Smith Family's New Year

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008! 2007 has gone really fast for us! We spent New Year’s Eve at our neighbor’s house eating supper. When we got home my mom promised to wake me up a few minutes before midnight so I could see the crystal ball fall in New York. It was cool seeing that. Right as it was about to drop, I got to see Miley Cyrus and The Jonas brothers talking to the news reporter.

On New Year’s Day we went to some good friends of ours for supper. It was great. We ate and the kids played in the basement. We got some glow sticks, turned off the lights, and played hide and seek in the dark! After a while we noticed it had been snowing! Not MAJORLY snowing, just enough to dust the ground. We all ran and got our coats, shoes, and gloves. Then we went outside and began collecting snow in a bucket. After a while, we had collected two whole bucket fulls off the cars and ground. We played in the snow a while longer, then it was time to go home.

The next morning when we woke up, it had snowed more! So we ran outside and started collecting more snow in our sleds. But then, after about 15 minutes, it got sooo cold, we had to go back inside. We checked the temperature, and it was 14 degrees!!!!!!!! No wonder it was so cold! Anyway, we have had a really great New Year, and we hope you did, too.

Christmas 2007 for the Smith family

This Christmas the Smith family was in Chesnee on the Smith family farm. We enjoyed a great Christmas there visiting with Brian’s family. The Lord blessed us with some great times of conversation with Brian’s family.

Ferris got to go to a Charlotte Bobcats game, his first NBA game, with his Uncle Mark and cousin Drew. Ferris also spent the day after Christmas cutting wood with his uncle and cousin. (That chainsaw still doesn’t run right I hear, but the wood he stacked is still standing.)

The big event of our Christmas visit was the gift horse Brian’s sister-in-law received, literally. Rebecca, who loves horses had to sell her horse several years ago, so Brian’s brother Travis bought her one for Christmas. Everyone was in on the surprise and by God’s gracious mercy Rebecca was completely surprised on Christmas morning when she went to the barn. Here are some pictures.

Our Visit to Churchill Downs

On the day after Thanksgiving we went to the famous Churchill Downs to watch some of the horse races. It was a very cold day, so we were all bundled up. We still had a great time during our first visit to Churchill Downs. It is a really amazing place. The facility and the stands are really nice. Box seats, like the ones we were given by friends for that day, have their own tv monitor for watching the race and viewing the pre race run down of all the horses by the track announcer. It is a really nice feature.


We had great seats. We were sitting just past the finish line, as you can see from the pictures. The horses came out and past us before, and after each race. Walking down to the famed winners circle where the winner of each race is crowned and to see the horse, jockey and owners given their trophy was great!



The best part of Churchill Downs though is the paddock area wher they bring all the horses to be saddled before each race. You can get so close you can touch the horses! We stayed on the outside of the paddock area but you can actually go down into the paddoack area if you want!


Here are a few of the pictures from our day at the track.

Smith family at Churchill Downs (Grace took the picture)

The famed Steeples at Churchill Downs

Finish of a race Watching the in seat monitor

Finish of race on grass

Horse at paddoack