It was fun to celebrate the holidays with Ellie this year! It started with putting up the Christmas tree. She did really well with not bothering it...after one episode of taking off 10 bulbs and getting in trouble :) She loved to look at it and always asked to turn the lights on.
Next on the list, visiting Santa...which did not go over so well!!! I took her to the library for story time and then Santa came. She pretty much hated it. And yes, I'm making fun of her... It was a repeat of last year, but totally worth the picture! We tried one more time one day when I watched Harrison. I thought maybe if he was with her she wouldn't be so frightened...WRONG! She wouldn't get within 3 feet of him! Maybe next year...
Grandma and Grandpa Swinford sent a pre-Christmas package and Ellie loved it!
Our next festivity was decorating sugar cookies with the cousins at Grandma Nita's! Ellie sure enjoyed herself!
We finally got to put Ellie in her Christmas dress that we found last FEBRUARY! She is so stinkin' adorable!!!
We spent Christmas Eve at Floyd and Veda's with the extended family. It was so much fun and so great to spend time with family! The kids performed The Nativity and it was the most adorable thing ever! Ellie was a sheep...a wandering sheep most of the time :) But hey, she sat AND smiled for the picture! Then we had family sing-along time which is always a hoot. Ellie was dancing all over the place and being crazy. Needless to say, she loved it! It was such a great way to spend the evening!
Christmas was so much fun with Ellie this year!!! And it lasted 3 days...(the tree was down before she opened all her gifts!) She walked out and saw everything and said, "Woowww!" It was adorable. We FaceTimed with Grandma and Grandpa Swinford to start the morning. Ellie enjoyed opening gifts and her stockings, but it was a long process! Every piece of paper she ripped off she walked to the recycle can and put it in, then came back and repeated the process. Silly girl!!! Tho I love her desire for keeping things clean... Oh, and she kept wanting to play with her new gifts. Eventually she lost interest completely and would not open anymore, which is why Christmas latest 3 days! She opened 2 the next day and the last 2 the day after that. I guess it's not a bad thing she got to enjoy it for so long! While she was playing Landen and I got to open our gifts. We did really well at being excited about opening the boxes of the gifts we're already using... Yes, we're horrible!!! But hey, we weren't disappointed!!! We did have a few surprise gifts :) After we finished and got ready for the day we went to Grandma and Grandpa Hardy's for the rest of the day. It was nice to just relax and spend time with family. We had a great Christmas! And of course, I'm always grateful for the true reason for Christmas, my Savior, Jesus Christ. It is such a great opportunity to remember Him and all He has done for me. Merry Christmas!
To end, my two most favorite gifts of all!
