Jeter-palooza!!

Well, I decided to do another blog posting before we depart for our Christmas visits--that way I can concentrate on the Christmas trip when I post next in January.  The early weeks of December are filled with holiday-related cheer, including Beth's school art (above).  Usually, we have several Christmas parties to attend, including one for our local archeological society chapter.  This year, we changed the plans to make this feast "Jeter-palooza", in honor of the retiring UAM station archeologist Dr. Marvin Jeter.  Dr. Jeter, or "Bubba" as he prefers to be called, you may recall, is the person most singly responsible for getting Bragg Family South involved in archeology.  He is a wonderful (sometimes quirky) person with an almost inexcusable passion for the University of Alabama football program, and never hesitates at a chance to be goofy, as you can see with the hammed-up picture he took with our kids:

Hope and our neighbor/station assistant archeologist Jessica Howe spent a lot of time arranging for this party, which was held at a local establishment.  One of their efforts was decorating a sheet cake with an archeology theme, including small replica tools, some make out of edible cake decorations:

The missing piece in the lower corner is designed to emulate an excavation unit, with a wheelbarrow above it, and a screen adjacent to it (also note the little artifacts in the pit).  Arkansas Archeological Survey staff, Arkansas Archeological Society members, and other archeology colleagues came out to help honor Dr. Jeter:

One of the things that Jessica and Hope helped arrange was an image-based retrospective of Dr. Jeter's life and career in archeology, which we projected on a continuous loop on a screen in the room (that's Jessica thanking people for attending):

Dr. Tom Green, director of the Arkansas Archeological Survey (and planning to retire next summer as well) read a long proclamation of respect from the University of Arkansas system (the Arkansas Archeological Survey is a part of the system):

Dr. Jeter was very honored by the whole proceedings, as was his wife, Charlotte, pictured with him below:

Dr. Jeter admiring the retirement cake:

and Dr. Jeter posing with Kenny (note the "BAMA" ball cap):

We also had a musical performance by Beth to attend, which she sang a number of songs with her classmates:

After attending a bunch of these over the years, Stephen was less than impressed:

I'm sure he'll change his tune when he starts school and is in these programs as well.  Beth was proud that she had a small speaking part, which she did very well.  We also attend the UAM forestry school's Christmas party last night.  The man speaking (standing) in the back is the relatively "new" dean of the school, Dr. Phil Tappe:

I put "new" in quotes because Dr. Tappe was a long-time faculty member at this program prior to going into administration.  My research work unit works closely with Phil and his faculty & students, and we are co-located with this program on the UAM campus.  Below is a different view of many of the faculty, staff, and their families:

UAM forestry is not a big program, but it is pretty closely knit, and we have had the honor of watching many of these families grow over the years.  Hard to believe we're now some of the old-timers here, having been in Monticello almost 13 years...