**I guess there kind of was a Christmas miracle because I got a 4.0 semester hollllahhhh
Thursday December 17
I didn't have too much to do in the morning so I dragged Zach and McKenzie along to go cross AJ off our list. It was a really quick trip because Avery's pre-school was having a little Christmas program and we needed to get back in time for that. So we made a quick stop at the ghost town in AJ then drove back just in time to drive to her program.
Preschoolers are super cute. There is always that one kid that sings ten times louder than all the other children... that kid was not Avery, but Avery did have the biggest fan club there, so that's pretty impressive.
After the program, Zach and I started our Star Wars marathon. We decided to watch all the movies over again before we saw the new one. Sadie joined us half way through episode 1, then Trev joined us for episode 2. I know I am in the minority when I say this, but I seriously love the first three episodes, I like the originals too, don't get me wrong, but I do really like 1-3.
Friday December 18
A day dedicated to checking off more cities off my list. This adventurers on this trip included me, Zach, Sadie and Trevor, and the cities included Tolleson, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Buckeye, Gila Bend and Maricopa. None of the places had a lot of fun things going for them, so I decided to switch it up for this trip and go geocaching in every city we went to. We were successful in finding at lieast one geocache in each city except for Goodyear. We did find where it was supposed to be, and we found remainders of the geocache but the rest of it was stolen... we assume. It was a freaky awesome fun time with these crazy friends of mine, so you definitely should watch this video:
In case you thought those last two shots were not long enough, I agree, so here are some still frames:
Because we are party animals, when we got back from our trip we watched episode 3 at Zach's house.
Saturday December 19
Ej came home from Africa on Saturday so that was exciting. He always brings back cool things for everyone and especially lots of crazy stories this time around. I can't remember if I blogged about this before, but on Ej's last trip to Brazil he brought Avery back a stuffed animal monkey. She wanted to name it monkey bar, but EJ thought the name should be a Brazilian name, so they settled on Monkey Bar Macaco. Based on that story, we were all excited as to what Avery would name her African lion and elephant. The names this time weren't that exciting, but she finalized the lion as simba (even though it is a girl) and the elephant as coco.
EJ, my mother, Kenzie, Avery and myself went out to lunch at the Richardson staple, Macayos, it was great as usual and super speedy as usual.
Trev, Zach and I watched episode 4 in the afternoon before Zach had to go to work and Trev had to install a hot tub or something.
At night, I went to the premium outlets to get some Christmas presents, and ended up treating myself with a new wallet (and since that wallet didn't match my current bag) and a new bag! There was a great sale and I just got the notice that I got 4.0 so I just had to do it.
Sunday December 20
I went to Indigo Bay ward with EJ and Zach. We only stayed for one hour though because Sadie didn't go and I didn't want to go to Relief Society alone... I did it once before and I vowed never again.
After church, we watched Jane the Virgin at my house and we all got addicted. I am just going to go out of chronological order to explain how obsessed my family is with this show and how quickly it happened.
Saturday: Rory started watching it on Netflix but fell asleep in the first episode, so EJ was the only one watching it and got hooked.
Sunday: EJ watched it while Zach and I were over and that got us hooked.
Monday: EJ and I marathoned it and my Mom and McKenzie joined in and hot hooked
Tuesday: McKenzie was home sick all day and got to 7 episodes ahead of everyone else. EJ, my mother and I watched a few episodes at night. Eventually EJ and I went to sleep and my mom stayed up util 4 am and finished the first season.
Wednesday: EJ woke up at 5 am and got ahead 7 episodes from me. I caught up a little but was still 3 episodes behind. But I watched it with EJ and Kenzie during the day and we finished season 1.
Thursday: There is only one season on netflix and we were all addicted so EJ bought 3 episodes on Amazon and got a free trial of Hulu to watch the rest. We got through about 5 episodes on Thursday
Friday: We finished season 2
One might say we have issues. Also you all should know that these are like 45 minute episodes... so it's really time consuming to finish two seasons in one week.
Alright time back in. Eventually Zach and I went to his house to watch episode 5 and 6. We got cut a little short for episode 6 because it was Walton secret santa Christmas time. I even got to join in the party with my gift from the Waltons.
After the mini Christmas we all went to their stake Christmas choir concert that Thane was performing in. It was really good, but they didn't sing Angels We Have Heard On High... seriously why don't people like that song?!?!?!
Monday December 21
Zach and I ate lunch at Canes. It was his first time going there, so it was quite the momentous occasion. After lunch we finished up episode 6, picked up Sadie and went to see the new star wars!!
I LOVED IT! SO GOOD! Apparently I had some good facial expressions during some crucial parts of the movie, so I guessss I liked it haha. I want to see it a thousand more times. Daniel/Dan/Franklin brought to my attention that it was very similar to episode 4. I was too excited during the movie to realize that, but looking back..... they were practically fraternal twins. But still guys, so amazing. I am sure more originality will come about it episodes 8 and 9.
Tuesday December 22
Another day dedicated to crossing more cities off my list. The adventurers this day included me, my mother, Avery and Zach. The cities planned were Pima, Thatcher, Safford, Duncan and Clifton. Unfortunately we didn't have time to get to Morenci, but we did get to all the other cities. I did another geocaching day because I knew Avery would have more fun if we were doing a treasure hunt... because these cities are also very boring...
I haven't finished my video for this trip so I will lay out some things we did in each city.
Pima: We ate at Taylor Freeze because they had a million signs on the road to say to go there. We also took a pit stop at the Gila Valley temple. I had never been there before, so I was quite excited to go there.
Thatcher: We had one geocache set but weren't able to find it, so a little child told us where another one was and we found that one with ease. We also picked up a stick that Avery used to help us find all the other geocaches during the day.
Safford: Successfully found a geocache because Avery could "smell" where it was
Duncan: Dang this town was small. But we find my first non-small geocache, so I was very excited. We found this soda in a gas station called Doc Holiday. Just from the name I should have known it would be like Dr Pepper, but it was pink and green on the outside, so I was very curious, so we bought a 12 pack because we are super fun.... and it turned out to be dr pepper.... still fun though.
On the drive home it was raining so hard and we were driving through the mountain and I couldn't see a thing because of light reflections and rain... I was clenching onto the wheel so hard that my fingers were stuck that way for a little while once we made it home.
Wednesday December 23
I was supposed to go with Sadie and a bunch of other peeps to go sledding in Payson, but the weather conditions weren't all that sage for amateur snow drivers so the trip was cancelled. Instead I went with all the ladies in my family to the American Girl store in Scottsdale. The 7 year old girl in me was very excited because I was seriously obsessed with American Girl when I was younger. I have now been to the one in New York, LA and Scottsdale, so I guess you could say I am pretty fancy.
We then went to Target to buy some last minute Christmas presents, and then we went to Five Guys. Remember when I worked there 4 years ago? That was funny...
At night Andrew and Sadie came over for a Dutch Blitz competition. It was Andrew's first time playing and Sadie's first time since she has gotten home from from her mission. I ended up winning the first round, and Andrew claimed the decks determine who wins. So he took my deck and ended up doing well in the second round, but Sadie won. Sadie ended up winning 3/4 rounds, so she reigns supreme.
Thursday December 24
Christmas eve! As many of you may know my siblings put on a nativity each year with some strange storyline. It tends to be rather blasphemous so no one is allowed to know what actually happens in the nativity, but I will say the characters involved: Ariana Grande, Maria Menounos, a fox news anchor, a liberal scholar, Mary, Joseph, a donkey, Jesus, Wise man, Shepherd, druins, and Joseph's former step twin Zayn. So you can just use your imagination to come up with a storyline from those characters.
After the nativity performance we opened up our pajamas, and played a few rounds of dutch blitz before it was time to sleep.
Avery and McKenzie had a slumber party in my room. Avery told us Santa wouldn't come if we watched youtube videos to go to sleep to... but we ended up watching youtube videos anyway.
Friday December 25
EJ woke up all the kids at 4 in the morning to open up our stockings, and then we woke up the rents and it was present time. Avery says getting presents is a Christmas miracle... I agree... haha just kidding. It was a great Christmas miracle though! I know presents aren't the point of Christmas, but it is a very exciting and you can't even deny that.
After we all finished opening our presents we "played" with everything. Avery got this unicorn named Star Lilly that is interactive, she dances when you play music, so naturally we played Gimme Gimme More and she seemed to respond well to it.
We finished Jane the Virgin before 9 am and then everyone went back to sleep, if they didn't already go to sleep earlier. Now we are all awake, ready to play games, eat some quiche and probably participate in an argument or two, because what is a family holiday without a feud.
Merry Christmas everyone! Even though Rory has reminded me multiple times this season that Jesus wasn't actually born on Christmas day, I am grateful for the birth of my Savior and I am grateful that there is a time that people can have breaks to celebrate with each other.
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