Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  I’m sure our family will, but as of right now we still have seven more days to countdown until Ole Saint Nick comes to our house!  With the boys now at the perfect age, I am really starting to enjoy this whole Santa thing!  My kids have brought a sense of excitement and innocence that I seemed to have lost around the fourth or fifth grade.  The only thing that I want for Christmas is for my kids to stop growing up so fast!  We went to watch my oldest son, Brody, square dance at school the other day and I couldn’t help but notice a little girl kept taking him by the hand.  When I picked him up from school I asked him who the little girl was and if she was his girlfriend.  He just laughed and said “No Dad, she just likes me because I make her laugh!”   After I interrogated him a little more I found out that he has his sights set on

another little girl!  I’m not ready for the whole girlfriend thing.  I already know I’m going to have my hands full with Cooper, he is not but three and already has two girlfriends at our old church he says he is going to “Mawwy”.   I do believe when he gets older it will be hard for a girl to pry a rope out of his hand long enough to get his full attention!  The kid literally sleeps with his ropes.  Needless to say, he’s not going to be hard to please for Christmas.  Every one of his ropes is worn slap out. 

I guess I’m like any man, I don’t enjoy shopping but I will miss taking my annual Christmas Eve shopping trip with my cousin Robert.  It is funny how you tend to miss the little stuff.  I will just have to start a new tradition with my wife.  Which will probably be a little difficult this year because she is VERY pregnant and don’t do well on her feet for long periods of time.  Hey, I just realized that could be a good thing for me!  Probably not such a good thing when she reads this, Huh?  I will have to say she has been a trooper.  I thought the more babies you had the easier it got.  That has not been the case thus far, she has been having all kinds of pains and contractions.  I don’t  know how she does it, because when she sits down Tyler looks like he is making a Kung-Fu movie in her belly!  Last night it looked like he was wanting to come on out and visit a while.  Oh well, all I have to say is it is a good thing having babies is not up to the man.  Otherwise, I might not be sitting here right now!  She just seems to take it in stride! 

Ryan Jarrett seemed to take it all in stride and the WNFR!  I got to do an interview with him and I’m here to tell you he didn’t seem to let anything bother him.  Using his own words “That was just my J.O.B. I just backed in the box and tried to win every time the gates banged.”  For a young man only 21 years old he sure did handle himself well for his first WNFR.  Not to mention all the hype and pressure he had on him with the all-around race! 

This years WNFR was unbelievable!  Six first-time World Champions were crowned. Among them were new team-roping World Champions Clay Tryan and Patrick Smith.  If you have seen them rope any this year, you knew they were going to be strong contenders for those gold buckles.  I know it might not mean a lot to some of you but for me it was encouraging to sit there with my son Cooper and listen to those young men give God all the glory!   If you know those guys or have read anything about them, you know that it was genuine.  Its good to see guys that young have their priorities in order.  It took me a lot longer to find that place in my life and it is still something I have to work on daily!

With all that said lets not forget what the Christ in Christmas is all about!

See you at the next roping!

God Bless,

JD