christmas card {and that darn letter}

December 2014- In case you missed it, here's our annual Christmas card:

I'm still in a non-traditional Christmas theme phase. Hope you don't mind. The pictures this year were an interesting experience for all of us.  It just didn't work out for my best friend to come and take them for us. After I got over the panic that resulted from that issue I had a momentary rush of confidence thinking I CAN DO THIS!!

"Take your own pictures," they said.  "It will be easy," they said.

"They" obviously don't have a Brazos:

And although there was a great effort on behalf of the Worrell men to appease me and my anxiety over Christmas card pictures, this pretty much sums up the session right here:

But as you can see from the card, I ended up with a few that were good enough to send out into the world via our Christmas card list. And for the record, I don't recommend taking your own pictures, especially the group shot. And I hope I don't have to do it again, but we'll see.
P.S.- Casey hates the way he is standing with his hand on his hip. But I promise I did not instruct him to do so. Every other picture with him in a more natural stance had a RiverBoy looking at the ground or some absurd facial expression so I had to use this one :)

Now for that darn letter.  I've created a monster with it. And even though no one cares about it nearly as much as I do I still manage to burden myself with it each and every year. Down to the last minute.  It's not that I feel I have to write something fantastic to compete with anyone else or even project such a wonderful life in yearly summary. Quite the opposite.  You see, this is my thing- I don't run marathons. I don't go on mission trips to third world countries (although I might like to some day). My kids don't have school lunches crafted into cute cartoon characters accompanied by origami love notes from mom...truth be told they barely even get a lunchable thrown into their lunch box. Because those aren't my things. But designing a card and writing a letter is something I can do. So I try to do it the best that I can...for myself. Sorry if you thought it was all for you.

So here is the 2014 edition:

Worrell Wanderings

2014

  

Let’s just say 2014 was a year for great fun, new endeavors and hard work. But like they say, “all work and no play makes for dull RiverBoys”…or something like that. We can’t let that become of us, so although we didn’t take a big family vacation this year, the RiverBoys still managed to spend the summer completing an assortment of fun activities {think swimming, hiking, kayaking, camping, fishing, exploring and the like}. Memories were made, exhaustion was exceeded and everyone survived.

Pecos played machine-pitch baseball in the spring and flag football this fall. Football continues to be his favorite but with such long arms he really has an advantage of leverage when throwing a baseball. He is doing well in second grade and especially loves dodgeball in P.E. He shot his first deer this year, a six-point buck. Casey told him all hunters have to smear the blood of their first kill on their face. He wore it with pride and didn’t want to wash it off so it would still be there for school on Monday. After much discussion about showing livestock this year we decided to wait a little longer before getting into showing cattle. But then Erin was out of town one weekend so Casey loaded up the boys and they set off to pick up a Hereford heifer. And just like that our daily schedule included feeding, washing, rinsing and a multitude of other tasks to get her ready to show. Pecos has enjoyed going to a few shows this fall and is looking forward to more. We took the prize for proudest parents in the world when he won his first belt buckle for showmanship. A show heifer should be more than enough for us to manage, but no. We felt like we needed something that could be in the premium sale at our county show so we’ve added a pig to the inhabitants at our place. Both projects are providing plenty of work, learning and personal growth for Pecos and the rest of us {and more time-juggling challenges for Erin}. Never has a kid had so much sideline show coaching as Pecos.

Our rambunctious second child, Brazos, marches to his own beat. He was not interested in flag football or anything else that involved organized activity. In fact he says he doesn’t want to play any sports, he just wants to show ALL the animals. He got his start at the Gillespie County Fair this year with one of his favorite chickens. He is quite the enterprising chicken rancher. He invested his fair winnings into another chicken he saw there that he liked. The young girl that owned it wasn’t really interested in selling it but Brazos just flashed his blue eyes, turned on the charm and brought home a brand new chicken. Looks like we’re in for trouble in his teenage years. At four years old, Pre-K occupies his days but he would still rather go on the road full time with dad…to supervise {he’s good at giving instructions}. He still does all of his own stunts, like trying to fly by jumping off of his bed. Perhaps taking him for a small airplane ride on his birthday wasn’t such a good idea after all. Now, if we could just get him to slow down long enough to eat more than two bites of any meal he may finally pull himself out of the bottom fifth percentile of weight-for-age and height.

With the boys returning to school in the fall Erin had high expectations for catching up on things around the house. That didn’t exactly happen as planned thanks to an abundance of work in the form of freelance projects and assignments from Demeter Communications. She continues to pursue her photography hobby whenever possible. Casey and the boys surprised her this year by sending her to a David Stoecklein workshop in beautiful central Idaho. She didn’t even realize it was something that should have been on her bucket list but will forever be grateful for the opportunity to learn alongside such an iconic and legendary western photographer. She also managed to squeeze in a weekend on the beach in Florida soaking up the sun with college girlfriends. She still dreams of loading up her camera gear, hitching to a vintage mini-camper and heading west in search of big skies and wide open spaces.

Casey never fails to push the limits of miles that should be driven and work that should be done on any given day. This has been his best year ever with his cattle ultrasound business. He tries as hard as he can to get to his customers on the day they need him but until he can find a way to add more days to a week he’ll go on burning the candle at both ends. Regardless, he works hard for them every time and heads back home as fast as the law will allow {or not notice}. We sincerely appreciate each and every one of you and feel blessed to call you customers and friends.  Casey has definitely gotten caught up in showing heifers with Pecos, but the clipping he does for ultrasound really doesn’t work very well for show cattle.  Our heifer has a few patches of missing hair…because she wouldn’t stand still is our official statement on the matter. With a few more trips to Sullivan Supply and enough practice, he might just learn to clip one someplace other than over the 12^th and 13^th rib.

So there you have it, your yearly update on the Worrell family with a healthy dose of reality. As another year slips away let us pause to reflect and thank God for our many friends and family both near and far. We hope you join us and rejoice as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior on Christmas Day. As the saying goes, the New Year begins with a blank page in a 365-page book. And we hope to write a good one.

Blessings and Beef,

The Worrell Family

Casey - Erin - The River Boys