Most Wonderful Time of the Year

‘Tis the season! As the holidays get closer and closer, your Iowa FFA State Officers, wanted to share some of our favorite holiday memories.  Check out our reasons why it’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Cully Forsyth: Christmas in the Forsyth house can get very interesting. With my family being very close to each other you can imagine things get a little crazy. From wrestling in the living room to who can eat the most snicker salad, our competitive sides show very often. While we do get very loud and obnoxious it’s also a time to come back home and enjoy the presence of others. My favorite Christmas memory was traveling to Illinois on Christmas Eve to go skiing. My ten cousins, grandparents, parents, and I had a blast tearing up the slopes in the midst of winter. It was a different experience than the traditional sit around the Christmas tree and I’ll always remember that Christmas enjoying the time with my family in a place not familiar.

                

Cole Moody: My favorite Christmas memory is going to our Christmas Eve church service with my family. For as long as I can remember we have gone to church together on Christmas Eve, and I always look forward to that quality time with my family celebrating the birth of Christ. This is such a special time to me because as a family we are blessed to celebrate the true REASON for the SEASON. My favorite part is at the end of the service where they dim the lights, and we sing Christmas carols together by candle light. This is a tradition I look forward to continuing for the rest of my life.

Blake Lineweaver: Unlike your typical, frozen tundra Christmas parties, one side of my family celebrates what we call “Christmas in July.” Since they live so far away, July is the perfect time for them to get away to Okoboji. In my opinion, the greatest to time for festivities and family is when it’s 70 degrees outside rather than -40. We celebrate the holiday by going on boat rides, frying fish, and sending cousins out on the tube every other hour. The best part: we get a t-shirt commemorating each year’s festivities, and now I have 10-15 annual “Christmas in July” shirts overflowing my closet.

Zach Hamilton: Back when I was in younger, there was one Christmas that sticks out the most. My mom wrapped all of our presents at our aunt’s house while we were at school and decided to leave them there so we wouldn’t find the gifts early. Then Christmas rolled around. For some reason, we had finished up opening presents much sooner than my mom had expected. She checked around and realized we hadn’t even gotten through half of the things she had bought. She had only picked up about half of the presents she had left at my aunt’s house.  Determined to not ruin Christmas, my mom decided to brave snow that had been falling for the past couple days.  She headed out to get the presents she had forgotten and it was like we had our own Santa when she returned.  I will definitely never let her live it down, but it was quite the Christmas.  

Zoie Shook: I have never been a big lover of surprises. Although, the surprise I received this year for Christmas topped it all. My big brother TJ shipped out to basic in November this year, and it really was hitting me hard. My brother and the rest of my family pulled off a surprise homecoming for Christmas. I opened my front door after there was a knock, saw TJ standing there, and immediately started bawling my eyes out. My favorite thing about Christmas is always being surrounded by my family, and this year, with the surprise homecoming of my big brother, the family aspect that will be surrounding the tree this year will not be short one single person.

Zach Hoffman: The holiday season here, it is important to focus on what really matters. To me, family comes first. It is always a tradition of mine to visit my Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Ellie’s house on Christmas day where I am greeted by a loving family. For as long as I can remember, Christmas has been spent thumbing through scrapbooks, and eating far too many desserts. I am always sad to leave the Christmas party when the time comes, but I soon cheer up once I remember how truly blessed I am to have the loved ones that I do in my life. No matter what your celebration may look like, I wish you a very joy filled holiday season!

Savannah Keitzer: ‘Tis the season! My favorite holiday tradition is simply spending time with my family and friends. I love sitting around the table playing games and listening to the people around me tell stories. My favorite is listening to my grandparents reflect on and tell stories about how different it was “back in their day.” When they speaks of their past, it reminds me just how blessed I truly am to be raised in this time and place.

Chase Kusel: One of my favorite Christmas/ Holiday memories is one that occurs every year on Christmas Eve. My mom, dad, and I go out to eat every Christmas Eve as a family, and we always go to a movie following that. I can’t think of a more humbling way to spend the day before Christmas with the people that you love the most. Which is why it has been one of my favorite holiday memories for as long as I can remember.

Elisa Russ: Holidays for my family is always just my parents and my siblings, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Some of my favorite memories revolve around Christmas Eve.  We start with loading up the car and heading to church for Christmas Eve service (which gives me goosebumps just thinking about it because it’s such a beautiful service).  We come back and always have my dad’s amazing homemade chili for supper, followed by opening one present, before playing some cards and heading to bed.  These memories made with my family are ones I will forever cherish.

Although our memories may vary, they all revolve around spending time with those we most care about.  We would like to wish you a safe and very merry holiday season to you and your loved ones!

2016-2017 Iowa FFA State Officers

We Are All on Our Way

With the holidays officially in full swing, I can tell you that there is nothing I love more than spending time with my family and friends. Whether it be sipping on hot chocolate by the fireplace, playing a competitive game of cards, yelling at the football game on TV, or just sitting around telling stories, it’s the most wonderful time of the year for my family and I. The holidays as a college student is even better. I can give myself a snow day if wanted, go home when I want to, and my Christmas break is almost a whole month long! But in order to get to that month long Christmas break, I have to get through FINALS.

While in the midst of (trying to) study for finals, getting into the Christmas spirit, (trying to) catch up on sleep, figuring out how I’m buying everyone presents with only $57 to my name, and every other struggle the typical college student has this time of the year, I realized just how badly I wished my dad was here to help me out a little and see everything that I am doing.

In March of my freshman year, my dad passed away from Neuroendocrine Carcinoid Cancer. He taught me so much about life in the short 14 years I was able to be with him, but still to this day, I long for his embrace, wise words, and corny jokes as if the 14 years I had just wasn’t quite enough.

Honestly, for me, my first semester of college has been one of the biggest struggles I have ever faced. Every class I had to sit through seemed to just drag on. I just didn’t want to be there. But the last thing I wanted to do was disappoint my mom and dad. I simply was just struggling with myself and life in general. Despite the depression that I had fallen back into, I continued trying to keep my spirits up and just get through the semester. I was just losing. Losing my confidence, my drive, my passion, my happiness, and myself. Things I have worked so hard to gain back after I lost my dad. I was losing all of my progress simply because I thoroughly just missed my dad. I had officially given up.

Everyone we know has lost someone or something in their life. It’s not easy and it never will be. But last week, I was reading some blogs that I follow and I read this, “It’s okay if you feel like you’ve let yourself and the people you love down a lot of times already. One day, after all the trials and errors and breakdowns, you’ll finally make it. And you’ll see that the people who love you never lost their faith in you… I am asking you to not give up. Your heart may feel heavy and your mind may have thousands of thoughts inside, but you have to keep going. You have to, no matter how scary and much of a struggle it may be… So if there are times that you feel like you’re about to just turn around and give it all up, remember this: You are not a failure. You are on your way. You are on your way.”

That’s when it hit me. We are all on our way. On our way to something spectacular. I had been having a rough few months and struggling with a lot of things but I’m on my way. We all go through some really tough things in life, and we all feel like giving up at some point in life. But we have to keep going. We really have no choice. Roadblocks are inevitable, but what matters is how we get around them. We’re going to feel like a failure sometimes, it’s going to seem like we’re not getting anything done that we need to, and that’s okay. It’s all a part of our journey. Our paths may be rough, long, and twisted but in the end, we’re all going to make it, we’re all just on our way. Despite the trials and tribulations that face us on that path, we will all make it in the end.

With the holidays upon us, I encourage you to hug your family a little tighter and take in the love that comes with this season. It’s truly something amazing. Cherish every moment you have with those loved ones because even when people don’t live forever, memories do. Confide in your loved ones and give everyone all that you can, you never know when it’s going to be your last time. Use these next few weeks to tell those you love that you love them, go see that friend you haven’t seen in a while, bake with your mom, talk to your siblings, watch Christmas movies with your family, and just take in the joy, love, and happiness this holiday season brings. Because I know I would give anything to have just one more Christmas with my dad.

And when something goes wrong, remember to take a step back and realize that everyone is battling something. And I promise you that whatever demons you are fighting, you will win, do some amazing things in your life, and in the end, you will make it, because we are all on our way.

Scott Shook

April 22^nd 1970 - March 6^th 2013

Zoie Shook

Southwest State Vice-President

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

As we get closer to winter break were starting to see many changes whether it’s leaves falling, the temperature dropping, to more pumpkin spice products than we’ve ever seen before. I thought we had the opportunity to skip winter this year when I wore just a t-shirt outside on December 1^st but my hopes were brought back down when I went outside on December 2^nd and felt the harsh 29 degree winter we were all waiting for. Now that winter is finally here to stay, I thought I’d touch on just a couple of things this wonderful season has to offer us.

SNOW!

When I think of winter the first thing that comes to my mind any maybe yours too is snow. Whether you love it or not every year snow will cover the ground, and it doesn’t matter how old you are when you hear someone yell, “SNOWBALL FIGHT”, you throw a snowball. The coolest thing I see in my community back in Charles City is when it snows everybody is helping each other clear a path for vehicles and roads just out of pure kindness. It brings people together in many ways that many people never think of.

Christmas movies!

Ok but seriously how many times is it acceptable to watch the movie “ELF” from December to January. When I do have free time from my crazy schedule you can definitely find me watching Christmas movies. I can’t get enough of them!

Food!

Since I already made the joke I might as well bring it up again. Call me basic but I love a warm pumpkin spice latte and will definitely drink a lot of them during these cold months. I enjoy seeing all the different types of foods and drinks that are offered during this season especially the ones made by my family during Christmas.

Traditions!

Speaking of family, my number one favorite thing about winter is the holidays when I get to travel back to Americas Hometown and see all my family members. Sitting by the fireplace, around the dinner table, to even the occasional snowball fight, the love everyone shows for each other makes me treasure those special moments.

When you finally get that break off school, sports, FFA, and the many other activities you are in take in the awesome weather we get to experience here in Iowa, make sure to get cozy and watch hours on hours of Christmas movies, drink and eat as much delicious food and pumpkin spice products as you can handle, and most importantly focus on your family. Not long you’ll be off to college and counting down the days till you get to travel home and experience those memorable traditions that we all love. Have a warm winter!

Cully Forsyth

North Central State Vice President