Merry Christmas🎄

We wanted to take a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas🎄!

This season reminds us just how much we have to be thankful for. Life gets busy and chaotic, but this time of year calls us to slow down and appreciate the people who mean the most. We never want to take our loved ones for granted. God has been so good to us, and we’re grateful for His faithfulness every single day.

Family is everything. So hug your loved ones a little tighter this Christmas, and make sure they know just how much they mean to you. Tomorrow isn’t promised, but the memories we make today can last a lifetime.

God bless you all, and may your Christmas be filled with love, peace, and joy❤️.

A Time of Reflection Video...

I made this short video to give everyone a look back at our best moments of 2025.  Most of our best moments are Tim's - of course his best moments are our best moments.  A happy kid = happy parents.  We love seeing our boy so incredibly happy with all that he's doing.  He's such an amazing young man.  We look forward to seeing all that God does in his life as he continues to grow to be his own man.  He will always have our love & support.  

Merry Christmas Eve....

It's Christmas Eve, y'all.  We are starting the day watching Tim open his Christmas gifts so we can enjoy that time as a family with just us.  Then later this afternoon we go to our churches candlelight service and we come home and have dinner.  And this year's dinner is thanks to our friends - The Allen's - because we are getting to have off the boat Italian Raviolis that I helped make at Donna's mom's house a few weeks ago.  It's something we started doing in more recent years because we want Christmas Day to be all about our Saviors birth and time with Family.  The greatest gift we will ever receive in this life is the gift of eternal life in heaven and we wouldn't have that if Jesus hadn't be born & then - many years later - died on a cross for our sins.  

He is the greatest gift of all!!! 

Verse of the Day...

Footnote from NIV Application Bible:

v1-5 The journeying of everyone "to their own town to register" appears to be a sensitive decision by the Romans that allowed the Jews to follow their own custom of going to one's ancestral home.  So Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem, a place identified as "the town of David," because of Joseph's lineage in the royal family.

V6-7  Jesus enters the world in as mundane a way as possible.  Luke tells the story with exceptional brevity.

v8-10 The testimony of Jesus' birth from the angelic host to shepherds is significant in scope.  The announcement indicates that God desires to speak to every person about the coming of Jesus, since all humanity is impacted by his coming.

v11  The titles the angel uses for the newborn child are significant.  "Savior" is rich in OT roots, especially as a figure for divine deliverance.  "Messiah" (Hebrew for "anointed one") is a rare term in the OT; Ps 2:2 is the main technical regal use.  What about "Lord"?  One could argue that the rest of this Gospel and the book of Acts serve to explain the nature of Jesus' lordship.

We are so Thankful...

We are so incredibly thankful for being given so much pebble gravel so that we could fix the low spots in our gravel driveway.  Our driveway is around 600 or so feet long so you can imagine how much it cost to get two dump truck loads of new gravel put on it.  It's something we are going to have to do but being giving this gravel buys us some time before having to do it.  

Happy Tuesday Before Christmas....

Happy Monday before Christmas...

Sunday Blessings...

It's the Sunday before Christmas.  It's my favorite time of the year.  Even though history shows that Jesus was actually born back in September (Jewish Calendar) I'm still so thankful that we have a day that celebrates his birth because without it we wouldn't have a way to get to heaven.  Jesus is the ultimate gift to us all and I'm so thankful for that gift and that I get to spend eternity with him. 

Looking Back at The Moments of 2025...

I put together a couple of photo collages from 2025 to share here. There was so much good in 2025 for our family, but it was also a year marked by profound loss. We lost the matriarch of the Neal family, a loss that has overshadowed much of the joy. Two years of loss have been incredibly difficult—first our patriarch in 2024, and then our matriarch in 2025—especially because they were truly the heartbeat of our family.

The grief itself has been heavy, but watching how these losses have affected some of the family members who are still here has been just as hard. Seeing loved ones sink into deep sadness, going through the motions without truly enjoying the life and relationships they still have, has been heartbreaking.

Even while carrying this grief, the past couple of years have been the best yet for our son in weightlifting. I know his grandparents are looking down with pride at all he has accomplished. I can picture them smiling, seeing how happy and fulfilled their grandson is in this new sport. Tim misses them deeply—they were his biggest cheerleaders in everything he did.

Though we miss them every single day and think of them often, we continue to live our lives fully, hoping that in doing so we are honoring their legacy.

Left to right:  1st row: Tim with his 3 Silver Medals from the Arnold & the second pic is him sharing them with his Nan.  The 3rd pic is his Gold medal from Barbells-n-Sprinkles Spring Open.  2nd row: Tucker, Tim's b-day pic, Tim at Nationals.  3rd row:  Stella, Tim at Nationals with his 117kg lift, Tim and his dad enjoying a Cripple Creek train tour in Colorado.  4th row:  Tim at Twenty-One Pilots Concert & Tim with his 3 Bronze finishes from VW Finals in Daytona.

Left to right:  1st row:  Tim & I with a Gold mine in the back of us at Cripple Creek - one of the largest Gold mines in the USA,  Tim & Scot at a EKU game supporting our nephew who's one of their coaches, Tim showing his muscles.  2nd row:  Me at my desk, Tim doing schoolwork at home, Scot outside a venue.  3rd row:  Stella, Scot and I at Daytona Beach, Tucker with his favorite toy.  4th row: Tim at the State Meet having a good time cheering on a teammate, Scot and I at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado.

Happy 1st Day of Winter!

We wanted take and moment to just say, "Happy 1st Day of Winter!"

I'm not sure how much of a winter we will have this year.  It varies from year to year as to what we will receive in the way of snow.  We love seeing it but no one here, in NC, knows how to drive in it seeing as we hardly ever see the stuff...LOL!