Christmas party – Nature Along the El Camino Real

Lots of Gratitude and Laughs at our December Meeting

December 14, 2025 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Sue Ann Kendall

Every year we combine our December Chapter meeting with a celebration, and this year we were grateful to have a lovely venue, the Yards of Cameron, and some truly delicious food courtesy of Barbara Dominguez. The decorations featured native yaupon holly that added a festive Texas touch. No wonder everyone was so full of gratitude and cheer!

Our Chapter Meeting was poignant, because it featured fond farewells to our President and Vice President for the last four years, Carolyn Henderson and Liz Lewis. These women helped move our chapter forward after some challenging years thanks to their positive attitudes and encouragement. Leading a chapter is not easy, but Carolyn made it look so, even when we were occasionally unruly. She came up with some great activities and encouraged us all to participate in our great new projects. And Liz found us some speakers who increased our knowledge and inspired us to do new things.

Carolyn and Liz kindly gave some of the chapter members who helped her over the years lovely certificates and hugs. Most of them took it seriously, but I just HAD to make a goofy face.

All the directors kept us cheerful by sharing their love and gratitude, as well. We welcomed Chad Cryer as our final 2025 class member to achieve their certification and coveted roadrunner pin, and we were thrilled to see our chapter friend, Rosie Johnson, receive her own honorary pin. She’s really helped us over the years at the Wildscape and with her donated plants.

Special recognition went to our top three iNaturalist contributors for 2025: Linda Jo Conn, Michelle Lopez, and Eric Neubauer. Keep it up, y’all!

We are also very grateful to welcome our new President, Marian Buegeler, and a former President as Vice President, Phyllis Shuffield. We’re in good hands!

Our yearly white elephant gift exchange went so well this year that I forgot to take pictures. We had just enough coveted presents to exchange multiple beauties three times, so the final recipient got to keep them. Bird houses that looked like buildings and gifts with bonus peanut brittle were especially popular. Next year, let’s not break into the brittle until the gift is actually yours! (No, really, that was a lot of fun.)

Slightly used container of peanut brittle.

Speaking for me, your faithful blogger, I just want to thank all the El Camino Real Master Naturalist chapter members for their kindness to each other and ability to welcome all into their group with open arms. I just love how there’s something for everyone to contribute to and help promote the wildness of little Milam County and the rest of Texas. Enjoy some more party photos!

Celebrating Our Graduates!

April 28, 2023 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Sue Ann Kendall

Photos by Sue Ann Kendall and Debbi Harris

Wednesday night was very festive for the El Camino Real Texas Master Naturalist chapter. We celebrated the five new graduates from our training program with a delicious meal and a lovely presentation at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Cameron, where we also have our monthly meetings. We are grateful to Fr. Jeff and his staff for being such gracious hosts.

Our food was catered by Hot Corners, the company that is located in the beautiful Venue at Railfan that recently opened in town. Barbara Dominguez does a wonderful job, and we were glad to see our vegetarian attendees had many options. Next time we’ll remember to ask for a gluten-free main course!

The appetizers included one of Barbara’s famous charcuterie boards, along with wine and some pretty darned good non-alcoholic wine beverage that was fun to try!

Desserts were provided by Alan Rudd, who was also our assistant trainer this year. It was hard to choose which one to try, so many people tasted more than one.

The fellowship and conversation were fantastic, and everyone had a good time at the meal, and an even better time during the awards.

First, Dorothy Mayer read her famous poem she wrote when she was graduating, which always brings a laugh.

Then came the highlight of the evening. Patricia Coombs, Brenda Ferris, Ellen Luckey, Michelle Pierce, and Neil Wettstein were each presented with their graduation certificates, and two others received their first dragonfly pins for their initial certification as well. Great job, everyone!

Patricia receiving her pin from Carollyn Henderson

Following the student awards, Alan Rudd presented Kathy Lester, our lead trainer for the past three classes, with a beautiful painting of a sunrise or sunset (you get to pick) with kind words on the back of it from past students. Kathy was surprised and delighted by her gift, which is obvious in the photos!

Kudos to the team who put together the party and decorated the room so nicely. It takes a lot of work to organize all our activities, and we appreciate our dedicated members very much. Now, let’s get going on the City Nature Challenge!

Here are a couple of funny out-takes from the party. We did have fun.

Chapter Meeting Holiday Fun

December 20, 2019 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Sue Ann Kendall

Once a year we set aside the seriousness of being citizen scientists and just get together to appreciate each other. The December Chapter Meeting does include some business, such as voting on the slate of officers for the next year and discussing our upcoming class, but most of the night is for food and fun: the Christmas Party!

The beautiful tree at the Dworaczyk home.

As in past years, the Dworaczyk family hosted our party in their beautiful home. Sandra has so many beautiful decorations that it’s like a winter wonderland in there! She even has enough Christmas dishes for all attendees to eat off a beautiful plate with beautiful flatware, too.

The Master Naturalists outdid themselves with the food this year, and no one went away hungry. Anyone avoiding sweets was in big trouble, too! I hardly had any room after eating all the brisket and side dishes.

And the Fun!

After dinner and the chapter meeting, where the slate of officers was unanimously approved, the white elephant (or Yankee swap, or whatever) gift exchange began. As always, Don Travis made sure the rules were scrupulously followed to ensure maximum hilarity.

The red barn gets stolen…for the first time.

A lot of stealing went on, since there were a couple of very popular gifts (a barn bird feeder was very popular). Two poor participants had multiple gifts stolen from them. I hope they ended up with something they liked!

I got a boot-shaped wine carrier/vase holder made by Cindy Travis, so I was okay with losing the bluebird house and mosaic church bird house. Some people got what they wanted by colluding with their spouses, though, which makes me want to bring a spouse next time!

The final gift was this fashionable turkey-leg hat, here modeled by Don Travis. As you can see, it went over well!

It’s amazing how hard the group works on coming up with wonderful gifts that their fellow Master Naturalists will treasure. We all are so thoughtful and really know what will appeal to our colleagues.

Sending warm holiday wishes to all of you reading this. I look forward to being part of the Board next year and to many interesting activities and learning experiences!