Our first day there we spent with Joe's brother Jesse and his family. Their two oldest daughters are part of the One Voice children's choir, and they sang in the Assembly Hall at Temple Square that night, so we enjoyed listening to them, as well as walking around City Creek, seeing the candy displays in the Macy's windows, and visiting the Church History Museum and the Family History Center (SO MUCH FUN!)
The next morning we had our Liddell Christmas party. Apparently I was partying so hard that I forgot to take any pictures except for this one of Joe's parents. Super cute ;)
We headed down to Manti after that to spend the next few days. We were joined by Joe's oldest brother, John, and his family. We sang in Joe's parent's ward for Christmas Eve. We spent endless hours putting together a 2,000 piece puzzle and watching a Doctor Who marathon. We had lots of yummy food, plus we did our best to eat all the decorations off the edible Christmas tree....I mean all the ornaments were edible, not the tree itself. We were introduced to the opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors". We took our traditional picture of the kids on Christmas morning in their new pj's with their stockings.
Cora really outdid herself in the present department this year. She found me actual for real Korean candy online - my very favorite. I was in heaven. Also, she's in a woodworking class this year and one of her projects was to make a stool. Joe kept making stool sample jokes all month, so Cora decided to give the stool to him as his Christmas present, and she engraved it with "Dad's Stool Sample", hahahaha. Joe was one proud papa, and had to show it off to everyone.
That stool is now in my bathroom and works lovely as a squatty potty.
The day after Christmas we headed back up North to spend some time with my family. We had our own little party, and then an extended Petersen family party. More food. Lots of food. No pictures.
We were able to spend some time with good friends too. Three families we knew from Texas (the Haderlies, Packers, and Dukes). So much fun catching up with those people. Again, no pictures (seriously people, what's wrong with us?!). We also caught up with the Rolfe's, who we knew from Germany. Eleanor was my 1st counselor in YW's, and her oldest son is one of Cora's best friends, and one of her daughters is one of Madelyn's best friends. We hung out with them at temple square too, and I hope it's not too long before we can meet up with them again ;)
New Year's Eve was with my family, and we played new games all night, and laughed until we cried. The only picture of the night can only be used for blackmail purposes (Antoine, you know what I'm talking about, hahaha)
Joe's youngest brother Mike, and his wife Amber, were able to come visit us for a while before we left too. We hadn't seen them forever, so that was great!
I also binge-watched the new Star Trek with my sister Lorraine. Yes, I will always be a Trekkie. Oh, and I was finally able to get my mom's 2 nativities that she left to me. They make me SO happy :)
The first one was the one my dad bought for my mom the Christmas I was born.
And then we drove home....and we all froze happily ever after.
