https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=soW7q6F5eas
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! It has been so great being back in AZ! I arrived in the afternoon on the 19th and hit the ground running! My days have been filled with family, friends, and fun. Cheesy, but true! The evening of the 19th we celebrated Christmas with my whole family. My brother and his family left for Georgia for two weeks on the 22nd, so we wanted to celebrate all together. We had some delicious food and opened presents. And with three kids running around there was the usual chaos, which I had missed!
The 20th we went to a Christmas/Cookie Decorating party that we go to every year. It is always so nicely done and this year it didn't disappoint! I also had dinner with the Dwights for Mr. Dwight's birthday. It was great to see them all and spend time with them! We also watched the Cardinals game in the evening and they won! The AZ Cardinals are now 13-2, hoping for the Super Bowl this season!
The 21st was my grandma Clark's 80th birthday! My mom's two siblings flew into town to surprise my grandma as well. She was very surprised! We had a nice dinner for her with the whole family and family friends of ours, the Mosers.
The 22nd I went to dinner and a play with the Dwights. We went to see "A Christmas Carol" at a local theater. It's a tradition with his family around Christmas time and the play was great as usual!
The 23rd I went to see Star Wars with my parents and Jeremiah. I had only seen one Star Wars movie before this, but Jeremiah gave me a run down of the plot. I ended up following for the most part and enjoyed the movie!
On Christmas Eve we went to the 3:30 service at our church. It was a great service. I love Christmas Eve service, especially when we light all the candles and sing Silent Night. It's such a great celebration and important to remember. After church we went over to the Mosers for appetizer-type foods like we usually do. That was really nice! But I couldn't stay long so I could make it to the Dwight's house for a delicious dinner with the whole family. Then we went to other church service with his family which was again, very nice! Then we went back to their house for dessert and presents! I think I've mentioned it before, but it's a Swedish tradition to open presents on Christmas Eve. That has always made it easy for Jeremiah and me to celebrate with his family on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas Day. It was a great night with his family!
Christmas Day I was up early and Jeremiah came over followed by Emily and then Heather, George, and Madeline. We had a yummy breakfast, then opened stockings and "fun bags" from my grandma. Then we opened presents! We had saved presents from my parents for Christmas Day. It was a great morning! After that we quickly started prepping and cleaning for an early Christmas dinner. For dinner Emily's friend, Courtney, and a guy my dad bikes with joined us! It was nice to be able to share in the celebration with them since they couldn't be with family. The dinner was delicious! I definitely enjoy Christmas dinner more than Thanksgiving dinner. So many of my favorites on Christmas! So Christmas was a bit different than normal, without some family and with a couple friends, but it was just as great. In the evening, Emily, Courtney, Jeremiah, and I went to see the movie "Joy" which was pretty good!
In the days since Christmas Jeremiah and I have gone bowling with his family, spent time with friends, taken Madeline to Chuck E Cheese, helped Heather and George with a big Lucas family Christmas party, gone on a date, and many more things. It's been a great week and a half! We are on our way to Disneyland with my parents for the New Year! Excited to celebrate in the happiest place on earth!
We want to wish a happy new year to everyone and hope everyone had a merry Christmas. Don't forget to check out the video of my trip!
And even though I'm back in the U.S.- Pura Vida!
