Christmas Letter 2023

        

        Greetings from the Watts family! We hope you’ve had a wonderful 2023!

Adam will turn 16 next month and continues to be busy with his sophomore year of high school as well as church activities. He's taking his first Advanced Placement class - AP Seminar. Adam also joined a new gaming club at school where they alternate between video games and tabletop games. He is learning to be a Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master and has enjoyed playing against his friends in variations of chess. He’s still singing baritone in the youth choir at church and is excited about welcoming our new pastor early next year.

Patrick has settled into his role as Software Development Manager for the Product Domain, working on a complete rebuild of Lifeway’s site this past year. He still works from home with occasional in-person meetings at Lifeway’s new headquarters, which is only ten minutes from our house!

In June, Patrick was asked to help staff the Lifeway booth at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in New Orleans. It was a great time to connect with friends and meet Baptists from all over the country. If you saw Patrick in the booth there, he probably gave you a pair of Lifeway socks!

Less than two days after returning from New Orleans, Patrick and Adam left Nashville in the early morning hours to go on the church youth choir tour and mission trip to Hawaii! The action-packed week included volunteering at a food bank and school, singing at a church, singing at the Ala Moana mall, singing on the beach, and helping lead a Vacation Bible School. The group also managed to see the sights of Oahu such as the Pearl Harbor Memorial and Kualoa Ranch, which has been the filming location for many popular movies and television shows. There was also some time for one of Adam’s favorite things - the beach!

A special time for our family this year was Patrick’s participation in our church’s bi-annual Keyboards at Christmas performance, where twelve pianists play beautiful Christmas music on six grand pianos. The group consists of church members with various musical and professional backgrounds, and they practiced through the fall months to prepare for the concert on December 3. Patrick hopes to play again at the next concert in 2025. 

We are always grateful for our friends and family, especially this time of year. We love hearing from you! Please connect with us on Facebook or come by for a visit if you are in the area. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed 2024.

-Patrick, Lydia, and Adam Watts

Christmas Letter 2022

Greetings from Watts family! We hope you are well and enjoying the holiday season. 

Adam turned 14 in January and continues to enjoy playing video games and hanging out with the other boys in the neighborhood. He recently joined a Dungeons & Dragons group at the local library and looks forward to the meetings. 

Patrick’s big news this year was his new position at Lifeway. After being hired in 2006 to head up marketing, sales, and events for Lifeway Worship, he has spent the past few years on the resources team, primarily working with digital products. In April, he moved to the IT department to be a Software Development Manager for the Product Domain. He and the developers he supervises are responsible for making sure that all of the information about Lifeway’s products is accurate and dependable, and to provide governance and management over the quality of the product data wherever it goes, whether that be to Lifeway’s website, Amazon, Walmart, or any of the other outlets that sell Lifeway products.

Our busy spring continued in May when Adam wrapped up middle school. After spending his seventh grade year at home in distance learning, we were especially proud that he finished eighth grade so well and even earned a spot on the honor roll. 

In June, the Watts boys went coast to coast! Patrick and Adam went to California to visit Disneyland, Legoland, and Huntington Beach, and to attend the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. Adam was a first-time messenger!

They came back home for a couple of days before heading to Miami to participate in the Youth Choir Tour/Mission Trip. The group sang and served at several locations including the Miami Rescue Mission and Bayside Marketplace. They also sang the national anthem at a Miami Marlins game. They managed to squeeze in some Florida fun, too - snorkeling at Key Largo and spending a day at Universal Orlando.

Adam started high school in August, where he has adjusted well despite a few challenges. We’ve all had to adapt to new routines, teachers, and classes. He’s had some busy fall weekends going to TN Maker Fest, Brick Fest, and Pigeon Forge for the youth group fall retreat.

Lydia is able to participate in Sunday School and women’s Bible study at church via Zoom. Though chronic pain and autoimmune disease limits what she can do, she still enjoys cheering on the Vols and Predators from home. 

We love to hear from our friends and family! Connect with us on Facebook or come by for a visit if you are in the area. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year.

- Patrick, Lydia, and Adam

Christmas Letter 2021

 

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.”

2 Timothy 1:7 (CSB)

Greetings from the Watts family! We hope your 2021 has been happy, safe, and healthy. This year has been full of changes and adjustments for our family, as I’m sure it has been for yours.

Adam turned thirteen in January and celebrated with a Zoom birthday party so he could play video games with his friends. Also, he was selected as “Student of the Month” by his teachers for being the student who most embodied that month’s character quality which was “joy.” Students can only receive this honor once during their whole time at Valor Voyager Academy. We are particularly proud of Adam for receiving this honor during distance learning, which was filled with new challenges, for teachers, students, and parents. 

“We” finished the rest of seventh grade in distance learning. It was certainly a team effort. In many ways, it was a sweet time for our family. We had more time with each other, and we persevered through a difficult challenge together. Our mornings were more relaxed, and we didn’t have to spend time in the car going back and forth to school. I reflected on our experience on the one year anniversary of distance learning in March, and you can read that here. Adam was able to return to in-person learning for eighth grade in August.

Also in August, Patrick’s grandfather, Col. H. A. Waggener, Jr. (Ret.), passed away after complications following a fall. He was 101 years old. We have many treasured memories of Pop, and we rejoice that he is now with his Savior, whom he loved and served so faithfully throughout his life. Pop kept a piece of paper in his cockpit during World War II with 2 Timothy 1:7 written on it. Despite the many combat and health-related challenges that he faced, Pop lived a long, full life, and we thank God on every remembrance of him. Even when a loved one so dear lives over a century, it seems there is never enough time spent together.

Patrick was able to work from Ohio during several trips there this year before and after Pop’s passing. He continues working from home, as all of Lifeway’s employees do now, with a few in-person gatherings during the year. Lifeway’s online products have remained a top priority in 2021 as churches navigate life with COVID-19. He works on several projects including Ministry Grid, events registration, Lifeway Worship, and online Bible study curriculum. He also serves on a task force that is helping the entire organization migrate to Microsoft 365.

Following my diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis last year, I (Lydia) continue to work with my doctors to slow the progression of the disease and find relief for my other chronic pain conditions. Patrick and Adam are very patient caregivers. I enjoy doing small crafting and baking projects at home when I am able and try to rest when possible. 

We hope your year has been a good one, and we are grateful to have so many wonderful friends and family members. We wish you a very merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy 2022.

-Patrick, Lydia, and Adam Watts 

Christmas Letter 2020

 When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

- Johnson Oatman, Jr.

  Greetings from the Watts family! I (Lydia) have been thinking about the hymn, “Count Your Blessings” recently and how it applies to 2020. This year has had more than its share of discouragement, and we have been trying to counter that with gratitude for our many blessings.

  In February, Patrick was able to travel to Ohio to celebrate his grandfather’s 100th birthday. Pop wanted to go to his favorite Mexican restaurant and wear the birthday sombrero while the wait staff sang to him, so that’s what they did! Pop is still in his retirement community and has wonderful caregivers - people who also cared for Patrick’s grandmother before she passed away in 2019. Pop says he’s the only person he’s ever known who has lived to be 100! He has health issues that are to be expected with someone of his age, but he remains in good spirits. We are thankful.

  Not long after Patrick returned from Ohio, the case numbers of COVID-19 started to rise both here in Tennessee and around the country. On March 11, when Patrick picked Adam up on the last day of school before spring break, Adam told him that the teachers had all the kids clean out their cubbies. Patrick said, “I don’t think they’re going back.” He was right. Adam finished his sixth grade year in distance learning and has been home for all of seventh grade so far. His teachers have adapted amazingly well and have worked hard to deal with the numerous technological challenges of online learning. Adam is making good grades and likes his teachers. We are thankful.

 

That same week, on March 13, LifeWay did an “experiment” with all employees working remotely for a day. They had had a flexible “Work from Anywhere” policy in the past, but this was the first time no employees reported to the building. The experiment was a success, and Patrick has been working from home ever since. Overall, it has worked out well. We’ve saved lots of money on gas, and Patrick has been available to help with school-related tech problems and fix lunch! We are thankful.

  As churches cancelled services and activities, LifeWay made getting “distance-worshipping” resources to churches a top priority. Patrick was part of a team tasked with getting four curriculum lines completely online as quickly as possible. It's hard to explain what a monumental task this was, but they figured out how to make it happen. I even got to preview some of it and add my input! 2020 vastly accelerated bringing "salvation to the ends of the earth" via the internet. I believe that God has Patrick at LifeWay for such a time as this. We are thankful.

  In August of this year, I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, an autoimmune disease that affects the spine. This came after a long journey to determine the cause of my back pain. Getting this type of diagnosis during a pandemic is not ideal, but we are in close proximity to excellent medical care and God continues to provide for our needs to manage the situation. We are thankful.

  One of the greatest blessings of 2020 for our family was the safe arrival of our niece, Emma. Patrick’s sister Allison and her husband Dave welcomed her in April. Big sister Abby is almost five years old and loves spending time with baby Emma at home in Texas. Even when things are discouraging around us, seeing pictures of them always brings a smile. We are thankful.

  Like many families this year, being at home together all the time has had its share of challenges and blessings. We realize that we are fortunate to have more time with Adam during such a pivotal time in his development as a young man. He’s grown at least half a foot in 2020, and his voice has dropped at least an octave. We have been trying to make the most of this unexpected period in our family life. We have all that we need, and we have each other. We are thankful.

  We hope that you are in good health and staying safe this holiday season as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We are so grateful for our friends and family, and we hope that we will soon be able to see you in person again. We wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

-Patrick, Lydia, and Adam Watts

Christmas Letter 2019

      Greetings from the Watts family! We hope you are having a wonderful holiday season and have the opportunity to pause and reflect on the wonderful miracle of Jesus’ birth.

Polly and Adam

       Like everyone else, we’ve had ups and downs this year. In February, we said “goodbye for now” to Patrick’s grandmother, Floss Waggener. She brought so much joy and positivity to the world in her 97 years, and we rejoice in the knowledge that she is with her Savior. “Polly,” as we called her, had the ability to distill any conversation or situation into two key elements: the absolute most encouraging words, and the gospel. Remembering the little things she said or did has made us smile over these last months. We are so thankful that Adam had the opportunity to know his great-grandmother.
        Patrick has made several trips to Ohio this year to spend time with Polly before she passed away and to be with his 99-year-old grandfather (“Pop”) as he adjusts to life without his wife of 76 years. Polly’s amazing caregivers have been able to continue looking after Pop and making it possible for him to stay in his home.
       Adam wrapped up his first year of middle school in May and jumped right into a busy summer. He and Patrick visited Pop over Memorial Day weekend, with a side trip to King's Island. Adam went to Camp Invention and Vacation Bible School in June. He also attended his first concert, "Weird Al" Yankovic, at Ascend Amphitheater.

"Weird Al" Yankovic concert

      In July, Patrick and Adam went to CentriKid Camp in Campbellsville, KY. He also went to Music Arts Camp at church and took swimming lessons. Adam visited Kentucky two more times with the children’s ministry from church when they went on day trips to

Summer reading books

Venture River Water Park and Beech Bend Park. He still found plenty of time to read and play video games during his break.               August brought the beginning of sixth grade, and it was nice to already have a year of middle school under our belts and not be new to the school this year. Adam has joined a robotics team at school, which Patrick is coaching, and he is enjoying making new friends and learning how to get the robot ready for tournaments.

Robotics tournament

        Lydia’s health challenges keep our family time close to home. We have “Family Movie Night” nearly every week when we eat pizza and watch something on Disney+. We enjoy cheering on the Baylor Bears,  Tennessee Vols, and Nashville Predators

Gnash and Adam

from the comfort of home. Adam has also gotten interested in something his mom likes - jigsaw puzzles!
       We found out last month that Patrick’s sister and her husband will be welcoming their second child, a girl, next year. By next summer, we will have four nieces - ages newborn to sixteen years old!
        Patrick is still doing well in his work at LifeWay, working on everything from worship to VBS to training software for churches to assessments for church planters. He works from home one or two days a week now, and we enjoy having lunch together on those days.
        We love hearing from our friends and family. Please keep up with us on Facebook or email us at patrickandlydia(at)gmail.com.

Merry Christmas! Patrick, Lydia, and Adam

Christmas Letter 2018

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Watts family! We hope you have had a good year and hope you will have an even better 2019. We stayed close to home this year, especially when we got hit with a big snowstorm in January!

The temperature got down to the single digits, which is rare for Nashville. We enjoyed having some unscheduled family time.

Through the winter and into the spring, we toured and applied to middle schools for Adam. (Middle school starts in the fifth grade in our county.) We realized in the process that things sure have changed... we toured more middle schools than either of us did colleges for ourselves. We finally arrived at a decision to go with Valor Collegiate Academy in early May.

At the end of May, it was time to say goodbye to Granbery Elementary. The faculty and staff there loved our whole family so well for five years. Patrick’s parents were able to come to town for the graduation, and so Adam had all four of his grandparents in attendance.

Summer was busy with day camps and church activities for Adam. He went to Camp Invention, Vacation Bible School, and Music Arts Camp. Patrick’s sister, Allison, her husband Dave, and their daughter Abby came to visit in June, and Adam enjoyed showing her around the house and the neighborhood. Patrick, Adam, and the Greenes trekked up to Ohio to visit Patrick and Allison’s grandparents, who despite being in their late nineties, still are sharp as tacks and love to love on us.

In August, Adam went to two days of “Culture Camp” to learn all about his new school and get to know his new classmates. He started fifth grade on August 7th, and quickly started making friends and learning the ropes of middle school. It’s been an adjustment for all of us with new teachers, more homework, a new schedule, and no more school bus.

Adam made his own Halloween costume this year, and he was an iPhone! He made the phone out of a big cardboard box, and the charger was a small styrofoam cooler.

Lydia has been busy crafting and being the mom of a middle schooler. Some new medicine has helped her this year, but she’s still adjusting to some side effects.

Patrick’s job at LifeWay is still going well. They’ve been in

the new building for a year now, and he’s already moved from the fifth floor to the eighth floor. He’s now been trained to be a certified scrum product owner. He primarily works on web-based software for churches.

We love hearing from our friends and family at Christmastime. Please keep us with us on Facebook or email us at patrickandlydia(at)gmail.com.

Blessings,

Patrick, Lydia, and Adam

2017 Watts Family Year Ender

Dear friends and family,

We hope you have had a great 2017 and are looking forward to the new year. We’ve had lots of ups and downs this year in the Watts family.

Patrick and Adam have made several trips to see family this year, including a Spring Break trip to Texas and three trips to Ohio to see Patrick’s grandparents, who just celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. Their Memorial Day trip included stops at Dinosaur World in Kentucky and Kings Island near Cincinnati.

In June, they went to CentriKid camp in Campbellsville, KY. This was a new experience for both of them, and they had a blast!

We had the amazing experience of being in the “line of totality” of the solar eclipse on August 21. Patrick’s cousin, Ray, is an astronomy professor and came to observe the eclipse in our driveway. It was a fantastic learning experience for all three of us and especially for Adam, who wants to be an astronomer when he grows up.

In October, Adam came down with what we thought was a bad cold, but he was soon diagnosed with pneumonia. After a week of treatment at home, our pediatrician sent us to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital at Williamson Medical Center for an in-patient stay to get IV antibiotics. Adam responded more quickly than expected to treatment there, and we were sent home at the end of our second day. This happened during Adam’s fall break, and so he had quite the story to tell when he went back to school. Unfortunately, Patrick then came down with it... followed shortly thereafter by Lydia as well, but we both managed to avoid the hospital. We are grateful to live in Nashville with great medical care. All of October and most of November were consumed with illness, and so we got a little behind on Christmas preparations and cards.

Also in November, Patrick’s office moved to LifeWay’s new building in the Capitol View development in Nashville’s “North Gulch”. Nashville is growing by leaps and bounds, and the area around the new building is surrounded by new businesses and residential buildings. The new, high-tech building is a big change from the aging buildings on the old campus, but many of the architectural elements were incorporated into LifeWay’s new home. Patrick continues to work on web-based projects including a training site for church planters with the North American Mission Board.

Adam is a fourth grader this year, which in our school district, is the last year of elementary school. We have been looking at our options for middle school next year and are prayerfully considering what will be the best fit for him and our family.





We enjoy everyone’s Christmas cards and greetings. Even if we aren’t able to see you in person, our family and friends are always close to our hearts. We would love to hear from you. We pray you will have a happy and healthy new year.

-Patrick, Lydia, and Adam Watts

The power of the "in joke"

I don't pretend that this blog is a bastion of marketing and business knowledge, nor do I pretend to be an expert in the field, but I have noticed something quite a few times recently.

Today, I'm working my way through my teriyaki chicken bowl, listening to our about-to-be released new children's musical Parableooza. Gail and Jimmy Getzen have knocked another one out of the park with an approachable, engaging theme and music that will connect kids with the Word.

The conceit of the musical is a game show based on the Parables. Of course, every game show has contestants, so it wasn't unexpected to hear the announcer say something to the effect of "let's introduce our contestants..." but what followed almost made rice come out my nose. The boy's name is the same as the project leader's husband, and the girl's name is the same as one of our project coordinators.

This is probably the most "in" that an "in joke" could possibly be... the only ones that will get it are people who know both names. I just happen to be in both of their "friend networks," so I get it. The thing that surprised me was my reaction. I had an almost visceral response... surprise, excitement, disbelief, acknowledgement, and attention... ultimately attention that superseded the next bite of my lunch. And then, the next step, wanting to share the "in joke" - a first step in the guerilla marketing of a product.

Microsoft did this in their Gates and Seinfeld commercials. Although critically panned, they were almost universally talked about and deconstructed, from just noticing Bill's mugshot from an early arrest on his shoe store member card to a deconstruction of symbology for every element. The point is that no matter what people thought of them, whether they benefitted Windows, Microsoft, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Apple or had no effect on sales whatsoever, people were talking about them, and it raised awareness of a product and a brand.

Parabaleooza and Microsoft are about as opposite ends of the spectrum as possible, but both managed to cut through my new dad, super-busy site-launching church-resourcing, near-deacon, facebook-obsessed life and connect with me long enough to want to blog about it.

the lifeway worship project

Whenever someone has asked me what I've been doing for the past couple of years, I've wanted to show them this video... but it didn't exist until now! Enjoy:


LifeWay Worship Project from Patrick Watts on Vimeo.

why we're slow posters

Some of our more regular readers (hi Mom!) may have noticed that the velocity of our postings have slowed down over the past few months. This can be attributed to several things:

1. In my new job, I have a lot more 7:30-4:30 focused content than I did in my previous one. In my previous job, there were more extended times of "hit button, wait for results" and "send email, wait for response." Now, there are a lot more "give response to someone who sent email" and "put out fire." I think I've said it before that the old job was more about pushing bits and responding to people. The new job is all about people, and very little about pushing bits. All that to say, there's less waiting time to think and compose posts.

2. Lydia's not behind a desk 8/5 anymore. Although I bet she's still online 40 hours a week, like me, she doesn't always have the occasion to think and compose. Her online time is more purpose-driven: answer these emails, find this smocking plate, research this purchase, etc.

3. Things are going great for us. I love my job, Lydia loves her part-time job, we love our family, we love the friends we have, we love our neighborhood... there just isn't a lot out of the ordinary that we want to post about.

4. Things are in progress. A good example would be the car post before this one. For various reasons (some potentially legal,) we wanted to tell the WHOLE story before posting. There are some other things (not as huge as the car) that we want to post about, but aren't ready for posting yet.

5. Things are private. There are some things that we wish we could post about to ask for prayers - things affecting people we know... but for one reason or another, would not be appropriate to talk about. Suffice it to say that there's probably a thread of need like this behind every blog that you read and every face that you pass, and we're called to pray for each other. Thanks in advance for the prayers you lift.

billy in nashville

As of about right now, there is a statue of Billy Graham just down the street from my office. I can't see it from my window, but I did have the opportunity to attend the unveiling ceremony and hear from several LifeWay folks, Nashville folks, Billy's grandson Will and Cliff Barrows. Memorable quote from Will:

Many of you have asked about how my grandfather and grandmother are doing. And the best way to describe it... is that they are... old.

Cliff reminisced about various crusades and led us in "How Great Thou Art." I really do appreciate the chance that I have in my job to experience historic occasions like this and be able to say, "I was there when..."