Monday 19

For 5 days straight (I guess with the exception of Sunday), Taylor and I did late night Christmas shopping. Good thing we are night owls and are used to getting no sleep. It was also super nice because none of the stores were busy.
Saturday we got all the nieces and nephews finished, minus baby max.


I opted not to go into the office, and instead work on Taylor's gift.

Later that evening, Taylor and I met up. For FHE, they were going out and buying gifts for a few kids. We already knew our assignment, so we bought it during our christmas shopping and dropped it off at the church. Then Heber joined us and we continued our shopping.
I wanted to buy gifts for some people I work with, so that kinda took precedence in our Christmas shopping since I had to have them ready by 6:00am the following day.
Amongst our shopping, we saw Old Navy was having a 60% off clearance sale. I knew better to believe that the whole store was on sale, but Heber still wanted to go in. It was well worth our time because I got shopping done for my mother (now had all my family done), plus baby max, oh and of course a few more things for me ;)


Tuesday 20

The school day was fabulous. For A hour, none of our students had class, so we all sat in the interpreter office, ate doughnuts and chatted.
When I got to my main school, they did absolutely nothing academic. They made gingerbread houses, and watched Frozen, plus ate more food. So good.
It was also early release, so when my student left, I went back to the high school, ate more food, and talked some more.

I didn't go into the office again. Instead I worked on Taylor's gift again. Then around 7 went to his work party. While I was driving over (already a half hour late), he called me and said it was a white elephant gift exchange. Luckily I could regift something I received that day from my coworkers, and only needed to pick up one more gift. The work party consisted of an assortment of yummy food, white elephant gift exchange, and reminiscing on christmas memories.

After the party, Taylor and I did a little more Christmas shopping, of course.


Wednesday 21

First day of break.


I decided to hit the office early, rack up the hours and then not go in the rest of the week. It was SO WORTH IT. We had two parties that day- we celebrated someone's birthday so we had a fancy cheese and cracker assortment.

Then we left early and had our "team dinner" and gift exchange.

Thursday 22


Alie and mom had to do some Christmas shopping, so I tagged along. It was a good decision because I got a drink from soda shop and lunch from gecko grill out of it ;)

That evening, Taylor and I hit up two different Christmas Light spectaculars. One was in San Tan Valley. The street was alright but one house in particular was the reason for all the buzz. They had the house super decked out and matched to the music. Syd did an article on it, so you can take a mini sneak peak on her blog if you want to see some pictures.

We drove back toward town and hit up one more street known for their lights. I think it's called comstock? It's on Higley and Elliot. The street was super classy. They also had a ton of cute kids outside selling hot chocolate, so we of course had to buy some.




Friday


The afternoon was spent wrapping gifts- first for mom, and then all the gifts for Taylor's family.
Plus eating popcorn as we worked.

The evening, I attended the annual egg nog party. It's been going on for 30 some years! It consisted of costa vida style dinner, egg nog with different add ins, desserts and sitting around the fire.

Taylor, Heber and I had an after party at their house watching Taylor's new favorite movie- Major Payne.

After the movie, we started Taylor's dad christmas eve.. We decided to get him an ipod and add all of his oldie favs. They drive a lot for work, so this was destined to be gold. But I didn't know all of his favs. So Taylor and I made a list, and then i left and started downloading a few.



Saturday

I woke up and worked on downloading songs for 3 hours. Then got Chick Fil A for Taylor and I, and continued at his house. We took a mini break at Walmart to get a gift for his dog (he couldn't not get Scooter somethin).

We eventually went to my extended family's Christmas party. It consisted of food, a "fhe" type of lesson, gift exchange and dessert. It was nice having Taylor there.

















Sunday

CHRISTMAS


I stayed up way too late, so getting up was a struggle.

Because we were facetiming DJ at 9, we decided to open gifts after church.
So when we woke up, we had our usual christmas breakfast with my grandparents.
Then we facetimed our favorite missionary.






Monday


Taylor and I both had work off- so naturally we went on a hike.







Tuesday


My old young women president wanted to go to lunch with us all during the break in hopes people would be in town. Well we still only got 1/4 of us that were available. It turned out being nice though to catch up in a smaller group and eat yummy Gecko Grill.