New Year's Eve

Kyle and I had our own private party for New Year's Eve. We planned it together. For a BIG treat, Kyle got to have a special menu: hors devours of rice cereal and a bottle to drink. This is Kyle's first taste of solid food. I think it was definitely time because he's going through formula like it's nothing, but still acts hungry. Anyway, we partied and partied until.....9:15. Then, he just couldn't make it anymore. He kept begging to get to bed, giving some excuse like he had an early morning, or something. What a baby!


Here's a few photos from Kyle's first night of solid food:

First Bite:

It went down smoothly.

I want some more!

It's good!

May I have a bottle to wash it down?

I also managed to get a little video of him eating. Sorry about the shaking camera work in the middle. It takes a little juggling to feed a baby with one hand and watch where the spoon is going while trying to make sure that the camera is still filming the whole thing, which is being held by the other hand.

Earlier in the day, Kyle got to play with a new toy he got for Christmas: the Kick and Crawl Aquarium.

Here's a short video of him playing. Remember that he doesn't like to perform for the camera, so as soon as I started filming him, he quit talking and moving like he was. This just gives a little example of the toy in action. He did manage to do one pretty good kick.

Game Day: A&M vs. Penn State

I am SO glad we didn't waste our money to go to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio! A&M lost by a touchdown, 24-17, a disappointing loss, considering the Aggies had an early 14 point lead. They also should have scored a touchdown in the 4th quarter, to tie it up. Oh well, another bowl game down the toilet. Here are some pictures from before the game began....you can tell because we're all still happy.

Kyle can ALMOST "gig 'em!"

Uncle Hubba and Kyle

Even Julia got excited for the big game! (Not really. She's only wearing the sweatshirt because she was cold, and it's not even being worn on the actual game day. I still think this is a photo that had to make the blog. Someday her children will need to see that she'll support their university!)

Before the game started, we played a few rounds of Skip-Bo. (Don't you just hate it when the player next to you keeps stalling? "Max-O, you have a 10,11, & 12 to play. What are you waiting for?")

Baby Humor

Apparently, "goo-goo-goo" is a HILARIOUS joke, in baby talk. I also seem to deliver the joke quite well, judging from Kyle's reaction. I'm going to remember this for a New Year's Resolution: laugh more!

Hop on Pop

A second in the Dr. Seuss Onesie series, this "Hop on Pop" outfit made its debut on Christmas Day. How fitting that Kyle received the perfect coordinating accessory to his outfit: the matching book! Although Kyle cannot yet actually "hop on pop," we found it fitting to take some pictures with him simply sitting and reading.

"HOP
POP
We like to hop.
We like to hop
on top of Pop.

STOP
You must not
hop on Pop."

"SAY
SAY
What does this say?
Ask me tomorrow
but not today."

Last night, Stephen, Jordan, Julia, Chris, and I stayed up pretty late, playing cards. You know that point when everyone is pretty tired, but no one wants to stop the fun and actually go to sleep, and pretty much anything that is said becomes EXTREMELY HILARIOUS? We reached that point last night during family story time. A few gems were brought out of the vault....some stories that even Jordan and Chris didn't remember. It was late, but let me see if I can recollect a few of the highlights: Stephen getting in BIG trouble on his 12th(?) birthday for acting like "all that and a bag of chips" toward his mom and getting put up against the block fence by his dad in front of a friend; Stephen and Jordan working at Hollywood Video together one summer and many of their escapades.....Stephen ignoring people who would try to bypass the line and have him look up movies for them...people constantly asking "You got that, uh.....new movie about______,"......and the one that got us all rolling....Chris' commentary on the denim shirts they had to wear as uniforms, which started out as long sleeves, but were cut off to short sleeves by a friend and turned out to be WAY too short! They looked like Hanz and Franz or some kind of auto shop workers. CLASSIC! That led to a few memories of my 40 hr. week, working at Sonic, the same summer. The boys shared some stories about their Grandpa Blackie: how he beat up a mule, got mad when the couldn't shoot deer on HIS OWN LAND, and was the meanest man they'd ever met. That led to tales of Barbara J, chasing Stephen's friend, Brad, with a "jelly (shoe)," while Stephen hid in the bathroom, and of Johnny Taylor, the dad of one of Jordan's friends, who NEVER woke up on the right side of the bed. We spun yarns of being poor at college, like Jordan living off of food from the Chevron station at Ranger and having a piece carpet for his dorm delivered via the Jimmy. I even pulled out a classic memory, one from deep within the vault: driving to Lamesa to deliver a LARGE couch AND chair to be reupholstered, in the Explorer, with the couch inside and the chair ON TOP, and me and Chris LAYING on the couch, with the back door up the whole way, and only rope to save us from certain death. Chris said that he had "deleted that one, but had not yet emptied the Recycle Bin, so he just restored it." Good times, good times.

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, we ate a great breakfast of homemade Egg McMuffins and a new addition of what I've always called Monkey Bread, but Jon's family calls it something else. After breakfast, we all found our spots and read the Christmas story from the scriptures.
The tradition of the Coopers is to open one present at a time, no matter how long it takes. So, you just settle in and expect to spend most of the day in the living room. It was great to see the reactions that everyone had to the gifts they received.




Kyle got some really cool gifts. Here's some pictures of them, so someday he can look back and "remember." He got a really cool Braves rocking chair,
an Aggie pillow,
some baby Havaianas flip flops (he's taking a midmorning nap while we opened some of his gifts for him,)
and LOTS of other great gifts. He, like most babies, was more interested in the wrapping paper and plastic bags the gifts came in!


There were also some REAL winner gifts for Stephen. He received (again) his first chair award from an old band director. Can you believe an old teacher STILL remembers him?

He also got a GREAT? nurses calendar. This picture will be the only proof that it once belonged to him, since it will be going back to the mall....sorry, Lou.


Here's Liz, otherwise known as G-L-A-M-R-O-O-U-S! (it's a family joke from when Liz was singing that Fergie song and misspelled the first part.)


Stephen, Jordan, and Chris always keep up with some random football team. So, Stephen and I found their respective college t-shirts to give as Christmas gifts.
Here's a few random pictures of different people throughout the day:










Later that evening, Steve-o's Mom, brother, and his kids came over for dinner. Here are some pictures of them with Kyle.

Josh, Cami, and Yarrow

Tony and Kyle


Steve-o, Kyle, and Yarrow


Grandma Wander, Steve-o, and TonyThey also brought Kyle a gift: Hungry, Hungry Hippos. All the cousins used to play this at their grandma's house and drive the parents crazy with the noise. They all thought it would be a great tradition to start for Kyle and his future cousins.

Since there are no cousins now, and Kyle really can't play, Stephen, Jordan, and Chris broke it in!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, the Cooper traditions include going out to eat. This year, we went to Benihana. I had never been there before, and it was really cool. It's fun to see your food cooked right in front of you and eat it when it's really hot.
After dinner, we came home and started another tradition: opening the "presents" under the mini Christmas tree. These "presents" are really wooden blocks that have spiritual gifts (love, faith, charity, eternal life, etc..) and related scriptures on them. One is supposed to be opened and read each night the few weeks before Christmas, but we opened them all at one time.
Next, we opened stockings. This tradition is basically a "Secret Santa" in stocking form. We draw names at Thanksgiving and keep it secret until everyone has opened their stocking. We guess who we think had ours and then reveal at the end. It's pretty fun because we all usually put some joke stuff in there. This year, I re-gifted a bunch of crap that I got from my students. We got some good laughs. Sadly, I was again wrong on who had my stocking. From 2000-2005, I had a perfect record. The last two years, I have fallen short of perfection. Maybe next year, I'll get back on track.
Finally, we played a version Cranium with a twist: gift cards for prizes. Steve-o, Lou, and I came up with some new rules. This was the maiden voyage of the game, but maybe after a little editing, it will be added to the Christmas Even tradition list.


Here are a few pictures from the evening's activities.

Grandparents and Kyle

Kyle and Uncle Bando

Julia, Jordan, and Chris (deep in thought)

Jon and Liz

Steve-o and Lou, watching Raul fry some rice

Our little family

Kyle slept through most of dinner

A Very Merry Wish...

It's Christmas Eve!!! I absolutely love this time of year and love looking forward to it throughout the rest of the year. So many people say that we need to have the spirit of Christmas not just in December, but always. That is important, but December 25th wouldn't have that magic if it didn't feel different than the rest of the year. It's the opposition that makes it great. Like Shel Silverstein said,


No one's hangin' stockin's up,
No one's bakin' pie,
No one's lookin' up to see
A new star in the sky.
No one's talkin' brotherhood,
No one's givin' gifts,
And no one loves a Christmas tree
On March the twenty-fifth.
---Shel Silverstein

We can try to continuously keep charity in our hearts and always strive to remember Christ, even on March the twenty-fifth, but the magic of Christmas only comes once a year.



To All Our Democrat Friend(s):

Please accept, with no obligation, implied or explicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice to not practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make American great...(not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country, nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere.) Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To All Our Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! We love y'all.


(This came from someone at work, and I thought it was too funny/true to not pass on!)