Hannukah at the Beach House

We wrapped up the end of the year with a trip to Carpinteria with  Liv and Kerri. 

We always love coming here. The girls ride bikes around town and generally hang out. We started our Saturday with a walk to town with all the shops and to the beach. It was cold and foggy but no rain so we'll take it. 

We had dinner at Padaro Grill and drove around with Slurpees for the girls looking at Holiday Lights. Then we celebrated the fourth night of Hanukkah with the menorah.

We all slept well and Sunday Morning started off with breakfast and coffee at Brass Bird. The girls love this place so it has become a tradition. By noon the sun was out so we walked back down to the beach. 

The tide was so far out! We didn't get to see any Dolphins but that is ok. We had a great time with great friends enjoying the peace and beauty of the sea to get ready for a new year!

Peterson Family Christmas Crazy

There is nothing calm or peaceful about a Peterson Family holiday gathering. We had intended to get together at Goppy's Belmont before Christmas but sadly they had an outbreak of Norovirus that caused them to cancel activities and keep all the residents in their rooms. 

We rescheduled for Dec 27th and although they were still in "lock-up" we held our party anyway. 

I ordered in food from Wood Ranch BBQ and we ate a lovely meal. Then we had some fun games planned before dessert. 

I found some "minute to win it" holiday theme games online. The first one you had to be blind folded and scoop Christmas bows into a bowl with a spatula. It is actually really hard to know if you are even scooping anything. They don't have weight and don't make noise. 

Even Goppy got in on the fun! 

The next game was to use a candy cane by holding the straight end in your mouth as a hook to scoop up the other candy canes onto another plate. This one was actually really hard. 

There was a LOT OF CHEATING going on! Once the father starts to cheat then the wildness begins.

The last game was trying to use a straw to blow jingle bells across the table to the finish line. 

Of course there were some prizes. Lily won some cat paw socks.

Eric won a Rudolph "Man-kini" 

Gemma won light saber chopsticks, Ben won Cheetoh underwear and Gwyn won some lip gloss.

We had a roaring good time and finished with some Christmas cookies. I think we only got shushed by two residents to take that as a win!

Christmas 2024

Christmas Eve, Gemma helped out at the 5PM Church service by reading a rendition of the Christmas story as a Sheep. Austin, her friend, was a donkey. They were amazing and it was sweet and funny. 

There were younger children in the role of Mary, Joseph and angels with non speaking parts. The bell choir filled in the story with music. It was a really great performance and a nice change from the previous several years where they did a corny responsive reading. 

We returned home to have dinner and make sure the tree and stockings were ready for Santa. We had been tracking him on Norad and we knew he had already been to the UK. 

After dinner we relaxed and watched a movie, Christmas Chronicles.

Then the girls left Santa some cookies and milk. Although I always tell them we left Santa peanuts and beer when I was growing up. 

By Christmas morning not a creature was stirring not even our children. It was the first time the adults were up before the kids. 

Gemma was up by about 8:30AM and we didn't dare wake Lily until 9. 

The cookies were gobbled, the stockings were full and the gifts were plentiful around the tree.

A hot cup of coffee and a couple pictures first and we were ready to begin. Lily got an ornament of a pirate ship in honor of the regiment theme of the year, Maiden Voyage.

Alex got some supplies for his favorite Gin and Tonics.

The weetabix tin from all the way in Italy made an appearance, with a fresh box of weetabix.

At long last Gemma got her true hearts desire. A cell phone. She even got the one she wanted. An iphone  15pro.

Gift cards from Joel and Tonya, always a hit.

There was also a gift with you had to find by following a scavenger hunt.

They followed all the clues and then had to use each clue to spell a word (Popcorn) which led them to the location of the gift.

They each got a card with money from Granny and Grampy and also a certificate for a year of Spotify premium for the family.

We sat down to our traditional Christmas breakfast. Potato egg and bacon bake, fruit platter, and Cinnamon chocolate chip coffee cake, aka Jesus Birthday cake. 

Then we had a lovely Facetime with England to see Granny, Grampy and Uncle Chris to open gifts from them and see how they enjoyed Christmas Day. Grampy was all dressed up in his finest with a holiday bowtie! 

Jolly Holidays

We got back from our Thanksgiving trip to Italy and had to hit the ground running on the Holiday season. Thanksgiving felt late this year and there were only 3 full weeks until Christmas! Gemma wasted no time having fun. Starting with a birthday lunch for Austin  with Cohen and Lily, and then a mall scavenger hunt. 

We did a little Thanksgiving type dinner with turkey, cranberry, mash and stuffing.  After a successful trip to Costco to get our tree. We almost didn't get one as they sold nearly all 500 trees in one day! 

Rosie made a come back, although she got held up in the North Pole and made a late arrival with the lego friends. She is getting old now and doesn't seem to move as much as she used to. 

Gemma and I were invited to a Holiday brunch at Brooklyns house. Her school friend group is so sweet and they are always doing something. Stacey loves to organize and host and her home is gorgeous!

Everyone wore holiday PJ's. She had a gorgeous table set up and each girl got a holiday mug with goodies.

They decorated beanie's with iron on decals

We attended Ben's first ever band performance. He is playing trumpet in the Middle School band this year. They did really well and Lily was proud of his efforts. 

Crazy cousins!

Gemma also had her school holiday performance. They sang songs and there was a really funny video of the Christmas story. They interviewed the preschoolers about how Jesus was born and then the middle school kids acted it out with voice overs. Gemma was Mary. It was crazy. 

Goppy, Rach and Gwyn came to her performance. 

The 8th grade class at Ascension. Gemma and Lily with the boys. 

After the performance Gemma went with her friends to Cohen's house. We took Goppy home and Alex raced over to catch Lily's orchestra performance at Westlake. It is so sad they were both on the same night. Ben and Eric came to see her so she was happy.

We also made time to bake some cookies and watch holiday movies. Tis the season!!

Gemma made the honor roll for her first trimester grades. She got all A's and two B's!

They had a class holiday party on the last week of school. Everyone wore holiday sweaters and they had lunch, games, crafts and more!

We went to drive through Moorpark holiday lights one evening. 

Gemma had a confirmation event one Sunday after church. They participated in the service with Pastor Chamie and then after the service had lunch and headed to ice skate.

Rosie still bopping around the house every couple days or so.

The girls had their friends - sisters Ellie and Avery- over for Christmas cookie decorating and dinner. 

Ellie plays trumpet with Lily in the band and Avery is in color guard so Gemma will join her next year. They both attended MATES elementary with us although we didn't know them at the time! Ellie is a grade below Lily and Avery is ahead of Gemma one grade. 

When you recreate your favorite Anime characters in cookie form.