At the time I was located in Mesa because Rory had arrived home.
Thursday night was the first of two graduations for my brother EJ. I know you all might be thinking he was graduating high school and how odd it is that he is graduating in December... well he is actually graduating from University with a Bachelors in Political Science with an emphasis in foreign affairs and a minor in Portuguese. This ceremony was just for his college, the college of social and behavioral sciences (AKA the people college). At this ceremony EJ got to walk which was super awesome and fun. Here are some pictures of pre-ceremony and ceremony and post ceremony.
The main speaker performed "Ticket to Ride"
After the ceremony everyone went to Native New Yorker (it was the second time I went that week). Everyone included my parents, my grandparents, my siblings, Steph, Steph and Lauren.
After Native my family and I (minus EJ) headed back to Mesa.
On Friday my Aunt Elin came to see Rory/see EJs second graduation. We spent the day attempting to see Frozen, going to a few stores and then the best part... she bought Rory and I costco memberships... which is truly the greatest thing I could have ever wished for. I can't even tell you how many time I have craved costco muffins but did not have the means to get them.
Friday night was the ward Christmas party. Good people, good food, good jokes and an odd Grinch.
After the Christmas party I went to go have a game night with my best friends, AKA the fam. Unfortunately whenever the fam gets together there is always one person missing, the missing person this time was Keaton. Also unfortunately we were only able to make it through one game. The game choice was pounce... also known as Dutch Blitz. Since there were not enough decks for everyone, Sadie and I had to be on a team... it's not like we were pros at this game or anything but we completely slaughtered the boys. Here is the score sheet...
Like I said we only got through one game... so that was the end of game night. But we did make a trip to Sonic for people to get their midnight snacks.
Saturday morning my family and I woke up bright and early for part two of EJs graduation in Tucson. This graduations was for all the colleges and all the students the were graduating with their various degrees. Since there were many more people in this ceremony, only the PhD recipients walked and then all the other colleges were recognized individually. The ceremony was awesome with some really great speakers. I am supes totes proud of my brother for all of his accomplishments at the University so far and helping me and being my friend for his last semester.
After the ceremony we had a party at my apartment to celebrate EJ. We bought eegees subs and fresh fruit frozen drink things. It was definitely a full house. EJs best friend, Shannon even came down from Mesa to celebrate with us.
Since my mother has discovered pinterest she made lots of awesome banners and decorations to put all over the apartment. She also had decorations for the water bottle that looked like this...
After the celebration we cleaned up and them split into cars to go back to Mesa. Since Steph had a flight to California out of Phoenix she came home along as well so I rode home with her in her vehicle.
Later on Saturday once everyone had arrived at my house we went and saw Frozen. I loved it. But let me tell you... I only cry in movies that involve an animal dying, specifically dogs. BUT I WAS CRYING WITHIN THE FIRST TEN MINUTES OF FROZEN. I don't know if that means the beginning was really good or really terrible... overall though I thought the movie was very good.
On Sunday we went to church. The Christmas program during sacrament meeting was awesome. I helped my Dad in his primary class and got sung to in primary for being a visitor. After church EJ and I drove Steph to the airport and bid our adieus for a couple of days. Then the day went on with various naps from various people and various movies being played. Eventually everyone was all awake at the same time and we had a dance party. This dance party at first consisted of playing Just Dance 2014 but then it turned into moon walking competitions... which then turned into everyone cheering "U love A" while Avery danced in the center of the circle. If you haven't seen the video, I suggest you go look for it on my facebook.
On Monday Elin left to go back to Canada bright and early in the morning. After saying our goodbyes and 5 AM I went straight back to sleep. At 9 AM I went hiking with my best friend Sadie at silly mountain. I love hiking mainly because it has nothing to do with running and it gives me time to just talk to whoever I am hiking with. After our hour long hike we went back to her Grandmas house to pick some tangelos and make the heavenly tangelo juice. It's my favorite winter tradition to do with Sadie.
Then my mother, Rory, Kenzie, Avery and I went shopping for our last minute Christmas gifts for the various people we wanted to give gifts to.
Then for family home evening we went around handing out our Christmas cards along with a treat called "Reindeer Noses" (again my mother has recently discovered pinterest recently. She found Reindeer noses on the site which were made out of whoppers and sour cherries) to all the people in the ward we love enough to give a picture of our faces too (if you are in Eastridge ward and did not receive a treat and/or card, we must have ran out before we got to your name on the list).
After family home evening I went to hang out with Zach and go to Chick Fil A and watch Arrested Development before Sadie/Trevor/Parker got off work. Once they got off work we played phase 10... or at least started to play phase 10 before curfews crept up on everyone.
Somehow Tuesday rolled around. And what was Tuesday? Christmas eve of course. The day mostly consisted of cleaning because my grandparents were coming over, so I will skip over that.
If you know anything about my family, you know that the Richardson children put on a nativity scene every Christmas eve... but it is never the normal nativity.... although the normal nativity is incorporated at least at the end. This years theme for the nativity was "The Liberal War on Christmas" (this is funny because my family is very liberal as some of you know) as Miley Cyrus tried to destroy the nativity from happening so people would say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas... The heros of the story consisted of Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Rob Schneider. I won't go into details but there was a dance off because I'm sure you were all worried that we wouldn't be able to incorporate zoolander into the scene. For everyone who agrees that this is very blasphemous, don't you worry, we did act out the correct nativity scene at the conclusion of our own story.
After the nativity we all opened our Christmas Eve present, which is of course Christmas pajamas.
After our photoshoot my sisters and I built a fort in McKenzies room as by Christmas Eve tradition. Inside our fort we listened to music and watched Barbie Dreamhouse until they fell asleep, then I continued to watch Footloose because I couldn't sleep. Eventually I did fall asleep.
3 AM rolled around, which meant that it was time for my siblings and I to wake up and open our stockings. Stocking are the bomb because they are filled with all the essentials and so much candy.
After we dug through our stockings, we woke our parents up to open up all of our presents. Christmas was awesome this year because I didn't really know what I was getting so it was all a surprise, and the surprises were awesome! Shoes, gift cards, movies, and more. My family is the best, they know me all too well. In my family, instead of having to buy all our siblings presents, we do a secret santa present for one of siblings which we are assigned. For the second year in a row I got Avery. She is the easiest to shop for. This year I bought her a Sofia the First easel/mirror... she didn't really know what it was a first but after I set it up, she loved it. After opening all the presents people went back to sleep for a few hours and then woke back up to party for the rest of the day. Today was filled with lots of different games. EJ and I did an extreme Just Dance workout... we probably danced for a total of 2 hours throughout the day and burned at least 300 calories, yes we were counting.
It's been an awesome Christmas spent with my family filled with very minimal conflict which is always awesome. I hope everyones Christmas was full of awesomeness like mine was. I wish everyone the best of luck in their boxing day shoppings tomorrow. I will be in a car traveling to Utah for Taylor and Natalies wedding!
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