Christmasy Timey-Time!

Christmas Vaca in Cali

Although we traveled to Washington State for Christmas, Jordan, Jackson and I were excited to have our own family Christmas.  Well, Jackson was happy, but I'm not sure how much of that had to do with celebrating Christmas early or the fact that we were playing on the floor with him, haha.  

Anyhow...

For the past two Black Fridays I have made a Christmas shopping list and hit the sales.  I love shopping sales!  I can spend the same amount of money, but get many more gifts :)  This year my major goal was to buy a Christmas tree.  Last year we tried to get one after Christmas vacation, but there were only pink and white Christmas trees or "California palm" Christmas trees (both a bit on the abnormal side for me).  I wanted a tree that looked real!  And I found one at MICHAELS!!!

It may only be 4 feet tall, but it's ours and we love it!  There's something about lit Christmas trees that always speak to me!  It's that special Christmas glow of having the lights out and the tree lit that just gets me tickled about this wonderful season. 

This is Jackson "opening" his first present.  

He was having a bit of trouble and asked mommy for help :P

And I know he's a boy...but don't all kids just love sticking the bows on their head?!  It's like a 3D sticker, right?  ...Or a huge band-aid :)

Jordan headed up the "scissor required" presents:

The day after "Christmas" we headed out on our first flying trip with Jackson.
Here we are, waiting in the airport after getting through security.

I was so happy he stayed groggy till take-off.  Jackson is a pro flier!  He ate for 5 minutes at take-off and landing and slept the rest of the way.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

For the Christmas half of our vacation we visited my side of the family, the Allen's, aka Grandma and Grandpa's.

And I must say, Jackson LOVED the attention.  He was held almost every minute of every day!!!  Ok, that's an exaggeration, but you get the picture.  One of the most important visits we made was visiting my Grandma Willey!  She is soooo excited that Jackson is here!  As number one great grandson, he inherited her favorite baby outfit from when my dad was a baby! Here's great Grandma Willey holding Jackson:

My Grandma and Grandpa Martinson and Great Aunt Peggy stopped by a couple times and couldn't get enough of Jackson!




We also enjoyed spending time at my Aunt Patty's home.  We enjoyed games, dinners, and visiting.  Jackson fell in love with my cousin Jill too, haha.  Here they are:

And I can't forget cousin Tommie either!  He loved chilling with her, hehe :P

For Christmas Eve my family has a tradition of getting together at my Aunt Patty's home and having a huge Christmas dinner.  Afterwards we just hang out, sing Christmas carols, and then SANTA COMES!!! Jackson wasn't scared at all, he likes Santa.

Santa Clause also gives each child their first Christmas gift.  Jackson got a board book called "Goodnight Moon".  I love that book!  Jordan and I had so much fun showing off Jackson!!!  I call him my angel baby, hehe.

Christmas morning dawned on a Sunday.  And it was quite a busy morning.  We decided it would be best to postpone opening Santa Clause gifts and what not until after 11am church.  So, we set about getting dressed, eating, and making it to church on time!  Jackson was ready first...and I must say he is quite the looker in his Sunday outfit!

And he was quite content hanging out with Uncle "Rick"while the rest of us (my younger brother, older brother, sister-in-law, baby cousin Zoey, Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandpa and Grandma Allen, Jordan, and I) finished prepping ourselves for church.  

After church, Jordan thought it would be a good idea to re-dawn our Moose PJs (thanks Ryan, Karin, and Hochstrasser boys!) to better relax and enjoy the Christmas festivities.  I thought it a good idea too.  Here's our little Moose family!

(...Grandma gave Jackson a moose hat which just added to the whole effect of our outfits, hehe)

The rest of the week we enjoyed spending quality time together: 

Playing with cousin Zoey! (We are all very excited to have cousins soooo close in age)

Uncle Tanner acting as book holder so that Jackson could enjoy a bit of light reading!!! 

(Yes, we have a genius baby)

Playing games!

And, of course, enjoying Jackson and the time we have together as a family!!!
 Jackson looks surprised here from the flash, but he LOVES it when Daddy plays with him :)

Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas and loved spending so much time with family.  

Blog post to come: New Years Eve with the Hochstrasser Side :)

Christmastime!!!

Christina and I had a wonderful time this past Christmas. We left California for Washington on Thursday, the 23rd, and came back late Sunday evening, January 2nd. Part of that trip we spent in northern Idaho at a cabin high in the Rocky Mountains. But first, Christmas!!

The Christmas weekend we spent with my family in University Place. On Christmas Eve my mom made a bunch of hors d'oeuvres and we had some family and friends over. It was a lot of fun! 

Christmas morning came and we were the first one's up (as a side note, we were the only "kids" at home, one of my sisters and her family live in Tacoma, but they didn't come over till 10am.) It's my family's tradition to get your stockings off the stairs when you wake up, but then wait for everyone to go into the living room and open presents.

We ate breakfast so that we could wait for my sister, Angela, to arrive with her husband, Keenan, and two girls, Daysha and Jayla. Here's Christina and I with all of our Christmas loot!

I got some good stuff, including: Toy Story 3 dvd, shirts, gift cards, The Book Thief, John Adams, Up piano book, a tie, and the board game Pompeii.

Christina got a cake decorating kit and other cooking things, a spa kit, scrapbooking supplies, sweaters, gift cards, Blokus travel addition, and a candle warmer. 

Daysha sure enjoyed having us around, especially Christina. They played a lot.

Jayla has one of the biggest smiles!

Daysha and Christina showing off some of their bling.

We'll talk about our trip to Idaho in a new post. New Year's Eve was fun too, although we don't have pictures. My home stake rented out the local YMCA. It was a bit crowded, especially in the pool and the racquetball courts, so we didn't do those two things. But we did attend the salsa class my mom taught, played a little wallyball, used the eliptical (which is cool for people that don't have a gym membership anymore), and met up with some friends. 

The rest of the time at home you would find Christina, my mom, and me playing games like these.

Aviating Seattle

While visiting my family (by the way, this is Christina writing - shocker), we hoped to go flying. Not just booking a flight and paying money to take a trip, but actually go behind the controls and operate the metal birds! Unfortunately, my dad's plane was out of order - so instead we went to the Museum of Flight and learned much about planes, pilots, and the history of flight.

The museum was huge! After going through the WWII section, which only encompasses about 1/4 of the area we were wiped out. Jordan decided to take a rest and have a cup of water with some of the locals...

 

 

But we still needed more "mindless" time, so we had to take a mental break and play some video games. Well...kinda of. We actually were flying plane simulations. Jordan and I concurred that they were more difficult than expected. Here's a picture of Jordan flying his simulation plane.

To end our day of flying we got to test drive a real jet!  Here I am about to take off!!!

Just kidding.  It was bolted to the floor.  All in all it was a fun day with the fam :)

 

The Great State of Washington

We've been in Washington since August 4th, switching some time between my family in University Place and Christina's in Poulsbo. We haven't taken many pictures, but here are a few of the fun things we've done the past two weeks.

We went to Odyssey 1, a kid's play place, with Daysha.

We took a trip to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. Unfortunately, we went on a free Tacoma day. So it was really crowded. It took a half an hour to park. Fortunately, they counted us as Tacoma residents and we got in free. Here is Daysha and Christina on a carousel they have.

There were some tiger cubs born in the zoo. 

Here we are in a little nest that Daysha likes.

In Poulsbo we went canoeing with Cathy (Christina's mom). We went about two miles to Port Gamble in Gamble Bay, part of the Puget Sound, then back. We forgot the camera, so the only picture we took was when we got back. Our arms are tired!

We're in Poulsbo for a few more days then off to the Washington coast with my family for the weekend. Then off to Brazil!

Happenings

Just an update on what's going on in our lives:
-Christina worked for about three weeks substituting in the Provo School District after her student teaching ended.

-She then decided to accept a summer job from APX Alarm in their call center. Not the most enjoyable work, but a lot more consistent than substituting, which would have ended in 2-3 weeks anyway.

-I'm still working 1-5pm at a small CPA firm. If I ever put it on a resume I'll write down "Office Assistant," but I'm really the secretary.

-I have taken 2 out of 4 sections of the CPA Exam. I finished the second one, Business and Economic Concepts today and am pretty sure I passed. I took Regulation (covering tax and business law), and have no
idea if I passed. I may not find out for another month. I hate the suspense! You can retake sections individually if you don't pass. Each section is between 2.5-4.5 hours.

-We will be leaving Utah the end of July and going to Washington for three weeks, then to Brazil.

-I'm playing intramural racquetball and softball. I won my first racquetball game this week. Somehow I got on a really good softball team, and we have won our first two games 26-2 and 29-4.

-Christina and I have started hosting a games' night every Thursday at 8:30pm. Let us know if you're interested in coming. So far it's only married couples, but it doesn't have to be.