Christmas 2007

 

The Annual Christmas Group Photo including my family, my sister's family and Mom

 

Nanny and her crazy grandkids

 

My family with our diabetic dog, Pope

 

Pat with his mom, brothers and sister


The pictures over Christmas this year were so good, so I wanted to share! Spending time with our family was fun and relaxing. Everyone complains when they have to have a group photo, but it is worth it to me. I received a gift this year from my mom that was such a surprise and it made me cry..no bawl. After I opened three layers of boxes I opened a beautiful little black box that held my grandmother's wedding ring! I was so touched and so very thankful to be the recipient of this ring. Thanks, Mom! My grandmother meant so much to me and I miss her so much. In 1972 she was killed instantly in an auto accident. She was a beautiful lady who loved her grandkids and loved to spoil us!

Take Me Back to Texas

 

 

 

Oh My Gosh! Take me back to Texas quick. I am in Oklahoma City and it is too cold for me. It is 20 degrees out there with ice on the ground. We are spending time with my sister, Kelly, and her husband, Brian this weekend. Kelly & Brian are cooking breakfast right now and I should be helping! Our families, plus Mom, played dirty Santa last night with $5 gifts. That was fun and it got ugly. Mom and Bubba were fighting over the lottery tickets...Bubba won, but the lottery tickets were worth zilch! I ended up with my favorite, Russell Stover candy and Pat got a sling shot! What fun he will have!

Dad, Michelle and Tiff came yesterday and left late yesterday afternoon. The roads were getting worse so they had to head out earlier than planned. Dad, I am in my white fluffy robe this morning and love it.

I smell the bacon cooking and need a refill on my coffee!

Hugs!

The 2007 Christmas Letter

 

Merry Christmas! We love your cards and pictures that you send and I look forward to going to the mailbox every day to see what surprises are within!

G is playing basketball and made the A team. So that keeps us busy each week. He is also playing with his select team, The Heat. He likes school and loves hanging with his friends!

Bubba got his senior pictures done a couple of weeks ago, so that felt good to get that out of the way. It is hard to beleive that we will be attending his graduation soon. He is planning his first ski trip after Christmas with our church and he is very excited. He has had a broken finger these past two months and fortunately he will not have to have that pin put in surgically. Don't ask me how the finger got broke!

Sis finished up with her semester and she is working full-time over the holidays at the bank. She really enjoys her job and loves the people. We have missed her and can't wait to spend some relaxing time with her.

Pat is winding down for the year at work. He will be off until the 6th of January. He has big plans after Christmas to build some fence, hang out with his girls (his cows). There have been over 23 calves born in the past three weeks! Oh, he will also turn 50 on New Year's Eve! He said that we are not going to celebrate! Yeah right, Pat!

I am now breathing easier since my shopping is done as of yesterday. I always say that I am going to start shopping earlier each year. In January I have a couple of design jobs I will start and I continue filling floral orders. I am so thankful for the growth of my business and I am having so much fun! I plan on teaching Microsoft Word again this semester at the Women Job Corp in February. What a blessing it is to see women grow in life skills, work skills and gain a closer relationship to God. It is an amazing transformation.

We are headed to Oklahoma to see my sister and her family and have Christmas there with Mom and Dad too! We will be home for Christmas Eve and spend time with Pat's family.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Please stop by if you are in the area or near Hico. You have an open invitation and we would absolutely love it!

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas, but most of all we pray that you truly know the love of Christ and His grace and mercy that are new each and every day!

Blessings to all of you!

Promises Community Christmas Dinner

 

Whew! The Promises Community Christmas was Saturday night. Two months of planning and then it is over! But, what a blessing it was. Our church had 355 guests and there were over 320 volunteers. Our church was in motion. The picture above was from last year, but it looked the same this year.

Yesterday I stayed home and cleaned house and tried to get some kind of order back in the Easterling household. Pat and the kids said they were glad to have me back full time! Thanks, family, for supporting me and helping out that night.

Now, it is time to Christmas shop. I have never waited this late to start, but I did buy three gifts today.

McNatt Christmas

 

Dad and His Brothers and Sisters

 

Dad's Family

 

Daddy's Girl

 

The McNatt Cousins


The McNatt Christmas! It is held every year and I have been going since I was born. My dad has four brother and sisters and the the family tree begins. There are about 94 in all counting the spouses. Since my grandmother died, my Aunt Sissy has had it at her house in Pilot Point, Texas and we usually gather together the second weekend in December. It is crazy when we are all together...especially when we sing the "The 12 Days of Christmas"!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are pictures from our Thanksgiving which started in Oklahoma and ended up in Hico.

Time Is Getting Away From Me

Yes, I know that I have not posted lately, but will soon!

The 12-year-old Sky Angel Cowboy

Logan is 12 years old and listens to KSBJ on Sky Angel because he lives on a ranch in a very small town in Nebraska. He called the radio station distraught because he had to take down a calf. His words have wisdom beyond his years. After many emails and phone calls the radio station decided to put the audio online for us all to hear. After hearing this all I could say was wow! Grab the tissue and know that you will be touched for listening.

Click here for the link.

I Am Thankful

Leah at South Breeze Farm has a wonderful idea for the month of November,which has a wonderful holiday. To be thankful all month long, so I'm participating too.

Going to the Murder Mystery

 

 

The kiddos on Halloween Night headed to the Murder Mystery! They actually enjoyed the dressing up. They will not do that when Mom and Dad want them to!

Happy Halloween---My Favorite Part!

I can't wait until G comes home with the candy tonight. I hopefully will get to choose those wonderful candy bars from his sack such as Butterfingers and Milkyways. Maybe I will see a long time favorite Sugar Baby sucker and surely those little boxes of Milk Duds will be hiding at the bottom somewhere. Pat will be searching for the Bit o Honey and Snicker Bars. G I hope you enjoy what is left! Oh, by the way, you know that candy from your kid's bag on Halloween night has no calories!

This Is What I Am Doing Until December 8th

The picture above is the annual Promises Community Christmas dinner. Four years ago I was asked to coordinate this event and the planning for 2007 has begun. Our church has a ministry called Promises Ministry. The development of this ministry happened all because our church cares and wants to communicate the love of God in a practical way. We recognize that there may be a wide variety of circumstances that bring individuals and families to our church whether it be clothing, food, financial assistance or prayer. The dinner is one huge Christmas party serving a turkey and dressing dinner prepared by our church members. We bring out the china, linens, and big smiles. Each child is given two presents which are chosen lovingly for each child by our church families. Each child receives a wrapped gift of clothing and toys. While attending the dinner, they are entertained with a Christmas program created for the children. This year the 515 invitations go out Thursday. This event takes a lot of planning and preparation, and all of us are so blessed to be a part of it. Pat and the kids help too and we look forward to this dinner every year as it is the best part of Christmas for us, as it is truly the reason of the season!

G the Gangsta

 

 

G went to a Halloween party last night and I wanted to share his picture. Believe me, he is not bored this year!

90 Minutes In Heaven

We went Thursday to a nearby church to hear Don Piper speak. What an amazing man. If you have not read his book, 90 Minutes in Heaven, you are missing a blessing. On his way home from a church conference in 1989, Don Piper’s Ford Escort was struck head-on by an 18-wheeler. He was killed instantly — pronounced dead by four sets of paramedics. But God worked a miracle and sent Don back to a broken body. To date, 34 surgical procedures have taken place. He walks only as a result of miraculous and in some cases medically unexplainable circumstances. During the time he was dead, Piper was granted the extreme privilege of glimpsing Heaven itself. He was in Heaven 90 minutes! To here him describe Heaven will bring tears to your eyes. If you miss your loved ones in Heaven, you will have such a peace when you read this.

There is a little personal connection with this book. Pat was reading it one night and called me into the living room and was so surprised. Here is what he read:

Once while I was still in the ICU, it seemed as if every time I opened my eyes and blinked, within seconds someone thrust a spoon filled with food about six inches from my mouth. "Just open up." One time it was a man's voice. I opened my eyes and stared. Holding the spoon was a burly man. He lifted my oxygen mask and gently poked the spoon into my mouth. "That's it, just take a bite." I obeyed and swallowed while my drugged mind tried to figure out what was going on. Slowly I realized that the voice belonged to Stan Maulden, head football coach and athletic director of the Alvin High School Yellow Jackets. Our daughter would live with Stan and Susan and their two children during my convalescence....That gentle act of sacrifice by a bear of a man was one of the most thoughtful acts I witnessed during my days of recovery. Stan epitomizes strength and tenderness combined in one exceptional person.

Stan Maulden is Pat's distant cousin. Isn't this such a small world?

A Project Finished

 

 

 

I am so excited! I have wanted to take all of our pictures, frame them in black and white, and put them up in my stairwell. My friend, Ann, came over Friday and helped me. Thanks Ann!

My Silpada jewelry party was a hit and I get $550.00 worth of free jewelry. I also got my house all clean from top to bottom. It was a lot of fun!

Bubba a DJ?

Don't touch that mike!

Bubba had a job-shadowing assignment from school and he chose to job-shadow at 99.5 the Wolf Radio Station and their morning show in Dallas. We left at 6:15 a.m. this morning. Missy, the morning show producer, gave us a tour and shared with us her job duties. Today was an important give-away for a trip to Atlanta to meet and have dinner with Trisha Yearwood. The winner would be the 99th caller. Missy let Bubba answer the calls, "Welcome to the Wolf, you are caller 32, welcome to the Wolf you are caller 33 .....welcome to the Wolf you are caller 97, you are caller 98 (he heard a squeal because the caller was one call away from winning the contest) and then the winner was the next caller. It made him nervous because he couldn't talk that fast! We had a great time! Sis job-shadowed four years ago at the same radio station so it was a second time visit for me.

I Need to Slow Down

As much as we complain about it, we are drawn to hurry. It makes us feel important. It keeps the adrenaline pumping. It means we don't have to look too closely at the heart or life.
--John Ortberg

This was the topic of our Home Bible Fellowship study last night. Many of us have "Hurry Sickness". Most of us lead hurried, harried lives. Ortberg describes the American lifestyle as being so rushed and preoccupied that we don't actually live life, we just skim over! Hurry disrupts our life-giving connection with God, so if we want to grow spiritually we must train ourselves to eliminate hurry.

I am so guilty of hurrying and not enjoying the moment. So often I am looking forward to checking off the items on my "to do list" or looking to far into the future and not enjoying my life moment by moment. I desire to change.

Welcome Fall

 

So glad to be able to decorate for fall and I am still waiting for that cooler weather. I am hosting a Silpada Jewelry party on Sunday, so this has put me in the decorating mood. You know how you need to get those things done but only a party will push you to do it. I am still waiting for Pat to pick up the bale of hay for me to put at the front door.

Memories

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

A Camera in the Woods

Camera in the Woods

Is modern technology used now in hunting? Pat received this camera from his buddy, Brian, and he is thoroughly enjoying taking his laptop out to the camera in the woods and seeing just what the camera's eye is photographing. We rode the four-wheeler to the camera and hooked up the laptop and viewed 19 pictures. Most of them, turkey, deer and cows, repeatedly. Who knows, there may be a surprise on there some day!

Home Away From Home For Us

Many of you know that we hang out a lot at the ranch in Hico, and very few of our friends have had the chance to visit us there, so I thought I would show you a picture of the house. It was built in the 20's but has been remodeled many times over the years. We have done little changes since we bought it, but we did paint the doors and shutters. As a matter of fact Pat installed a screen door this weekend on the front and we could not wait to hear the "slam" of the door.