Christmas Morning

I love Christmas morning... I always wake up early and can't fall back asleep because I get so excited. This year I was told that I was not allowed to wake everyone up early. So I didn't... I was up for about 20 minutes before Mom Peterson decided to wake everyone up, I was okay with that. Here are Scott and I on the stairs waiting to come down.

Here we are in front of Mom's upside down Christmas Tree.

Here is Scott with his sisters.

We had lots of fun opening presents and here we are with all we opened today. Merry Christmas to everyone! I love this time of year and we have had so much fun! We also watched Mr. Krugers Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, and the Forgetton Carrols either last night or this morning and we have enjoyed remembering the birth of the Savior. We hope everyone has a wonderful, safe and happy day. We love you all. Merry Christmas!

Twas the Night Before Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we had the Peterson Family Christmas Party! We had tons of fun and started the night with some activities before dinner. We even found Christmas Crackers, those are favorite memories from Scott and I from England.

We had a gift exchange game and that was awesome. Kevin, Scott's stepdad, was joking as he opened his gift that he was hoping it was a right arm... and he opened a Mr Potatoe Head so he got his arm. Here he is trying it on.

We also did the nativity. Here are the wise men

and the angel

and you can't forget Mary, Joseph and the donkey. Since Dan wasn't here to play the donkey I decided that I would have to fill in for that noble role!

Next it was time to open gifts.

I was really excited for all the scrapebook stuff DaNae got me!

Wedding Bells

Congrats to Eric and Melodie!

They were married on Tuesday in the Mesa Temple. I think it was an emontional day for everyone involved. Scott and I started the day by picking up my brother Dan from the airport. We then went out to breakfast before going to Eric's house to hang out for a bit before the wedding. The ceremony was good. I felt like my sister was there. This is the women that will help to take care of her kids. I was happy and sad all at the same time. I miss Michelle alot, but I also think Melodie will be a great addition to the family!

Here is the Goodman family.

Here is the whole group... there were a lot of kids there.

We finished the day with dinner at Eric's parents house. That was really good and fun. Eric's family got them this picture of the temple! It was a good day.

New Haircut

So I got my hair cut yesterday... Here it is

Phoenix Zoolights

Scott and I had a really fun date night last night. We went to the zoo! There weren't very many animals out, instead we wondered around the park that was all decorated with Christmas lights! We did get to see elephants. Here is a picture of me and if you look hard in the background you can see the elephant! There were also zebras and flamingos amoung others.

There were sets of lights that showed animals moving, like a monkey swinging through the trees, or penguins sliding across the field. I like the baby elephant shooting water at his mommy.

Here is Scott with his dancing gorilla! He sure does know how to party!

There was also an area of trees that lite up with the music. We stopped and watched that a few times. I tried to take a video of it, but our camera doesn't record sound... so it is a bit lame, but it is in the post below!

The night was just perfect... a little brisk so we were just a tiny bit cold... which felt good while looking at Christmas lights! We had a really fun night!

Carol of the Bells Tree Lights

Christmas is Coming

We had a fun week last week. On Wednesday Scott's family joined us at Outback where we went to celebrate Michelle's life. My family thought it would be a fun tradition to go out to eat and remember Michelle on the anniversary of her death... I can't believe that it has been two years. After dinner we went to Bookman's, a used bookstore and I found a ton of romances that Michelle got me hooked on. We bought some for Christmas and some for me to read before Christmas. I'm so glad that Michelle taught me how to find clean romance novels.... they are so much fun to read.

On Friday night mom had a party for her work so Scott and I went with her and we met Brian and Meija there. We had a good potluck dinner and then Santa came and brought presents for the kids. Amelia got a webkins stuffed animal and then they drew names for the adults to get gift certificates to resturants. I got one to Olive Garden! That will be a nice date night!

After the Christmas party Kevin met Mom, Scott and I at the temple to look at the temple lights! They are so pretty! It was weird, but fun to look at Christmas lights in sandles and a light jacket!

On Saturday morning Mom and I went to a Arts Festival Fair in Tempe right next to ASU. We walked around the booths for hours and had so much fun. There was some really cool stuff, but most of it was really expensive. I did find our family Christmas ornament for this year... we decided to do a Cactus to represent our year of traveling and living in so many different places, since we ended up in AZ. We had a ton of fun.

When we got home it was time to prepare to have a picnic and go to a light parade in Pheonix. We went early to get a spot and had dinner there. We took Amelia with us and had tons of fun watching all the floats and lights come past! It is fun to have the Christmas season here. Last night we watched It's a Wonderful Life. That is a fun movie to bring in the Christmas season and to think about how lucky we are with so many wonderful friends and family. We love you all!