Happenings By Sherry

"Happy New Year"
to Everyone and God Bless!

West Family Christmas 2005

On Saturday, December 24, 2005, at 1 pm the West siblings along
with their children and grand- children gathered at the home of
Malinda and Mark Mangum to celebrate Christmas. It was a nasty
beautiful day, just pouring rain. Mandy was there from Texas,
Peggy Ann & Dusty from Auburn, Jessica & Randy from Memphis,
TN, Roshelle from Australia and of course Priscilla and her
family all the way from Asbury. I reckon that the rest of us
were from around here. We were happy to have some guests
there as well, Bill and Sue Nichols who are our cousins and
Marie's brother and his girlfriend. Like always, we had so
much good food that we enjoyed. All of the cooking etc.
is greatly appreciated! Right Buddy? There was 19 of us that
enjoyed playing the game "Dirty Santa" and we got real nice gifts.
Of course there was some swapping after it was over. Jonathan
ended up with a beautiful musical angel that he gave to his grand-
mother, how sweet! We also played the Mr. & Mrs. Wright game
where you pass small gifts to the right and left each time those
words are read in the story. Guess what? No-one remembered
to bring a copy of the story so we took turns making it up.
As always, it was crazy, but fun! Dillon and Dallas, Melissa & Tony's
twins sang "Happy Birthday Jesus" for us which is always a treat.
Last but not least, Melissa went to the piano and led us
in several songs which to me is one of the best parts of being
together. Little Lyric really gets into this part. It feels like
we've invited our Lord and He comes and fellowships with us.
After all, the celebration is about the birth of our Savior.
We had a wonderful time being together, but we did miss a
few people. We're hoping to see you soon.

CLICK ON TO ENLARGE.....



Ethan, our newest

Christmas 2005 @ The McDonald Home

Click on any picture to enlarge...






Dawson just has to help .....
Isn't he cute?




Heather, our only little girl!



On Friday, Dec. 23, all their children and grandchildren gathered at the home of Buddy and Sherry McDonald to celebrate another Christmas together.
Jessica and Randy live in Memphis, Tennesse and were to arrive between 5 and 6 pm, they were bringing rolls and macaroni & cheese. Misty and Kenneth along with Heather and Tanner live one street over, so Misty made sweet potato casserole and deviled eggs there. Heath, April and the boys, Stephen and Dawson also live on that street. April's responsibilities for our meal was to bring drinks and some deserts which she did early in the evening. Sherry had not been feeling well but was a little better and trying to get the ham, baked beans, dressing, green beans, corn and pecan pies all done when April pitched in and helped with everything real good. In the meantime, Buddy was outside, frying turkeys, not only ours but about 3 more for other people. We sat down to the feast at 6:30 pm and it was great! We enjoyed ourselves!
After the meal, we all gathered in the living room to give gifts to each other. It is always fun to watch children open packages, especially Dawson who is two years old. He got excited when he got an Elmo that sings about learning to potty and is sitting on a potty with his underpants down. Stephen also received a very special gift, a framed 12x24 picture of him in the firesuit with his jr. dragster rail. Jonathan's most special gift was a two way cell phone with one year service. Heather got a Bratz DJ Center and Tanner received a pool table. It was a very enjoyable night, as everyone received gifts.

The Countdown

This post is to share our excitement about the soon arrival of Noah Rylee. Our youngest daughter and her husband (Jessica & Randy) are expecting our 6th grandchild and their firstborn any day!! Can't hardly wait.......just keep watching....we'll let you know. The due date was the 9th of January.

The pic was made Dec. 24, while they were in Gadsden for Christmas.

New News on Dec. 29

The doctor told Jessica that it looks as if

the baby will NOT arrive by the due date,

so Jan. 12 has been scheduled for labor inducement.

But Noah could change that by showing up before then!

More news on Jan. 6, 2006

Now the doctor has changed

the inducement date to Jan. 16.

We're still praying that Noah

comes on his own before then!

Frosty Morn

When I was returning from driving Cody to school on this frosty morning, I noticed this swampy area that looked really pretty all covered with a heavy frost and a mist rising from the water, and in the 3rd pic you'll see that there was a skim of ice on the water. I stopped in the road and took several pictures from the van, then I got carried away because I just love shooting and got out of the car into the 25 degree weather and shot some more. Of course, some of these shots were manipulated in photoshop by me after I put them on the computer. I think the very last one is kind of eerie. Hope you enjoy them!!!

Christmas Caroling

On Dec. 16, 2005, a group of friends and family went Christmas Caroling in Attalla, Gadsden and Rainbow City. Altogether there was 39 people consisting of adults from age 57 down to 2 year old children. Most of the group gathered at the Mason Home in Walnut Park about 5 pm.

The first place visited was Lee & Florence Brooks, where we were invited in and served fudge made by the big man himself! Florence has had serious health problems for quite some time but we are happy to report that God is Good, she has been able to attend church and do other things as well.

Our next stop was at Loett Davis' home, she is so sweet. God has helped her wonderfully also in the sickness and death of her husband, Bro. Dilmus.

Third on our list, was Doris Burns, where we were served homemade tea cookies by her and her daughter, Sabrina. Boy, they were delicious and were made by a wonderful person!! The great love of our Savior was felt while here, especially for our good friend, Stephen Williams who was very sick.

Fourth stop was at the home of Goldie Manley, where upon entering her door, the great love of God just showered down, again for Stephen. It was W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L to be there. There were several songs sang and then the little children did "Away In A Manger" with the motions and Sister Goldie smiled and enjoyed it so much!!

We then went to Estelle Cline's home, where once again we were invited in out of the cold. Once more, the Love of God was felt toward Stephen as he entered the door. She is 81 years young and you should've seen her passing out candy canes. Sister Estelle is truly a mother in the Lord, we love her.

We also visited Ms. Long, who lives across the street from the Cline home. She is very sweet and doesn't have any family.

Next we went to Reba Vaughn's home and were asked to come in and we enjoyed it tremendously! Stephen sang soooo beautiful and loud here and I saw Sister Reba smiling really big. Check out the pic! She is a wonderful person with lots of good works! She passed out goodie bags with candies and nuts.

Rainbow City was the next stop at Coleman and Frances Bowens' home. Again we went in and she had made chocolate oatmeal cookies that were soooo good. We enjoyed ourselves really good here as we always do when in their home. They are precious friends, who have helped so many people!! God bless ya'll.

Onelda Abercrombie was the ninth stop. She just had her 70th birthday and boy does she look good! Tommy Fielder led "Blue Christmas" and she sang along liked she was enjoying it.

The Wilburn home was the final one to carol at. This home has 3 crippled men and one crippled woman and it seems that it is very special to them for us to come there. Again here, Tommy sang "Blue Christmas" which he does so very well (he sounds a lot like Elvis)!

At this point, we went to Wendy's and ate and then we returned to Curtis and Anita's for a time of fellowship. We had hot chocolate, coffee and other goodies. We also played a game called "The Wright Family", where each participant has a gift and of course at the end, you have a different gift that you keep. It was lots of fun, even the little kids played.

It was a great time from beginning to end! Even the weather was nice, with temperatures in the 40's instead of the 20's like it is sometime.

List of people involved in this event: Curtis, Anita, Tommy, Marilyn, Trent, Brenda, Larry, Paden, Haleigh, Tyler, Sherry, Jonathan, Misty, Tanner, Heather, Jordan, Austin, Lauren, Joe, Ester, Melissa, Anthony, Dillon, Dallas, Stephen, Joe, Priscilla, Vickie, Magan, Hannah, Lyric, Kathy, Alyshia, Nicole, Mark, Malinda, Matthew, Ann, and Gail and we missed everyone else! Wish you had of been there!!

PS

A GREAT BIG "THANK YOU" goes to Anita & Curtis for hosting lots of events at their home!!

They are SPECIAL......

"Merry Christmas" to all and to all a good night (seeing the clock at 12 midnight)