christmas.

christmas eve

this year was our year to spend christmas

eve with the atkinson crew.

we all met at jolynn's house to eat

& open gifts.

when we were finished with dinner,

we had a surprise visitor stop in.

SANTA!

 little ellie wasn't too fond of the claus.

 st. nick told us that grandpa atkinson asked him if he could make a special stop to our party.

we thought it was pretty cool that grandpa and santa were buds.

 later we got to open our gifts.

it was madness.

tis' the season.

 christmas morning

 ellie must have been on the good list this year,

because she got everything she asked for..

and then some!

 it was so magical to watch her get so excited about everything she got.

it took us a while to get her out of the car.

 she would unwrap a present then say "open it?"

it was so cute.

she was a spoiled little girl.
[darren and i were spoiled big people too]

after we opened gifts, we went with my parents to their sacrament meeting. it was nice, especially because we had grandma and grandpa there to entertain miss ellie.

the rest of our day was wonderful too.

[too wonderful for pictures apparently, because i didn't take anymore. bad mom award?]

we went to my aunt's house for her yummy christmas breakfast, then we got to go to megan's house and see if santa stopped there. he did. then we went back to my parents house. santa stopped there too!

later than night we went to my grandma shurtliff's and then to my grandma connie's for some delicious dinner.

it was such a good day.

[i forgot to mention that ellie was sick for the festivities. and she still had a ball!]

happy new year!