Mission #3: Final Wrap-Up (Christmas 2013 part 3)

Mission #3: Final Wrap-Up

Wednesday December 25, 2013
6:15 pm


First off, if you're still reading this...kudos to you. You're a patient soul.

Christmas dinner was wrapping up. Ham was delightful. Funeral potatoes are always a delight. Red Hot Jello will always be a favorite of mine. Life was good. We had four Mormon missionaries from our local ward (aka congregation) over for dinner: a pair of elders and a pair of sisters. The conversation had been lovely and the company was oh so grand.

Checking my phone, I had the final voicemail from the mysterious unknown number. I put in on speaker phone so everyone at the table could hear and participate.

The regular cast of characters were back: Mountaineer, Freelancer, Phoenix, Oracle, and Raptor. But we had some new friends joining us for the ride! The missionaries were given code names as well in order to protect their identity (because, you know, the badges on their chest weren't going to give anything away): Alma and Amulek, as well as Sariah and Abish.

The first clue was left on the windshield of Freelancer's car. The instructions were simple: go Christmas carol to each of the houses we had visited earlier in the day.

So we did!

Hats off to the kind and patient souls of the S, J, N, and P families who allowed us to interrupt their Christmas festivities not just once--but twice. That's a whole lot of love.

Thankfully we had the missionaries with us so we could truly tap into that righteous power as we went to sing. Our family can be described many ways with many choice words but "good singers" are not really accurate descriptors. We got really good at singing the first verse of "Joy to the World" (spoiler alert to those families involved: yes, we sang that song at every single house). And it honestly was the nicest way to wrap up Christmas. At least for me :)

I've grown up with these families. Coming home from college is as much about seeing these people as it is about seeing my own immediate family. It takes a village to raise a child...and holy cow I definitely needed a village. I could go into specifics on how each of these families and each of these people have touched my life...but they know who they are. They know (or at least SHOULD know) how much they've meant to me. You're all fantastic and I love each of you to pieces. Thanks for allowing us to come be totally goofy today :)

At each house, these kind people patiently gave us yet another clue: each containing one word to spell out a final message. Piecing it altogether, we obediently followed the instructions to go sing to the G-family.

As much as I had been enjoying these secret missions, it required us to be pretty much constantly on the go all day. Which was fun. It made the presents portion of our Christmas stretch for a good solid 10 hours--which is pretty impressive when the youngest in the family is 14. But it was also kind of tiring. There was no vegging in pj's all day and picking at leftover monkey bread. It was go-go-go-go-go all day. So by the time the third mission rolled around and we'd already gotten two batches of pretty huge gifts, I was telling Mom in the car: "If we get to the end of this and it's like 'Merry Christmas your gift at the end of this mission is the gift of Christmas cheer!' I'm going to be upset!"

I sound like a Grinch. I know. I said it to Mom like 5 times though.

Lo and behold, what does the family clue from the G-family say: "Your gift is FAMILY because families are eternal!"

We all groaned and rolled our eyes and I gave my Mom a hard time about it while we walked back home.

Getting home, there were envelopes with each of our names on it. We got Disney giftcards for us to spend when my family comes to visit me in Florida in April. Merry Christmas to me :) I'll get to wrap up four months of living at Disney World (I'm so excited. So so so so SO excited. Can you tell!?) by my family coming to visit me and we'll party it up down in Florida. I think that'll be really neat.

So...if you're reading down here at the bottom than you are really dedicated or, and the more likely option, incredibly bored. Kudos to you for reading four posts about how Christmas went at our house this year. You're a trooper.

This is the spot where I should make some profound statement about how none of today really matters because at the end of the day, it's all about Christ and what He did for us. And that's true. That's what today is really all about. But, as it was so nicely put on Sunday, if we're living our lives with Christ as the focus...that's what every day should be about.

I have not a clue as to how spending Christmas day being a secret agent with my sisters has some big profound, life-altering, metaphorical meaning. I don't. Not a clue. Maybe tomorrow inspiration will strike and I can come in here and tie this up with a nice clean ending. But hey, it's 12:30 in the morning. It's the 26th now. Christmas 2013 is officially over. A lot has happened in 2013. I've been incredibly lucky and it's taken 20 full years for death to finally be a real scary personal force in my life. I lost people in my family that I was close to...and others that I wasn't as close to. Maybe there isn't some profound spiritual message this year so much as just a really awesome memory that I'm always going to hold onto. Because if nothing else, I got to witness my baby sister kiss a boy on the cheek today and watch her turn a shade that would put even Rudolph's nose to shame. That was pretty darn cool. There are going to be years that I'm not going to get to spend Christmas with my family because I'm busy with my own family (fingers crossed knock on wood).

Dad asked me this year what family traditions were important to keep around this year. I mentioned that the scavenger hunts we did as a kid were always super fun. I don't remember the presents we got or what the clues said or even where we had to look. My memories just involved us running around our house like complete psychos as we tried to find the next clue. We did that this year. Just on a much larger scale using cars and latitude/longitude coordinates and mistletoe and Norwegian.

Growing up, I loved riding in the car with my Aunt Cheryl but she never had any good music that would please a kid. Except for one tape. She had a Sesame Street Christmas tape that I loved and we would listen to it in the middle of the summer when we were going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium or to the beach or on whatever aunty-Sydney adventure she had planned for us. To this day, I can't hear the "Twelve Days of Christmas" being played without hearing the different Sesame Street voices singing all of the parts. It's my favorite version of that song. But anyways, there was a song on that tape that I haven't been able to find anywhere else and even as a kid I remember listening to it and realizing that there was some real profound truth in it.

So. Even though I'm not capable of a clean concise 'concluding paragraph' that would satisfy my high school English teachers, hopefully including this song will get me off of the hook.

Keep Christmas with you :) I'll post the URL in case the video isn't working.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiPI5c1KPx4
Merry Christmas!

Mission #2: Project Fermosa

Mission #2: Project Fermosa

Wednesday December 25, 2013
2:30 pm

IMF was kind enough not only to give us advance warning that it would be prudent for us to be showered/dressed/put together for the day, but also to give us advance warning to do so. Secret agents or not, we're still three teenage(ish) girls sharing a bathroom so we took our sweet time getting ready.

Another unknown call. Another voicemail.

This time, our first bit of intel was taped to our mailbox. The mission was to involve the same team as before: Mountaineer, Freelancer, and Phoenix with logistics/transportation by Oracle and communications by Raptor. This mission was to be set with the premise that we are contestants on the 'Amazing Race'. In order to achieve the next clue, we would have to complete some sort of obstacle at each checkpoint. Finding the first clue behind a utility box down the street, we discovered that we were going to go visit some family friends. So off to the S-Family we went (Name withheld for the safety of the families involved with this secret mission).

The S-Family presented us with two different options. The options were very cleverly named but I cannot remember what those names were...but I know we picked option one! As the two options were uncovered, we discovered that this first challenge was an eating challenge. Option two required us to each eat two very long very stale gummy worms. Phoenix and I wolfed them down without a problem. Freelancer...struggled. Phoenix and I were grateful for the option we had chosen because the alternative choice would have left us each chugging an ENORMOUS glass of milk...and the two of us are not big milk-drinkers.

Our next stop was the J-Family. This family informed us that the title of the challenges taking place in their home were Mistletoe-themed. Freelancer, feeling like option one hadn't served us very well the last time, decided we should choose option two. Option one would have required each secret agent to stand at least 10 feet away and shoot her sister in the foot with a Nerf gun (get it? Missile. Toe. Mistletoe. Bahahahahaha). Yet unfortunately...that is not the option Freelancer stuck us with.

Instead, we were told that we each had to kiss every eligible bachelor in the room.

Blushing. Cue lots and lots and lots of blushing.

Now thankfully, there were only two of these eligible bachelors to be found. And they both were gentlemanly. Though I will say, Mr A. J-Family leapt to his feet pretty dang quick after hearing this challenge read aloud ;) I won't reveal his identity but I've known him for a while. A long while. Like...back in the days of Joy School a long while. He and his brother Mr M. J-Family were good sports and were each kissed on the cheek by the three of us.

Let's be real right now *to be read in a very airy high princess-like voice*: at that point, this mission was no longer about the reward. It was reward in and of itself to just have the chance to kiss the cheek of such fine men.

Ahem. Anyyyyyways ;)

Phoenix was still blushing furiously when we got the N-Family. This family required that at least two sisters do a song/dance routine to the song of their choice from the new Disney movie 'Frozen'. I opted out, but Phoenix and Freelancer rocked it with a charming duet of 'Do You Want to Build A Snowman'.

The P-Family was our last stop for this adventure. We had two choices at this stop: Popcorn or Wiseman. Phoenix went with Popcorn (coincidentally, her guilty pleasure of choice) and we were told that we had to sing the beloved LDS Primary classic "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" with full finger movements and everything. The P-Family patriarch reserved the right to make us sing it multiple times if he didn't feel that we were singing loudly and enthusiastically enough. Suffice it to say, we sang that song a total of three times out in the middle of their yard. A woman on a bicycle was even flagged down to stop and listen to our performance. No, we had never seen this woman before. But she had very high praise for our singing capabilities.

All that said and done, we returned home where we had recovered intel leading us to yet another hidden Christmas present.
Phoenix got a new phone. Freelancer got a 'new' camera (the same one that she'd lost at Girl's Camp but was found just before Christmas) and I got a new digital camera to take to Florida with me woot woot!

If you're still reading this and actually give a hoot as to how the whole saga wrapped up, there's another blog post for that! Keep reading! :)

Mission #1: Project Whetstone (Christmast 2013 part 1)

Mission #1: Project Whetstone

 Wednesday December 25, 2013.
10:15 am.

A garbage bag stuffed with discarded and shredded wrapping paper lay in the middle of the empty living room floor. The television held images of a dancing fire burning brightly in someone else's fireplace while Christmas music played. Each of us were still pajama-clad and sitting around the dining room table feasting on traditional Christmas morning breakfast: monkey bread and cocoa moo (aka chocolate milk). Knowing that we were awaiting a call that would relay details of the initiation process into IMF, my phone was sitting next to me at the table.

My phone rang.

A call from an unknown number.

Father questioned my choice of Fantasmic music as my ringtone but hey, I love it. Don't judge me.

This blogpost would be WAYYYYYY too long if I typed out every single cryptic message we received, so I'll summarize:

All three secret-agents-to-be would receive codenames. I, Mountaineer, was the team leader. Freelancer and Phoenix were my teammates. Oracle (Mother) was in charge of logistics and transportation. Raptor (Father) was in charge of communication between the team and Headquarters. There were three missions that would take place over the course of the day. Mission one was focused on retrieving a thumbdrive containing project 'Whetstone' that had critical information contained on it. Civilians were NOT to know of our mission and in the case that we were captured or killed, the Secretary would disavow all knowledge of our information.

Each of us (Mountaineer, Freelancer, and Phoenix) were texted identical set of longitude and latitude coordinates. With the magic of GoogleMaps, we were able to discover the location where Raptor had scheduled intel to be dropped. Discretion being key for the safety of any civilian eyes who might be reading this report...intel was found in the designated location (under a bench at a bus stop).

This started us on a hunt that last for about an hour as we traveled across the city following these different clues. Tasks included wishing a family 'Merry Christmas' in Norwegian (please note: GoogleTranslate makes the pronunciation much more difficult than it actually is), traveling to the classroom where Freelancer attends early morning seminary five days a week, and locating a handicapped parking sign at a local park.

It was at this point, we were giving coordinates to a safehouse where the thumbdrive containing Project Whetstone was hidden. As we received text messages from an unknown individual that I began referring to as 'Q' (Seriously people, the humor is much better if you've seen James Bond movies and/or the tv series 'Alias'), we were warned that hostiles were in the area of this safehouse and they might fire at us with super soakers. Having a twenty minute drive between our current location and this safehouse, I texted Q to ask him how many hostiles our intel suggested were in the area. We were told that the information was unknown at this time. I asked again, asking for just an estimate so the three completely unarmed still-basically-in-pajamas agents could have some idea of what to expect.

Q responded thusly: "Cannot say as this is a party line. Comms being monitored. This line is being cut. Good luck IMF. This message will now self-destruct".

I sent one final text message in response, informing Q that he had been fired. (To this day, the three agents do not know the formal identity of the agent referred to as 'Q'. We would like to take this opportunity to commend him for his impressive improvisational skills and wish him a Merry Christmas).

To say that we were paranoid to approach this random house in the middle of suburbia California was an understatement. I stood watch, looking frantically up and down the street for the first sign of hostiles armed with super soakers, while Phoenix and Freelancer went to work looking for the thumbdrive. We found an odd duct-tape-wrapped object about the size of a thumbdrive and unwrapped to discover that it was, indeed, the necessary object. (No, there were no super soakers involved. Yes, we were all a little disappointed).

Returning home, we plugged the thumbdrive in to see a message informing us that Project Whetstone had been safely recovered and the Secretary had left a Christmas present out by our recycling bin.

I would gladly tell you what that present was....but if I told you, then I'd have to kill you ;)

END OF MISSION ONE. 

Confession: I was too lazy to write all 3 missions up in 1 big long post. The other missions have been written about, just in two different posts on this same blog. They're pretty easy to find and not cleverly named so there shouldn't be too much confusion.