Carsten and Mom on Thanksgiving
Carsten in his Thanksgiving outfit
At 11:30 PM on Thanksgiving I ventured out to Target to go to the Black Friday Sale. They had the toy we wanted to get Carsten from Santa for $20 off; I was so excited but was sure there wasn’t any way I would get it. The line was so long and I just knew I should have gone earlier. By the time we got into the store it was 12:15, I grabbed a cart and headed right back to where I had seen the toy the other day. There was one more left! I was so excited! The check –out line was the craziest part. I got in line and finally got to check out at about 1:10! It was well worth it for the little amount of sleep I got. Later that day we went back to the Mall where it took us 45 minutes to find a parking spot, but we were able to find some great deals on clothes for Carsten!
We went to several Christmas parties that were all so very fun! First we had our Church Christmas party; we had pizza and peppermint ice cream. (Not what you would expect at a Christmas party I know!) Then we went to the SCCO 1st year Christmas Party, it was a pot-luck and there was some amazing food! It is very fun to go to parties at the school because everyone just wants to play with Carsten. Then we went to the SCCO Student Spouse Association Christmas party. We had a delicious Christmas dinner and Santa even came for a visit. It was so funny, Carsten’s cheeks were so chapped that the picture with Santa makes it looks like he was Santa’s little elf!
Santa and Carsten at the SCCO Spouse Association Christmas Party
When Jake was on Christmas break we got together with a bunch of our friends and traveled down to LA to go see the lights at the Los Angeles Temple. On our way there we stopped at In-n-Out and got some burgers; people were looking at us so weird and we heard some people saying “wow there are a ton of babies.” There were only 4 little kids and 3 babies! The lights were beautiful! It was chilly out that night so Carsten was able to wear his winter coat that I bought for him several years ago! Haha!
My friend Kristine called me one day and told me that a Vons Grocery store by her house was going out of business and they were having a 50% off sale and you could use coupons. So the day of the sale I met her at her house at 6 AM and we went over to the store. I only bought things I had coupons for except for diapers. I ended up buying over $300 dollars worth of food and 3 boxes of pampers for $86 dollars! The boxes of Pampers diapers each had 100 diapers in them and each box only cost $10 that was a lucky day!
Our friends invited us to have a Bonfire at Huntington Beach. It was very crazy thinking that we were going to the beach on December 22nd. Surprisingly it was warm enough that we didn’t even have to wear coats. We roasted bratwurst and had some smores. It was very fun and we are looking forward to doing it again!
My parents and Christian came down to California for Christmas. We had such a blast with them and wished they could have stayed longer. The night they flew in we met them at a place called Rogers Gardens, we thought it would be decorated for Christmas but it was mostly shops all decked out with Christmas décor. It was still fun. Christmas Eve I went shopping with my parents to get the last minute items that we needed. That night we opened Christmas pajamas and Carsten was not very happy that he had to wait to get ready for bed!
Christmas started late because we had 9 AM church, luckily it was only 1 hour. After church we came home and made a big breakfast (Jake got a waffle maker from my parents and they gave me non-stick frying pans and we couldn’t wait to use them!) Then we started to open presents after that. Carsten loved his presents and new clothes from Santa! Santa brought Jake a work out shirt and Jalapenos, and he brought me a Jamba Juice gift card as well as some stocking stuffers! Jake got me some new sweaters and I got Jake some more work out shirts. Our most exciting gift was that my parents bought us a new camera! It is a Sony Amex 5K, we absolutely love it! It takes amazing pictures, and I feel so cool using it! Carsten’s favorite gifts would have to be his fire truck and police cars that Andrew, Anna, and Brooklyn gave him and his Nike’s that he looks so stylish in that Uncle Christian gave him!
Santa gave Carsten some skinny Jeans for Christmas because he didn’t want Carsten to have saggy pants. Well we tried them on him and poor Carsten couldn’t even sit down. His thighs are very “muscular” and it just wasn’t going to work, needless to say Santa let us return them for some straight legs that fit much better!
The day after Christmas it was 80 degrees outside so we decided to go to the beach. We decided to try out Laguna Beach because we had never been there but had heard it is beautiful! I have to agree and it might just be my new favorite beach! We had a little picnic and then we explored the tide pools. Star fish look completely different in California then in Washington. We spent the whole day at the beach. After the beach we went to Esther’s Taco House, they have delicious tacos that everyone needs to try.
We were excited to celebrate New Year’s but 2012 started us out with colds, so Jake and I stayed up until Midnight to be awake for the fireworks then we went right to bed!
Around Christmas our washer started acting up. It wasn’t spinning the last rinse cycle so the water would be left in the washer when each load was complete. We began looking for washers but decided that we would have to wait and save up. I began looking online for solutions and found out that it was most likely our timer and that would cost us a fraction of what a new washer would. I talked to my Dad and he agreed with me. I ordered the part and found a video on YouTube of how to take apart the washer and replace the broken part with the new one. Jake and I were able to follow the video along with doing some thinking of our own because they weren’t exact matches. We were able to fix it and now the 17 year old washer that my parents gave us 2 years ago works good as new. We are very blessed to have a washer again!
Alex, you and Jake have such a great looking family and Carsten is very cute. I'm glad you both had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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