Man of the Year

About a week ago, we found out daddy was going to be honored as Man of the Year for my hometown of Li*tlefield. My first response was, "It's about time." Daddy was born in Li*tlefield and has given many years of service and dedication to making it a better place to live. As many of our family members decided we would drive down for the banquet and ceremony. The hardest part was keeping the secret and figuring out how to get Daddy there. It all worked out perfectly. When we all got there, mom came and got the camera so she could go around the opposite way to get Daddy's reaction when he saw us all walking in. Here is that photo. Good job Mom! You did a great job of capturing the moment. Daddy asked what we were doing there and we just told him we wanted to all come have dinner with them. He bought it!

Then we all sat down at the table and began to visit. We always have so much fun and laugh a lot when we are together. The band was good, but was really loud! It was finally time to eat. Our meal was rib eye steak, baked potato, green beans, salad and cake. The steaks were huge and we all took half home in our potato foil. We laughed and said next time we would bring a cooler for all our left-overs. Then we listened to a speaker from Lubbock. His talk was about water rights and believe it or not it was a very good speech and I enjoyed it. Maybe it's because I think about our area and losing our water a lot. Finally, it was time for the awards. They started with Citizen of the Year, then Farm Family of the Year, Woman of the Year and last of all Man of the Year. When the speaker started reading Daddy's bio, after about five minutes he realized she was talking about him and then it dawned on him why we were all there. He said, "So that's why you all are here!" It was really funny. I guess we did surprise him. Daddy is a very humble and gracious man and never suspected he would get the honor of Man of the Year, but he definitely deserves it, but I am a little biased.

Here are some more photos from the evening.

One of Daddy's friends playing Sudoku with Eth*n. This was after dinner and before the speech started.

Daddy receiving his award. I hated that we got the "back side" but that's how they had it set up.

It's a good thing I don't work for the newspaper as my shot was really blurry. Daddy and the other recipients.

Family photo of the whole group.

Daddy and two of his great-grandsons, Bl*ke and Eth*n.

Mom, Dad and their girls, D*rla, L*nda, L*vonna and D*Anna. I love this photo!

It was a great evening. Congratulations Daddy. I love you.