our Christmas Celebration. This Devotional was perfect because the entire program was focused on the Savior. We attended other concerts for my niece and nephew this month but they all had the secular view to it as well—so this was special since it was all about Jesus Christ. I will definitely try and go to it again next year. “Mary Did you Know” was the girl's favorite song—they did it as a small group—acapella—with one guy doing all the bass and percussion—they girls loved it! 

Preslie, Brittney, Adalynn, Hayley, Abigale and Mallory

One more-- we should have taken one with us moms since we were there too!

Of course, we had to stop at Farr’s to get ice cream on the way home—it was cold and had started to snow—we had to eat in the car since Farr’s was packed with the other concert goes plus the missionaries.

Clinton 6th Ward Bishopric Message 2015

Bishopric Christmas Message 2015

As we approach this Christmas season, it is with great joy and humility that we acknowledge the birth of our Savior.  We love Him. We know that He lives. We desire all to feel the hope that comes from knowing that Jesus is the Christ.  As followers of Christ it is important to acknowledge Him as our Savior.  To acknowledge is:

to say that you accept or do not deny the truth or

existence of(something),:  to express gratitude or

obligation for.

Contemplating this definition…do we truly “acknowledge” the truths of the gospel and see the Lord’s hand in our lives?  “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”(Proverbs 3:5-6).

As we acknowledge the real power that comes from gospel living we can access the gift of the Atonement in our lives and share that gift with others.  Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught:  “the submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar.”  May we this holiday season and each day after let go of those things that hold us back from aligning our wills’ 100% with God’s will.  That we may gain full access to our Savior’s gift is our prayer.

Brother John            Bishop Ropelato            Brother Payne

Merry Christmas!

Peterson Family Christmas Party

The Peterson Family party was very different this year—but in a good way. 

My parents are on their mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The party was at Rebecca and Joe's home in Grantsville. They had their office set up with FaceTime, so we all took turns going in to talk to Mom and Dad before lunch. (We started the party at 11:30 so it would be 8:30 p.m. for my parents--so they could join us for a bit of the party).  We had a wonderful lunch of soups and rolls. During lunch, the BYU/Utah bowl game was on which was rather depressing for some of us (others were ecstatic).  

This year, we decided not to buy presents for one another-- we decided instead to give all the money we would have spent to my nephew Conner to help pay for his adoption fees. I don't think we missed this part of the party at all-- maybe we missed the adult game just a smidge (there's always next year). The Adult Game has been a Peterson tradition for as long as I can remember.

The Saran Wrap Candy Bar game-- Paeton is cheering on Mallory as Easton is trying to get doubles!!

Brittney unwrapping as fast as she can

Hayley enjoying some Skittles she won while wrapping herself in the Saran Wrap

Since we didn’t do presents, we had a lot of fun playing games—for those who wanted to play. We played the Candy Bar Game (all wrapped in Saran Wrap), Silent Night Bingo, Christmas Scattegories, Christmas Family Feud, the Candy Bar and oven mitt game (not sure of its name—it took forever for all of us to get our candy bars open and eaten), the doughnut on a string game (there were a few good videos taken I think) and a Pie in the Face game.

Hayley and Brittney eating their doughnuts!

Hayley and Brittney (using her hands a little bit)

Brittney finishing up-- I think she had glaze all over her face!

Brayden and Colten's race-- Colten won- hands down. His doughnut was gone in 58 seconds!!!

Conner feeding Mallory her doughnut-- Conner was really nice and held the string pretty short to guide the doughnut into Mallory's mouth.

Liz and Mallory watching Hayley trying to open her Hershey bar during the Candy Bar and Mitt Game

Mallory trying to open her candy bar

One thing we didn’t do, that I wished we would have, was to reenact the Nativity. We laughed and had a great time together!