Baby Sesus Here Are!

Though Christmas isn't quite here yet, Jason is really getting into the season. This is the first Christmas he's really been old enough to understand anything, and his take on everything has been a source of never ending amusement for John and me.

We got out our few decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Jason spent the next few days stealing unused light strings and plugging them in all over the house. We finally found somewhere to keep them out of reach (which is getting progressively harder), and I let him make a wreath with me. He loved making the "tree kircle" and enthusiastically points them out where ever we go. I tried telling him what they were really called, but he insists on "tree kircle" and I think he has a point: they are just tree circles. What kind of word is "wreath" anyway?

I was wrapping presents the other day and had to remind Jason not to touch the scissors. He pouted a little and disappeared for a few minutes. He returned with the pliers from his toy tool set, calmly knelt down next to me and started trying to cut some wrapping paper. When he got tired of that, I tried giving him a piece of tape and some ribbon. I looked up again when he shouted "Look, a bape a kitty! ha HA!" Sure enough, the kitty was batting a piece of ribbon Jason had just taped to its back.

One of Jason's favorite parts of Christmas so far is the tree. For a couple days, he told me and John the story of how we got it over and over again. To get the full effect you would have to hear him tell it as fast as he possibly can, complete with hand gestures. "A tree outside. A Daddy, a (tilts head to one side and swings arm back and forth like he is wildly hacking at something with a saw). Tree a fall down! Oh no (grabs head like the world is ending)! A in car (makes vrooming noise and mimes steering an out of control car)! A tree inside! ha HA! a light (waving all over in the direction of the tree)! a this a here, a here a here, right here! a gar (star), bear, bird, baby Dason! (pointing to ornaments)!! hahaha HA HA HA!!! A LOOK A TREE!!!!"

My mom sent Jason a book of bible stories for pre-shoolers a while a go, which I was convinced he wouldn't be interested in for at least another year. Wrong! The "Sesus" (Jesus) book quickly became one of his favorites. In fact, he is excited about "Sesus" anything. The other day he stole a sermon on CD I had sitting on my nightstand, got his CD player, and turned it on. When I asked what he was doing, he said in a very matter-of-fact voice "A Sesus CD on." Since he is so interested in "Sesus," I decided to try to explain the Christmas story to him using a Nativity set of fabric dolls my mom gave us. At first, I could tell he was tracking at least a little of the the story as he gently laid the baby Jesus doll on the Mary doll's arms. "A Sesus mommy" he said. It was very sweet, but apparently not exciting enough for him. He then took baby Jesus, threw him into his box of stuffed animals, mixed it around, and dramatically gesturing yelled, "oh no! Where baby Sesus go? OH NO!!" He then wildly dug through the mess, triumphantly grabbed Jesus and said "There baby Sesus is. Here are!" At first I just laughedand shook my head. So much for teaching a 2-year-old what Christmas is about. But after I thought about it, it occured to me that, without realizing it, Jason had said something profound. Isn't that what Christmas is all about? "Baby Sesus here are!" I hope that as my son grows up he remembers that Christmas is just that simple and just that exciting.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

If there has been one consistent theme to the three years we’ve been married, it is unpredictability. This year was no exception. So here is the 2007 batch of changes for our family…

This is John’s fourth year in the Army, which meant we were scheduled for a change of station. Though John requested to stay in Alaska for another three years, by some combination of Murphy’s Law, the US Army, and God’s grace we found ourselves with orders for Fort Knox, Kentucky instead. Packing during Fairbanks’s - 40˚ F February was no fun, but we did enjoy the pothole-riddled 600 miles down the Al-Can highway and the three-day ferry ride to Washington. After visiting family and friends in Washington and South Dakota, we continued on to Kentucky. We arrived in April and immediately started looking for a house.

After an eternity (OK, two months…), we finally bought one: 1300 sq. ft. on five acres, with a pool and a garage almost as big as the house. It is about 10 miles from post in beautiful farm country. It’s a fixer-upper, so both of us have stayed busy working on the house and property, but we enjoy having our own place and we have learned a lot about sheetrocking, plumbing, landscaping, and other home maintenance skills. John even learned to like cats after he brought home two kittens to handle the nasty mouse problem we had when we moved in.

When he is not working on the house or yard, John is thoroughly enjoying his new garage and the MIG welder, plasma cutter, tube bender, and other toys he bought to go with it. Unfortunately, there are hardly any off-roading trails nearby, but the time he used to spend testing his Jeep on the trail is now spent experimenting with it in the shop. He is considering welding as a career when he gets out of the Army in 2009. For now, John is working as an instructor; he teaches privates in Basic Training about landmines and IEDs (improvised explosive devices). Essentially, he shows new soldiers how not to get blown up. The best part is that instructors are basically non-deployable. Recently, John passed another promotion board and will officially become Staff Sergeant Cupps early in 2008.

Emily took a couple semesters off and spends her time working on the house and hanging out with her boys. She loves it. She and Jason got to do a little extra traveling this year, spending a week in Texas with Auntie Faith, and another week road-tripping in Pennsylvania with Mom, Abbie, and Nathan. While Emily and Jason had a blast on the trips, poor John finally got a taste of being home all alone. We were all thrilled to be back together.

Emily was recently accepted into the nursing program at the local college and will start in spring. After four years and five schools to get this far, she is happy to be finished with all the pre-requisites and start on the real stuff. She will graduate in December of 2009 if everything goes according to plan, which we don’t particularly expect.

Jason turned two in September. He regularly amazes (and occasionally terrifies) us. He finally started walking in April, at the age of 19 months, and since there has been no stopping him. Except for stiffness in his right arm and leg, he has pretty much caught up with his peers and most people don’t even notice anything unusual. He sees a great therapist to enhance the quality of his movements, but the real key to his success is his motivated little personality. He is smart, curious, and ALWAYS busy. If he isn’t trying to take something apart, he’s trying to turn it on, open it, climb on it, wrestle with it, immerse it in water, or light in on fire. Currently his favorite things to do are help Daddy in the shop, help Daddy “drive” the Jeep in the backyard, play outside with his trucks, read books, play with the kittens, and listen to music. We love being his mom and dad!

The three of us wish you all a merry Christmas and God’s blessings in the New Year.

Much love,

John, Emily, and Jason Cupps

Total Conformist

After swearing that I would never have MySpace, Facebook, or a blog, I now have all three. So much for sticking to my guns... In my defense, keeping in touch online is the easiest and fastest way since we live so far from everyone. I hope this turns out to be an easy way for everyone to keep up with us if they want to!