The End of 2010 (not the world)

Blogs are interesting in that they don't stay alive if you don't tend to them. For me, I feel this compulsion to keep our blog updated, as I'm sure many bloggers do. Even if no one ever reads it, for whatever reason, you still have to keep it going once you've started. Perhaps more than anything bloggers blog for themselves as a way to make some sort of stamp in the wide open prairie of the cyber...after all, we all have a story to tell.

ALL this to say, it's been longer than I would have liked since my last blog, and for that I apologize. A lot has been going on for us, and now I must jumble it all together in order to catch up! We'll start with the end of 2010.

But first, I just have to say I laugh out loud when people talk about the end of the world occurring. People have been doing this for as long as I can remember. I can recall one particular instance when I was about 8 years old and going through a rough time with my parents' divorce and was pretty sensitive (more than usual, that is) and understandably solemn...I must have been at the check-out line at the grocery store because I remember seeing a lovely edition of The National Enquirer touting the headline, "The End of the World date REVEALED!!"---or something to that effect. I was so afraid to look, but I just had to. I believe the chosen date was August 12, 1993 or thereabouts. Anyway, even at 8, I was aware of the reputation of that particular "news" outlet, and so I quietly dismissed it, yet didn't forget the date until it came and went years later. And of course there was all the hoopla surrounding the new millennium. And now, because of the Mayan calendar ending (I think), the world is supposed to end in 2012. And actually, I saw several bill boards on a recent road trip declaring May 21, 2011 as Judgement Day....this was an actual ad from a church which I found very odd. Incidentally, that is also the date of my 10-year high school reunion, so if the world does indeed end, I guess I'll be surrounded be old friends :) ZHS Class of 2010 goin' out with a bang!

The point being, no one knows the day it will all end. Only God. It says in the Bible that the end will come as unexpectedly as a thief in the night. So every time someone declares an exact date, I discount that date altogether. No one can ever know, so the best thing to do is to get right with the One who actually does know.

So back to the Holidays. I hope you and yours had a lovely Christmas and New Year's! Ours was a little different this year in that we spent Christmas away from home, which I'm pretty sure is a first for our family or at least hasn't happened since we were kids. Wendell, my mom's significant other of several years (I feel weird saying boyfriend for my mom...he's not a boy...but manfriend sounds odd too....what do people of a certain age call their partners?) invited us to spend Christmas in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The Smokies are gorgeous, and we enjoyed hiking, "redneck" sledding as I fondly called what we did in the snow and spending time together, the eight of us there, including my dear grandmother Phyllis Jean. My uncle and his girlfriend got engaged while we were there, and we wish them the best. The only downside was that we didn't see Joey's and my dad's sides of the family on Christmas Day. But we did get snow on Christmas Day! A LOT! So much that we were snowed in completely and had to extend our trip. Luckily the power didn't go out or anything. And it was quite the experience getting our Louisiana cars with our Louisiana drivers down the very icy mountain when it was time to go home. It took awhile, but we all made it. Here are a few photos from our Eyre Family Christmas:

Mom and her two birds



Wendell and Mom



Wendell, Joey, Uncle Billy at the top of a hike



Snow on Christmas Day!



Ah, love.

All we had to sled upon was the lid of a garbage can...redneck sleddin'!

I would be remiss in not including this one last shot. As a time honored tradition, our mom gives us crazy big sunglasses in our stockings...I think it all started because we teased her as kids about her big sunwear, and of course now they are back in fashion and we wear them. I don't know where she finds them, but they never fail to amaze! And of course we have to take our Paris Hilton-esque photos with them. As a bonus, she gave us little Smoky Mountain bears, much like having a little toy chihuahua named Tinkerbelle.
Nothing less.

LoveandLight,