We are in the valley for Christmas Eve's Eve...I'll try to remember to take pictures.

We dropped Bowden off at preschool.
Then made our way to the office to post.

And that's the morning.

This weekend was our church's Living Nativity. Bowden and his cubbies class sang in the sanctuary.
Liz was pregnant Mary on the donkey.
Mike was a wise guy- and a wise man, too.
The older class going out to sing.
I was dazed and confused as the Mary in the stable. I had to rush out here...isn't it fitting? Me, as Mary? Really, there was a shortage of teenage girls, so I got the job. The next night I was a townsperson. Demoted.

It was great fun.

So my baby Jacky had his first "solid" food yesterday. His first non-breastmilk food- except for that book he gummed a piece off of last month.
No, butter was not his first food. The box kept him occupied...
...while I mixed the milk and rice together.

I hardly ever wear sweatshirts. They make me feel bulky and junky-looking.
Notice my closed mouth to encourage Jacky to keep it in. This is his first bite- and he liked it.
Although he made funny little thoughtful expressions after the first few bites.

That's about how it went.

He ate up the whole four tablespoons or so of cereal! He did some nice work, that Jack-boy and has now entered the world of the chewers. Even though he didn't chew.

We went down to Hemet on Wednesday and bought our Christmas tree. I made dinner when we got back home, and Josh trimmed the trunk and set the tree up. The kids all helped decorating, in their own way. Jack slept on the chair.

Bowden and Lucy helped put ornaments on the tree- Lucy stuck them all on one branch in the back and Bowden put them on the very edge of the branches so that they fell close to immediately after being hung. Then they found the little toy ornaments we got for the gingerbread house two years ago, and they were done trimming.
I neglected to take a picture of the tree, and I should. The poor thing isn't drinking its water, and I don't think it will make it to Christmas.

This baby is half -a-year old.

He sits propped up.
He likes toys and robe belts.
And his jams.

Sometimes I think he looks like my mother-in-law.


He's pretty cute. I would have edited the red eye out, but it takes forever, and I am hungry, and I just am not so dedicated. Still, this baby is pretty cute. He got his first two teeth in over the last two days and has not been so happy, but generally he's a blast.

Pictures of the kids just so you can gaze at them.

Tate chickens, all three.

We got snow- three days ago?- and I bundled the kids up as much as I could and we went outside.

It was very exciting, and even Jack liked it...
...from the cover of the carport.
We made snowballs, and went sledding and made a snowman.

We had a camp in, so we went down to the dining hall for our meals.

( Lucy showing me snow.)
It was so fun that the next morning I woke up and came downstairs to two hatted chickens looking at the load of snow newly fallen in the night, and wondering if they could go outside and play in it.
"It's too early yet. I'm not all of the way awake."

All morning long I was asked if I was awake yet.

My friends, the Whites, own the Idyllwild Inn up here- a place I worked at for a few months. Last week they had a lodger decide to heat his cabin with his oven. Nobody was hurt, but they lost two cabins because of it.

On days when Lucy does NOT have her nap, she will usually be found like this. To pooped to pop.