Eventful week! Syndicate, Christmas, Ariel, etc

Well these past few weeks have been very eventful.

I flew in Ariel Beck to train with us at Syndicate for a week!

I met Ariel on The Ultimate Fighter season 26, and despite being on the other team (Team Alvarez), we chatted and made friends living in the same house. December is kind of a slow month for Syndicate…I guess people don’t want to come to indoor practice because it’s a frosty 50 degrees outside….? Just kidding. (actually, I’m not kidding) But anyway it was great to have her here. Just like her nickname “Sunshine,” she is super sparkly and positive. It makes sense for us to be friends. And actually, I really needed that sunshine this week.

A few weeks ago, one of our fighters Jessy left Syndicate. It’s too bad she felt so negatively about a place I feel is positive and I love so much. Just goes to show that everybody is different!  I wish her the best of luck wherever she goes next.

I ended up helping teach the little kids Muay Thai class, which was stressful but I feel accomplished that I started figuring it out.

Serena had surgery early December to repair a damaged body part, which is good because she was kind of stagnating and just waiting, not really being able to train. I really miss training with her.

Jeslen, ammy fighter, pro wrestler, and my new friend has been helping me teach little kids jiujitsu in Serena’s place. She’s a life-saver! Thank you!!

I organized a gym Christmas party with Mama Wood. I’m not even sure how many adults came because I was so busy making sure the kids were okay and entertained.

A bunch came. I had bought a pinata and Ariel helped me stuff it and figure out how to hang it. IT WAS AWESOME!!

They all enjoyed hitting it, and when it finally broke, it broke slowly, with candies dribbling out little by little, which was perfect, and then FINALLY when one of the bigger-little kids whacked it, all the kids let out a SCREAM and dove for the candy, which was the optimum reaction. XD I took the pinata box and shook it, scattering candy everywhere. They let out screams of delight as they scooped it up.