Christmas: Part II

JP and I spent this Christmas with his family in Gilbert, AZ, which for those of you who aren't up on your Arizona geography, is basically Phoenix.

Anytime you see these in the backyard in December, it's a good sign you are somewhere that it is not freezing. I was definitely glad JP wasn't from say Michigan (no offense to anyone from Michigan, I just don't function well in the cold).

This was the first time I had ever spent Christmas with JP's family, or anyone other than my little family unit, so I was really interested to see how this new part of my family celebrates Christmas.

Christmas Eve

We went to the Christmas Eve service at Desert Palms church. Desert Palms has a sister church that is Korean so it was a joint service. It was really cool to hear the Word in Korean, although if it hadn't been for the English translation on the screen I would have had no clue what they were saying. We ended the service with a candlelight singing of Silent Night. (Even though we were in Arizona it was still chilly at night!)

Afterward, we headed home for a yummy dinner that consisted of all kinds of dips, like cheese dip, shrimp dip, and caramel apple dip.

Christmas Day
We started the morning by exchanging presents.

I love this picture of JP because he looks like a little boy that is really excited about a gift he just opened. If you look closely though, you will see that JP actually just opened up some coal from his brother.

Babette, the "if she was a human she would be in her 90s" family dog, did not miss out on the fun. She absolutely loves opening presents and finding fun little toys inside. JP apparently enjoyed the toys as well.
After exchanging gifts, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast that included a super good pastry filled with cream cheese.

Later that night we enjoyed an equally good Christmas dinner.

We enjoyed a variety of activities while we were in Phoenix:

Shopping
Some of us went to Last Chance, which has TONS of expensive stuff from Nordstroms for relatively cheap. I got some shoes I love that were originally $110 but I paid $30. JP also got some shoes including a pair of boots.

Michael and I also went on shopping trip on Christmas Eve hitting up several stores and adding quite a few items to his wardrobe.

Food
I am pretty much obsessed with In N Out. If you don't know what it is, you need to get on the next flight you can find to California, Nevada, or Arizona (the only states that have In N Out) and go right now! As soon as I arrived in Phoenix, JP and his dad picked me up from the airport and we met everyone at In N Out. I also ate here on the way to the airport when I was leaving.

JP is equally obsessed with Filiberto's. He enjoyed a breakfast burrito the first morning he was there, and he too stopped by on his way to the airport when he was leaving.

Running
Ok, I'm not going to lie and say I participated in this, but JP and his dad ran together frequently.
I went with them once and enjoyed taking pictures while they were physically active.

History
We got to look at a lot of really cool stuff that belonged to JP's great aunt. When she moved out of her house this summer, JP's mom and aunt went to Holland to help her. They came back with tons of stuff that was full of history and stories.
We got to pick one piece. I let JP decide, and he picked the dark mug that is in the very center.

Birdie Ball
We enjoyed the beautiful weather by playing Birdie Ball several times. I had never heard of this game, but is sorta like golf but you use what looks like a very small piece of PVC pipe. I wasn't very good and actually enjoyed laying in the grass in the sun better than getting beat by all the guys!


Overall JP and I had a lot of fun in Arizona, and I enjoyed getting to spend Christmas with his family.