Christmas 2010

A few days before Christmas, we visited Santa at the mall. Grace happily sat with him, told him that she would like a new kitchen and some more PlayDoh, and then rode the Christmas train, as per our tradition.

Our annual gingerbread house was a fun project that filled one afternoon before Christmas. It was, as always, a pitiful disaster, but it's OUR disaster! Every year we have to convince Grace not to eat all the candy that is supposed to go on the house. HAHA!

On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a wonderful meal with my parents, then attended a Christmas Eve service at our church. Grace enjoyed all the singing, as well as getting to have her own candle at the end of the service.

After the service, we went to our dear friends, the Moore's, for a Happy Birthday Jesus party! Grace is great friends with their children, Danielle and Joshua. We all had some of Kim's awesome chili and red velvet cake, as we celebrated the birth of Christ, the reason for the season. We are so thankful for good, Christian friends in our lives.

Santa came!

Christmas morning was a little different this year. It was DJ's third Christmas with us, but our first as husband and wife. So, we mixed our backgrounds together to create our own family traditions. We all opened one gift on Christmas Eve, and saved all other presents for Christmas morning. Mom and Dad came over to open gifts too, then we all enjoyed Christmas pancakes. It was an emotional, but fun morning!

One of the gifts that I had made for Dad to give to Mom to celebrate their 38 years of marriage

To make a great Christmas perfect, it started to snow! It was the first white Christmas any of us have ever experienced. God's blessings are so wonderful!

After dinner, we had a snowball fight and enjoyed the cold evening!

What a wonderful white Christmas! Hope yours was just as merry!

The Peterson family, Fab Four Division

Jimmy, my Dad, Kathy and Donnie

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.

-- Desmond Tutu

Gammie comes to town!

DJ's mom, Stacey, came to Georgia and spent almost a week with us right before Christmas. We had not seen her since July, and Grace was beside herself with excitement all week about her Gammie coming. She and Stacey get along really well, and Grace loved having all of Gammie's attention!

Grace inside the princess tent that her Aunt Katie gave her

Stacey's big birthday/Christmas gift to Grace was a Power Wheels 4 wheeler, which Grace calls her Monster Truck! It's hot pink and covered in Barbie, and Grace fell in love with it immediately!

A Whole Hand

Somehow, our darling daughter is five years old! I am not sure how this is possible, since it feels like only yesterday that she was born. However, she has achieved a milestone and is now one whole hand old. We celebrated all month, it seemed!

Here are pictures from her official birthday party. We had it at a local gymnastics facility and invited a bunch of her little friends. It was a full house, and everyone had a wonderful time, jumping, bouncing, and playing!

Grace's class helped her celebrate her birthday as well! We had a friend make snowflake sugar cookies for Grace and her classmates, and they all sang Happy Birthday to her! It was a great end to their Pajama Day at school!

Finally, on her actual birthday, we had lunch and birthday cake with my Mom and Dad. She is wearing the shirt our friend Mandi made just for her. She loved the Rapunzel doll and gumball machine she got. She has such a sweet smile!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest little five year old I know!

Fa La La La La, La La La La!

Grace's Pre-K class joined the Kindergarten classes in performing a lovely Christmas concert at school in mid December. The kids did such a great job! The sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, and the 12 Days of Christmas. That one is Grace's favorite! She can sing all twelve days!

She enjoys singing so much, and really got into the hand gestures and movements. She got to hold the "12" up during the song! DJ and I are always so proud of her, and she is such a little character. She keeps us laughing!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Grace really got into the holiday decorations this year! We had two trees in our house, the family one and Grace's little one. Grace would not let DJ or I help her decorate her little one! She informed us that we could do the family one, and she would handle her own! HA! What a little diva!

With her new Ariel ornament :)

In her Santa jammies...

Grace's mini tree= happiness!

A Thankful Heart

Having only one day to celebrate everything I have to be thankful for is simply not enough. God has blessed my life, more so this year than ever. This was my first Thanksgiving with my wonderful husband, and my fifth year with my precious angel. Even with the stunning news of Dad's cancer, I have placed my faith in God's healing and love.

This Thanksgiving was a wonderfully relaxing holiday! We all slept late, and then enjoyed a delicious meal at my Mom and Dad's house. Dad and Grace enjoyed snuggling and watching the Macy's Day Parade, and after lunch Grace and I played Hi Ho Cherry-O. That afternoon we watched a movie and had leftovers for dinner. What a great day!