Merry Christmas!

  We had a wonderful Christmas break. We started a new tradition of baking sugar cookies, decorating them and giving them to a few neighbors. Lydia especially loved sprinkling on the sprinkles and couldn't wait to eat the broken ones. 

 We had our own Christmas morning in our home on the 23rd since we'd be in Cache Valley for the real day. I felt a tiny bit guilty for Allie this year, but felt better knowing how much fun she'd have with the wrapping paper.  Lydia got some books (from the DI), a puzzle (also from the DI), her own Book of Mormon she can take to Primary, and a big semi-truck with lots of cars in it. She had a blast and Loren and I did too. I'm pretty sure I was more excited for her to open her presents than she was. 

  After all the presents were opened we drove to Avon. Since Loren's birthday always get's lost in the mix of Christmas and our anniversary, I really wanted to do something special for him this year. So I decided to have an Amazing Race birthday party. We did it the evening of the 23rd since Sarah would be gone on his real birthday. Boy, I had no idea what I got myself into. There was so much planning and prep to do but it turned out really fun!

  I split everyone up in teams of three. Dad, mom, and Aaron were team Snowman, Loren, Landon and Nathan were team Ninja Turtle, Maddy, Chris and Kristen were team Elf, and Sarah, Rachel and Lindsay were team Disney Princess.

 Here's Lindsay walking to the wall and back with a golf ball on a plastic spoon in her mouth. If she dropped the ball, she had to start over. 

Making a marshmallow launcher with no instructions, only a demo on the table for reference.

 Finding a coin with Loren's birth year on it. 

Loren's team were almost the only ones to eat the baby food but they couldn't handle it! So instead they went to the word find.

 Team Disney Princess ended up winning, they were on fire. It turned out to be such a fun night. I wish I could have taken better pictures but between rocking a tired Allie, handing out clues and setting up activities, I didn't have a free second. I'm grateful Alexis was there to help. I hope it was a memorable birthday for Loren.

Feats of strength! 

Christmas Eve looks something like this at the Peck's. Everyone finishing their home-made gifts for each other. 

  We left Avon at 5 and headed over to the Rigby's for our annual Christmas Eve progressive dinner. It was raining this year which meant we couldn't go on our sleigh ride, and grandpa was still in the hospital so that dampened the evening a bit. But it was still nice to catch up with everyone and feel the Christmas spirit. 

 Aaron and I made a snowman and called him Snowflake.

Hooray for Christmas morning! Kristen got us all new pajamas to wear. Lydia got some awesome drums and "clackers" as she calls them, from Santa. 

Matchy, matchy!

I'm in love with Allie's whale slippers.

Dad's new guitar stand.

I'm always so impressed with the creativity everyone has in making their gifts. This year I thought I'd try and be cool too and crochet some mittens for Maddy, even though the last time I tried to crochet anything was in 8th grade. It started out pretty good with my sister-in-law Mary's help, but when I was on my own it was a nightmare. So I went to plan B and jumped on in with Loren's command center board idea. I think they turned out pretty cute! Good thing one of us has DIY skills. Cough, cough, Loren. 

Kristen sewed a drawing pencil bag for Loren out of some old pants of Atticus'. Really creative and he loved it!

 Rachel made me this awesome wall decor. I love, love it. It about made me cry! It was so sweet. 

This might just be the cutest picture you'll ever see.

 I think Brendan was on everyone's mind's as we went throughout the day. Although it was so fun being together and sharing the excitement of the day, we felt the sorrow of separation, of loss.  

 Since it was Sunday, we tried going to church but as we were backing out of the garage, we were informed it was cancelled due to the snow. We were all bummed out so we went inside and gathered around the piano to sing Christmas songs. It was so nice and really helped to bring the Christmas spirit. 
  In the afternoon we drove over to Hyrum. All of my family was there and it was nice to be together again. Lydia's always telling me that Greyson is her best friend.

We opened our presents from each other. Brayden made Loren and I the most awesome calendar with personalized pictures of our family. It's seriously the best present ever, I'm so excited about it. Brayden always gives really meaningful gifts, it's one of the many talents he has. 

Then we acted out the Nativity. There were Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.

Angels and Shepherds.

More angels!

The three wise men.

Cant forget the Little Drummer Boy!

 Nate was the narrator and Kiana had to work so she couldn't be there. We missed her.

The next day we played basketball at the church. Lydia and Greyson had a blast helping Brayden sweep.

Happy Birthday, Loren! On Loren's real birthday we went to Rogue 1 and then Cam, Mary, Loren and I went to Olive Garden for lunch. Then we went to the hospital to visit Grandpa. It was a hard visit. Grandpa asked us to pray that he could go. He was tired of being in the hospital and was afraid his bowels were broken. Grandpa was diagnosed with Diabetes when he was 40 but has always taken excellent care of himself. It's quite remarkable, really, the self control he has. He's always had wonderful health and so the surgery to remove the tumor that was found in him was really hard to handle. We all could feel it wasn't quite his time, so we told him we'd pray for his bowels to start working again. As we stood to leave, I held his hand and kissed him on his forehead. He smiled for the first time, looked into my eyes and said, "I'll see you in the beyond". We were all bawling and I felt such a sense of loss and sadness. It was one of those moments I'll remember forever. Since then, his bowels did start working again and he's now home with Grandma. We're so grateful. Apparently he still has some work to do. 

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye. We had such a wonderful holiday with family. We're so grateful for all of them.

Our friends from law school, Clint, Michelle, Adeline and Christian came for a visit. It was so fun to catch up with them! We really miss seeing them everyday. It didn't take long for Lydia and Adeline to get back to their usual shenanigans. They'll be living in Corrinne for the summer while Clint studies for the bar so that means we'll be close! We're so excited and hope the summer comes fast. 

I've never figured out how to shop with a car seat. Allie didn't seem to mind when I asked her to please hold the lettuce. 

These two are great friends. Allie adores her big sister.

All Allie needs for entertainment is to watch Lydia dance around.

Well it's on to a new year! I'm making new goals and am excited to see what this new year has in store.