Lake Palestine U.M.C.
by Barbara Cade

The Christmas holidays started out with two very beautiful Christmas Eve candlelight services. Rev. Prather preached and sang at the 4:00 p.m. service and Bob Fisher was in charge of the 7:00 p.m. service.

At the first service, Angela Martin sang a beautiful rendition of "O Holy Night," and at the second service, Herb Botts did a great job singing, "Mary Did You Know?"

Kaethe Griffin couldn't be at any of the above services because she was busy celebrating with her daughter and family.

The Newsoms also had a family Christmas while Bob and June Hitt cooked dinner for friends and family at their house.

Teena Blakeney was excited because her brother, wife and their newborn baby flew in all the way from Alaska. She also had another brother and sister with their families in from Mississippi. It sounds like they all probably had a fun Christmas.

Don and Lana Kiser went to Dallas and Wichita Falls to celebrate their Christmas.

Crystal Simon and Sam Laroux took a trip to New Orleans to visit his family for the holidays.

Andy Flynn said he was initially going to be at home for Christmas but that he and his family were going to spend part of the week at the Silverleaf condos in The Villages.

Trudy and Fred Riddle took a trip to Arlington, then went to Bridgeport and Hurst, also.

The Prathers left after the Christmas Eve service to go to visit relatives in the San Antonio or Houston area. Anyway, they went to both areas during the past week even though they were fighting some bad colds.

We hear from Sue Johnson that everything is gradually improving at the hospital in Dallas. Charles does a little better every day.

Bob and Carla Fisher and their daughter and son-inlaw were spotted on Christmas Eve at the IHOP in Tyler.

They were enjoying a pre- Christmas meal and relaxing from the tiring schedule of the past few weeks. Also there that night were Ken and Barb Cade and Dorothy and Herb Botts.

Ken and Barb Cade spent Christmas with Charles and Juanita Price and Ken's niece Vanessa and her friend, Chris from California. However, that morning they had breakfast with Barb's mother in Tyler. Barb also got to see her niece and nephew who were home for the holidays.

John and Debbie Morris received the very sad news on Christmas Eve that John's sister, Deborah, in Dallas had died. Her funeral was last Friday. Our prayers are with them.

There will be no UMW meeting in January, but it will start up again in February. Also, in the new year, look for news of some scheduling changes at the church.

We are also very excited to see the dirt work coming along so well on the new amphitheater. It's worth a look, so go on down and see it if you have a chance.

We hope everyone had a safe holiday and the New Year is starting off great. We can't wait to see what God has in store for us this year.