Since we weren't able to get together with the whole Atkin family over the summer, we planned a reunion over Christmas. So, we took the kids out of school a little bit early and headed for Jon and Jaime's house. We left after school on Thursday and hit some delays so were behind schedule. We ended up driving through the night. Luckily, it was a great drive with no bad weather and Joe and I were both able to stay awake the whole time talking and having fun. We tried giving the kids Dramamine for the first time since they sometimes get carsick and they all slept well. We made it at about 5:45am and got a little bit of sleep that morning. We had fun playing that day and shopping to get ready for Christmas. Regina and her kids were there that day. Marsha and Rich and Toni and kids came later. Unfortunately, Tom and Shari and kids couldn't make it this time but Chris drove up after work on Saturday.
Grandma reading the Grinch to all the kids:
Playing in the snow:
I snapped this picture of Joelle taking care of her animals:
We fun making gingerbread houses (until my kids starting fighting :):
We loved seeing how much cute baby Ross had grown!
I brought our handbells and we had a lot of fun playing some Christmas songs. I was super impressed with how well the kids did:
The group that stayed for Christmas Eve:
Some scenes from our nativity play:
It even snowed Christmas Eve night a little bit!
Santa came!
We had a great, relaxing Christmas day doing puzzles, watching movies and playing with new toys. The day after Christmas, we met Brad & Kelli, Matt & Melissa and kids at Cafe Rio for lunch since we were all in town. Then we went hiking around Salt Lake with Matt & Melissa and kids. Unfortunately, Elizabeth and Eli both started coming down with something so we didn't get much time with them. When Eli's fever got worse that night, we decided to just go home in the morning. We'd planned on staying a few more days but it was probably best we left because a bunch more of us got it, too. The drive home was a little rougher but we made it safely (a big relief after our last winter drive when we had our crash!). We spent the rest of our Christmas break recovering from sickness so we had a Harry Potter movie marathon and that was basically all we did. We were so glad we got some time with family, though! It was a Christmas to remember!
We had a low-key New Years's Eve. Only us girls managed to stay awake for midnight. The boys were exhausted!
Goodbye 2017! It was a good year.
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