Preschool Party and Program

Jackson's class had a fun Christmas party. They made ornaments and ate yummy cookies. All of the children walked into the classroom in these adorable aprons that they had made.

Jackson works on his ornament.

Eating some treats with his buddies at school

Jackson and me at the party

Here are all the 3 year old classes singing at the Christmas program. All the children were their pajamas and look so precious. They sang 9 Little Reindeer, Let's All Do a Little Clapping, Where is Santa?, the Chipmunks Christmas Song, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Jackson did great and sang all the songs. We told Jackson if he did good at the program, we would get a Sprite at Sonic after the show. He was so excited!

Jackson and his fan club...Aunt Amanda, Mama Linda, Grammy, and Uncle Andrew

Mommy and Daddy with Jackson

Parker Family Christmas

On Sunday, we celebrated Christmas with the Parkers. All of Andy's family went to his uncle's church to hear him preach and then we ate lunch there. Of course, the food was fabulous. Mama Gwen and Daddy Parker are wonderful cooks. They made chicken and dumplings and dressing. There were a TON of desserts as well. They always bring to go boxes for everyone to take home the leftovers. We are still eating on our leftovers.

Here is a picture of the whole family

Drew with Daddy Parker and Mama Gwen

Drew loves to play under tables.

After we ate, we played "Dirty Santa." Mama Gwen and Aunt Drucy buy presents throughout the year for us to use. There are always a few gift cards hidden in the mix. It is always fun to see what the various gifts are. One of the presents was a pretend snake, and Addison loved it. She acted like it was a purse. Here is Addison, the snake charmer.

Jackson and Ellah ended up with some crazy gifts because they traded. Ellah has hair extensions and Jackson has an orange hat.

Cousins making silly faces...

Somehow, we left with Lowe's and Kroger gift cards, the orange hat (seen above), Veggie Tales VHS (which we have already watched), a laundry bag, a snowman jar with cookies, a sack of coal, some cheesy snowman figurines, mesh bags, and a screwdriver set. It was a really fun day to be with family. Jackson and Drew are the only great-grandchildren that are boys, so all the girls (all of 8) have a blast with them.

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday morning was Breakfast with Santa at BHCC. This is an annual event and is HUGE! Jackson was so excited to see Santa and eat donut holes. He woke up and we said we were going to see Santa and he replied, "and eat donut holes!" When we went to talk to Santa and Mrs. Claus, he was so excited. He jumped into Santa's lap and told him he wanted hockey guys and baseball guys. Andy put Drew in Mrs. Claus's lap. He just stared at Santa. All these people were yelling, "Drew, Drew, DREW." He would look for a second and then back to staring at Santa. He was mesmerized by the white hair and beard. It was precious. After chatting with Santa and hugging Mrs. Claus, we went into the auditorium to sing Christmas carols and hear a Christmas story. Jackson is loving Christmas songs. Andy made us a CD and we listen to it all the time in the car. Jackson knows the numbers for his favorite songs. This week, he loves The Chipmunks Song, Rudolph, and Up on the Housetop. After the program, they announced that the photographer had a camera problem and our pictures did not take. So we went back to the line for another picture. By this time, Drew had figured out the process and was not as content. Therefore, he has lovie and is sucking his thumb.

Jackson and Drew with Mr. and Mrs. Claus (2nd photo)

Family picture

Drew is shoving a donut hole into his mouth and Jackson is eating a pretzel. Drew was loving the donut holes. He had one in his hand and grabbed one out of my hand with his other hand. He also took one off of Jackson's plate.

Drew and Daddy

Jackson doing "art"--making a snowflake ornament

He won the prize at our table and got this Santa hat and balloons!

Big buddies--Jackson and Tyler

Mommy and Drew

Jackson and his friend Brody with the BIG Santa

After Breakfast with Santa, we went to Brentwood to see Santa's reindeer that brought him to church. Dasher and Blitzen were there. Jackson was so excited to see them.

Andrew's Graduation

On Friday night, my brother, Andrew, graduated from Freed Hardeman with his MBA degree. He has been working on this degree for a year and a half while being a graduate assistant coach for FHU soccer teams. We were so thrilled for him and proud of all his accomplishments...Way to go, Andrew!

Family Picture after the ceremony

Rebekah and Andrew

Andy with Drew and Rebekah with Jackson

Andrew with our grandparents

Christmas Cards

One of my most favorite parts of Christmas is sending and receiving Christmas cards. I absolutely love it! It is such a thrill to go to the mailbox and get cards and look at them and read them. A few years ago, I even started a scrapbook that just has the photo Christmas cards we receive.

You cannot imagine the disappointment I have felt the past few days, because I had yet to receive a Christmas card (not that I have sent mine either). However, today I got two cards in the mail...hip, hip, hooray! The Christmas card season has officially begun at the Parker house. Thanks to the Austins and the Forresters (who had super cute cards) for being the first to send me cards. I am supposed to pick up our cards tomorrow and the addressing process will begin. In a weird way, this is also fun to me:) It is a time to think about all the various people on our Christmas card list and what they mean to our family and how they have touched our lives.

So, Happy Christmas Card Season to all of you! I cannot wait to see your cards...

Fun with Friends

On Friday, my friend Melissa came into town from Kentucky with her baby Asher. I was so excited to see the two of them. He is adorable and so precious. Here are some pictures of a fun night with great friends.

Melissa and Mandy

Jennifer, Amy and me

An attempt at a group picture with Asher...for some reason, he liked my "Joseph coat of many colors" sweater

Branches of Love

Yesterday, Laura Beth, Stephanie, Laura and I decorated a Christmas tree at Lipscomb University for a new project called Branches of Love. Lipscomb is now hosting an event at the beginning of the holiday season called Lighting of the Green. It is wonderful show, and this year featured Amy Grant, Phil Stacy, Lelan Statom, DLCS choruses, etc. Santa and Mrs. Claus were

also there to talk to the children. They also take donations for Second Harvest Food Bank. This year, they added a Christmas tree decorating contest known as Branches of Love. Groups decorated trees yesterday afternoon. Today, those trees will be delivered to people who would not have a Christmas tree. Our "team" picked the theme Santa Claus is coming to town. Although we did not win, we thought our tree turned out pretty good. We even had enough "stuff" to decorate a second tree. Here we are with the finished product.

Our Santa themed tree

The second tree we decorated

Here is Jackson with Santa and Mrs. Claus. He was so excited to see them! He immediately told Santa he wanted Hockey Guys, Baseball Guys, and Buzz Lightyear.

Thanks to my sweet friend Mandy for watching Jackson for me and to my dad for watching Drew so I could decorate the tree.