Christmas Trip to Pearl River

December 22, 2025

We looked forward to a trip to Pearl River, LA to visit with Jeff and family and Mark drove us on the trip. We arrived at the Radio Road house about mid afternoon and had a good visit with the family members there. Darla, Elyse, Jordan and Brenda visited and prepared a nice supper for us. Ashleigh was driving in but would arrive later.

But well before supper, Mark got involved with Jeff in his shop to help with the servicing of the amazing big yellow diesel generator. It was pleasing to see them having the opportunity to work on something together.

Jeff had had a bit of a problem of water hoses leaking, and had replaced them: it was a job that Mark could give a hand with.

Jeff demonstrated the big yellow machine which can be switched to power the entire house. A great feature in case of power failure.

They also had a visit wit Elyse and the two dogs in the afternoon process.

December 23, 2025

Mark and Jeff worked together to make wooden cubes from a 4x4 to fashion a target for knife and hatchet throwing. They glued the cubes together to make a square target for the knives Mark had brought.

Mark on the front porch showing the width of the house.The decorations came from a movie Mark worked on last year.

Mark, Elyse and the dogs on the front porch. After the filming of the Christmas film last year, they were going to discard the decorations, so Mark collected them and gave them to Jeff. This was the first time he had seen how they were used.

December 24, 2025

Christmas Eve was a sunny day and about mid afternoon Mark mounted his knife target on a fence and did some throwing. Assembling the blocks with the end grain showing made the knives stick better.

Mark has practiced the knife throwing, but it is not easy. He made a fine target!

Jordan is quite good at throwing the hatchets.

The activity inside is quite different. Brenda helps prepare the Christmas Eve fellowship meal which will follow the church services.

We went to Northshore Church for their service since Jeff was a part of it, while Darla and the girls went to Grammy Moyle's church. There was a large crowd at Northshore.

Jeff sat with us until his part on the program.

Jeff's part was to read the Bible's lineage leading up to the birth of Jesus. It was a fine service with beautiful music. After the Lord's Supper we headed home for our planned supper there.

Darla invited everyone who didn't have another Christmas Eve destination over for supper after the events. Brenda enjoyed fellowship with Judy and Elyse.

After supper the group gathered for a game at about 10pm. The Moyle family is fond of games.

The game shifted to the living room floor about 11pm. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Ashleigh had driven in from Connecticut late the previous night so we enjoyed visiting with her.

Christmas Day, 2025

On Christmas morning at about 9AM we had the privilege of joining Jeff and family for their tradition of reading the Christmas Story from the Gospel of Luke, a lifelong practice for Jeff and Darla and the girls. With the whole family present, this was a real treat.

The agenda after the reading was much less formal, in fact the next event was to present stocking gifts to the two dogs!

In fact it was quite amusing to see the enthusiasm of the dogs for their stocking gifts!

The next round was the gifts of Elyse, Ashleigh and Jordan for each other.

We loved the gathering of Elyse, Jordan and Ashleigh with Mom Darla.

The gift exchange expanded as Luke joined Jordan, Ashleigh and Elyse on the living room floor

Another round of gift exchanges between Elyse, Luke, Jordan and Ashleigh.

Transition to the Moyle Home

Sometime past midday the different family groups migrated to the Moyle home for the general family gathering. The fireplace with all the fancy Christmas stockings served as a center piece. Here we have, swinging left to right: Lindsey Moyle, Bethany Moyle, Ashleigh Nave, Jeff Nave, Elyse Nave, Darla Nave, Jordan Zell, Mark Nave, Luke Zell, Jessica Ringo.

On the other side of the Christmas tree sat Caleb's friend with Caleb and Josiah Wells.

One remarkable thing about the Wells family was the growth of Josiah! At right is a section of our Christmas Day family picture in 2019 when Josiah appears to be a little more than half Caleb's height, and at left he is approaching his father Robbie's height, close to that of Caleb now.

The time of gift exchange is always a fun time. This year a new element was introduced, probably by Caleb Wells here. For the gift from Grammy Moyle, Caleb came and bowed before her! Seemed like a neat idea, so others followed suit with a bow for their gift received from Grammy.

The idea of thanking and honoring Grammy caught on and was a lot of fun.

The pattern was followed by Caleb's Mom, Diane, who bowed to honor her Mom, Grammy.

Jordan and Luke join in with bows for their nice gift.

About this time we welcomed Corinne and Jonathan Ringo to the Christmas family gathering.

Corinne and Jonathan join in the gift exchange accompanied by Jeff, Luke, Jordan and Elyse.

Corinne and Jon immediately picked up on the pattern of bowing with their gift before Grammy, a pattern of loving affection.

The Grandparents present enjoyed the happy family gathering: Judy Moyle, Brenda and Rod Nave.

We got the Moyle family together by the fireplace. Back row: Elyse Nave, Ashleigh Nave, Jordan Nave Zell, Luke Zell, Darla Moyle Nave, Jeff Nave. Middle row: Corinne Ringo, Leslie Moyle, Debbie Ringo, Lindsey Moyle, Bethany Moyle, Caleb Wells, Josiah Wells, Diane Wells, Robbie Wells. Front row: Jeff Moyle, Judy Moyle, Jessica Ringo.

Nave family: Back row: Ashleigh Nave, Elyse Nave, Jordan Nave Zell, Luke Zell. Front row: Darla Moyle Nave, Rod Nave, Brenda Nave, Jeff Nave, Mark Nave.