Anyways, we had an amazing time visiting our families for the holidays and the only hiccup was that I left my camera and video camera at home in Florida. That's right, I have no pictures of Jackson's first Christmas, awesome. Luckily we have some from camera phones and also there were several others who had cameras around and captured some of Jackson's moments ... while I'm thinking about it ...
Dear Kristi, Ashley, Alise, Troy, & Jamie --- Please send me your photos! I have no pics of Jackson in Utah! So please email them to me (raychee123@gmail.com) Also, please be on the look out for your mom's camera cord so she can send me the ones she took. Thanks
Love, Rachel
Ok, back to blogging ...
We had so much fun in Arizona getting ready for Christmas! We did our Christmas Shopping, Baking, Partying, and really got in the Christmas Spirit. My mom always decorates the house to the max, so it's so much fun being home for the holidays. The weather was great and Tyler went golfing 4 or 5 times, we played tennis, went on a hike and played around outside. We saw the Mesa Temple Lights, went to our favorite Arizona eateries, ate yummy christmas food and treats at home, went cosmic bowling and to the movies. I finally saw Harry Potter 7.1, and then Tangled and The Tourist. Tyler and I went out on a date to the Biltmore in Phoenix and enjoyed having willing and able babysitters for Jackson.
Speaking of ... Jackson had a very eventful first Christmas season! He had just learned to crawl the week before we headed out West, so he sharpened his skills while in Mesa. He can pull himself up on virtually any surface and while slow at first, now crawls crazy fast. Thanks to his grandpa, he also further developed his taste buds. He tried grapes, tomato, pears, cheese, roast beef, mashed potatoes, waffles, pizza crust, graham crackers, and he even snuck him a cinnamon roll on Christmas morning. Needless to say, he's not devouring through his baby food jars quite as fast as he used to... he'd prefer real food! Jackson also learned how to get from a laying down position to standing (I discovered this when he was supposed to be sleeping and I found him standing up holding on to the side of the porta-crib.) He really did not sleep great at nights, he decided to wake up every couple hours for basically the whole three weeks. But no one other than Tyler and me would have ever known since he was an angel during the days.
Christmas Morning has always been such a fun time in the Christensen Home, this year was our first one without my brother Michael though ... He's been on his mission for 7 months now, so it was his first Christmas away. But luckily, we were able to talk to him later that morning so that made it fun. We got an early start (before 7 am) opening our presents, and Jackson woke up and joined the party around 8. (His Christmas Present to us was a night of somewhat decent sleep!) Jackson got tons of cute clothes, books, and some fun toys. Nothing over-the-top since it all had to be packed in suitcases... I surprised Tyler and got my "read-aholic hubby" the Kindle! I wanted to get him something fun since he got me an early present of a new family desktop computer :-) I had never surprised him with something big like that, and I think he liked it!
I wish we could have squeezed a few more hours into Christmas morning because at around noon we had to head out to the airport to catch our flight to SLC. Jackson was an angel on the plane (fell asleep just after the plane took off) and the 75 minute flight went by in the blink of an eye compared to the 4 1/2 hour flight from Orlando. We were greeted at the airport by Tyler's dad and drove down to Orem for an afternoon meal at Tyler's grandparents' home. Later that night all of Tyler's siblings (except Troy who was in Cali with his new fiance) came over for some present opening fun!
When we got to the Jennings home the tree was loaded with presents, but Jamie quickly warned us, "it might look like a lot, but they're all for the grandkids!" And she was right, Jackson got totally spoiled by his grandparents with cute outfits, books, and toys! It was pretty cool having 2 Christmases this year!
After Christmas we spent the next week in Utah playing games, eating good food, drinking smoothies, and getting caught up with all of Tyler's siblings. While all of them had to work that week, there was normally always someone to hang out with Jackson and us. We were able to meet Travis and Alise's cute little girl Avery and Jackson was able to bond more with Reese. We also got to meet Tammy Dyer (soon to be Tammy Jennings) and were glad to welcome her to the family! Jackson went sledding for the first time, visited Papa and Nana up in SLC and we went to lunch and breakfasts with friends and cousins. It was a long trip but so much fun! When we live so far away from our family, we've got to make it worth it when we go out there!
Now that we're back home with just the 3 of us I'm sure Jackson's wondering what happened to everyone! He's now getting into EVERYTHING since he's crawling and it's normally just me here watching him. His favorite "trouble" spots are the cupboard under my bathroom sink, the tv stand, and the pantry. But it's also really fun to have him crawl to me when he wants to get picked up, and to watch him stop whatever he's doing and crawl toward his daddy's voice when Ty gets home from work.
2010 was such an amazing year for us, and we're excited to see what 2011 will bring!
2 comments:
Cant wait for you guys to come!! It will be really fun
Merry merry Christmas! And a happy new year too. Looks like you had a blast out west & that you are LOVING your new house.
Can I please come stay there in your pretty green bed? Oh, I do want to... like soon. I gotta make sure you'll be in town though because you guys are quite the travelers!
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