happy christmas eve!!

we are all in natchitoches, louisiana and it’s a big family affair!

have a great christmas eve everyone!

our very first christmas program…

jasper lilith’s school had a christmas program and while i couldn’t accurately call it “fun”, i could definitely say it was “funny” to watch!

the three year olds were cows or donkeys so that is why she is wearing a donkey on her head 🙂

they all did their singing and fidgeting while we parents videoed or snapped pictures like mad – it was a congregation of cameras all looking toward the kiddos on stage 🙂

jon catches her waving at me in the crowd!

all the little girls were completely dressed up in christmas finery…  except jasper!  i put her in a casual little dress and it didn’t even occur to me to doll her up until i saw all the other little girls christmased-out to the hilt!

oh, well 🙂

she matched me in a way:  most of the other parents were dressed up as well but i was planning on running afterward so i just went in my running clothes!

it was convenient but i got more than a few looks 🙂

jon was the one up front and taking the videos and pictures this time, thanks, babe!

here she is checking out her daddy!

we see you, jasper lilith!

christmas is almost here, i promise!

you know i take a lot of photos when…

jasper puts her puppy to bed and then exclaims, “he so cute!  i need to take a pichture!”

and then she runs to get her very own camera (thanks to heather, david and duncan!) and proceeds to do just that!

heather, she is taking pictures of everything!

she woke jon up from a nap the other day while trying to take a picture…  of his face!  a very, very closeup of his face 🙂

busy taking pictures of her sleeping puppy!

now she is cooing over the puppy – “momma, look how pwecious puppy is.”

i see precious all right.

and then apparantly, i was talking too loudly.  jasper tells me, “shhhhh, mommy!  my puppy is sleeping!”

“we need to be vewy quiet so we don’t wake him, ok?”

ok, ok…

stickers, anyone?

here you go, tracie!

stickers aren’t just for paper, you knew that, right?

she does love sticking things on to herself – when it was time for her bath, she removed each one carefully and stuck them on one of her stools…  which i was not happy about buy hey, the stool is plastic!

thanks, tracie!

“it’s christmas-time!”

we got out christmas tree up and all of our lights up!

we got the tree friday night but didn’t have time to do anything but set it up…  the next morning, i hear jasper get up and then, “oh!  our chwistmas twee!”…  i smile sleepily until i hear at a much closer distance (like in my ear), “mommy and daddy, it’s good morning-time!  letz go put candy canes on the twee now!  come on!  get up everybody!”

and so we get up…

here is jasper helping me with the bows – she handed them to me and i put them on the tree…  unless she got distracted by the tv – then i would get a, “not now, mommy, i busy.”

and so i would get my own bow…  because she was busy.

by the way, she set up the little desk there on her own – she arranged the stool, ran and got a smaller stool, put the bows on it and plopped herself down…

once we got the bows on there, we pulled out the candy canes and went to town on that christmas tree!

jasper helped with the candy canes…  while she wasn’t busy trying to convince me that she “needed” a candy cane “since it was chwistmas-time”, that is…

now here, she is either putting a candy cane on the tree or helping herself to a christmas-time candy cane!

it could be either one!

there is my little helper!

after we were down with decorating the tree and the rest of the house, jasper declared, “we ah all decorated!  now itz weally chwistmas-time!” and then she asked, “can we open pwesents now?”

i caught a picture of her enjoying the tree and just sitting there admiring it… (or she could be eyeing the candy canes)…  again, either one!

later that day, heather and duncan came over and we made homemade peppermint marshmallows – oh, man, are they good!

here is a hot cup of cocoa with the melted ooey-gooeyness of the marshmallows on top…

and last but not least, our finished christmas tree – presents and all!

jasper and i strung live cedar garlands on the mantle place and over the bar so the house even smells christmasy!

her enthusiasm  is catching – it’s christmas time!!!

it is that cold!

finally!  it is cold enough for a fire in our hearth!

the first fire of this winter and jasper lilith is very eager to sit by it.

“now, daddy?  now can i sit by it?”

“mama, i wish i had a footbah playuh!”

richard took all of us to a baylor vs. texas tech football game (baylor being his alma mater) over the thanksgiving holidays.

they held the game in the new cowboy stadium so not only did we have fun watching a football game but we also had fun exploring the stadium!

which is huge, by the way…  huge.

oops, sorry, richard!  i got the texas tech side of the field instead of the baylor side!  shame on me 🙂

i think the count of people that were there that afternoon was over 70,000…  it was really an interesting experience.  there was so much going on that no matter where you looked, you had something to watch!

the cheerleaders, the band, the crowd, the footbal team, there was something to see no matter where you turned!

jasper got into the game – she especially loved the clapping parts!

and we all know her love for binoculars!  this game was just another excuse to use some!

the game was about 3 hours long and let me tell you, jasper did great!  she watched the game for the most part and when she would start to get restless, mom and i would go walk around the stadium – i brought this bag ‘o stuff for her to do and she didn’t touch anything out of that bag except for an extremely smushed banana moon pie 🙂

more clapping!  and even some standing!  baylor must have made a touchdown!

i am not a football fan but being surrounded by such energy does something to a person!  there was jumping up, wincing, oohing, aahing, clapping and gasps – all from little old me.  the non-football fan.

hey, who knew?

our little jasper!  who was soon moaning over the fact that she forgot to bring her pink football…  and also wishing for a “footbah playuh” for her very own…

jon said a quick and fervent, “no!” to the football player request, by the way…  i, on the other hand, told her that we would talk about it later…  much later.

the two of us – look!  jon is almost really smiling!

richard, mom, jasper, john (richard’s brother-in-law from nova scotia), jon and me!

thanks, richard, for a great evening!