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

nothing new under the sun

For some years it has been apparent that the rage for novelties in singing, especially in our Sunday-schools has been driving out of use the old, precious, standard hymns. They are not memorized as of old. They are scarcely sung at all. They are not even contained in the undenominational song-books which in many churches have usurped the place of our hymn books.

We cannot afford to lose these old hymns. They are full of the Gospel; they breathe the deepest emotions of pious hearts in the noblest strains of poetry; they have been tested and approved by successive generations of those that loved the Lord; they are the surviving fittest ones from thousands of inferior productions; they are hallowed by abundant usefulness and tenderest memories. But the young people of to-day are unfamiliar with them, and will seldom hear many of them, if the present tendency goes on unchecked.

—Basil Manly Jr. (1825-1892), from the preface of MANLY’S CHOICE: A NEW SELECTION OF APPROVED HYMNS FOR BAPTIST CHURCHES, Louisville, Kentucky: Baptist Book Concern, 1891.

Hallo-weekend

We celebrated "harvest time" this weekend with lots of activities. We went to the Fall Festival at church on Saturday morning. Adam wore his costume - his cowboy/sheriff pajamas. He refused to wear the hat and bandanna, but he wore his squeaky shoes so everyone knew where he was. There was a bounce house, face painting, digging for treasure, a balloon artist, but Adam's favorite thing was the ramp at the back of the gym.

Saturday night we went to a gathering of our friends from our singles group that we were in a decade ago. It was great getting reconnected with folks we hadn't seen in a long time and watching the kids play together. Adam really liked playing with the "big" boys.

Adam wore the cowboy overalls I made him to church today. When I saw the fabric, I knew I HAD to make something out of it. Also this morning, we voted to call our new children's minister, a position which had been vacant for nearly two years. We are so excited for Shannon and her family to come in December!

When we got home Adam played in the leaves in the front yard. Outside is probably his favorite place to be right now, and we've had some beautiful weather this fall for him to enjoy.

why I love missions in the morning

lest we forget

Sometimes I need to be reminded. I complain about managing church activities when there are people in this world who are dying for their faith. You won't see this story on the evening news.

Adam's first day at church

...was last Sunday, but we're just getting around to getting the pictures off the camera.



This week has been busy busy busy. Adam's Dad has gone off on his first business trip (only one night, much to the joy of Adam's Mom,) Adam has gone on his first prescription (Prevacid, as referenced in the previous post somewhere) and Adam has given us his first smile. We think. Maybe.

shower power

Last weekend, six of our close friends threw us a baby shower at church. I'd love to give you more details, but right now, we're battling a severe stomach bug... so we're not able to go into more detail. Big thanks are in order... and forthcoming! Until then, here are the pictures that Dad took and uploaded to AOL photos! (Thanks, Dad!)

liveblogging Room at the Inn

Our church is part of Room in the Inn, a program to help the working homeless find a new start. Each Sunday night from Thanksgiving to Easter, our church hosts 25-30 men for the evening so that they can get a shower, a good dinner, a good night's sleep, a good breakfast and lunch the next day while they work and save to establish a new life.

Normally, the Sunday School departments take turns serving as greeters, servers, clothes washers, and overnight hosts. This year, our nights included Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so it was tough for us to "field a team" with everyone traveling and having prior plans. Our coordinator called me last week and I agreed to work tonight (with Lydia's blessing, of course.)

This may go down as the most boring liveblog in history, but hey, it's my first try. :D

5:00 arrived - Leadfoot (Lydia) somehow beat me here even though I left home first.

5:10 - Lydia helps Miss Sherry, Betsy Kay and Becky set up the dinner and stash the snack bags.

5:25 - the guests start arriving. We have 28 tonight.

5:30 - I lead prayer and dinner begins. I'm given the duty of spooning out the barbecued chicken. Five women from The Next Door have volunteered to serve the dinners. Somehow in the hurriedness of the serving, we miscommunicate and prepare 27 plates.

5:35 - I meet Juan^*, who was shirked the dinner. It turns out that I habla about as much as he speaks English.

5:40 - Since I was the one who mis-apportioned the chicken, I drive to Wendy's to pick up dinner for me and Juan.

6:00 - Dinner's done except for me and Juan. We dine together and I explain in very broken Spanish that I don't really speak Spanish... I've just worked with little kids. He's very appreciative for the dinner anyway.

6:15 - Dinner's all cleaned up. The coffee is made, and the dinner helpers are headed out. Lydia gives me a new year's kiss. I tell her if she's still up for the ball drop to give me a call. Come to think of it, this is the first new year's eve we've been apart since we got married.

7:00 - The Next Door women head out to their New Year's party. That leaves me, Pete and Michael to hold the fort to tomorrow morning.

8:12 - The big attraction is the Green Bay football game. The pool games have wrapped up and it's getting quieter.

8:27 - Michael and I dismiss Pete. Michael told him to tell his wife that we said he snored too loud and told him he had to go home. He's coming back at 5:00.

8:33 - At a quick count, we have 17 who have already chosen to sack out. I'm on the web in the rec office and have a great view of the folks in the game room and the gym. Michael's in here reading.

8:47 - Lydia's online. All's quiet here on the front.

8:58 - Our last smoker has come in. I can tell he's supposed to be here because a) he has a name tag and b) he's in scrubs. When the men come in, they can check out scrubs to sleep in, and we wash the clothes that they bring. Tonight, the Next Door women are doing the laundry, making it an easy night for us overnight hosts. They're fantastic.

9:32 - The game is still on, but Chicago isn't really playing. The decaf is still piping hot. I'm in for my second cup.

9:37 - No more viewers for the game. We've got three pool players and 22 sacked out.

9:58 - Two at the pool table, two at the TV (seems to be a bit of renewed interest in the game.) Michael's in the kitchen, but I can't quite tell what he's trying to do... maybe just size things up for tomorrow morning.

10:09 - Brian^* comes to the window. "Hey man, I hurt my leg."

He's reinjured a wound on his lower leg and says that "blood is spurting out." Another guest comes to his aid with a towel and makes a pretty loose tourniquet around it. Brian says this has happened before, and he had to go to the hospital, so we call 911. The operator is great.

10:12 - A fire truck pulls up outside, and Michael goes out to help.

10:18 - Brian's still talking to the firemen. Michael says they're going to take him. Chances are we won't see him back... not because we don't want to, but because the ER on New Year's Eve will be a bit busy.

10:25 - curfew warning. Three guys in the gameroom. Brian's still outside with the firemen. I wish we had some sort of intermediate "quick medical" service between an ambulence and "get yourself in here." I guess that's a fire truck.

10:28 - The fire truck leaves.

10:32 - The TV is off, and our last two guests are in the gym for the night.

11:01 - just watched the ball drop on CNN. I'm headed upstairs for a sleep. My phone is set to wake me up at 5:00 a.m... hopefully there won't be any more posts before then.

^*The names of the guests were changed to protect their privacy.

tender tennessee Christmas

Lydia and I hosted Christmas for some of our family this year at our house. It was a marathon of Tennessee tourism, but everyone enjoyed the time together. It started Friday night at dinner with Pop and Polly and Lydia's parents. Then, on Saturday, I gave Pop and Polly a tour of LifeWay. I think they've met just about every person whose picture is hanging on a wall in that building at some time in their church career.

Lydia picked up Mom and Dad and we all toured the new Schermerhorn Symphony center. If you have a chance to see this amazing structure, we highly recommend it. There are free tours several days a week. It's amazing how they engineered the space to lock out all of the downtown noise around it. Although we've sung in the space, we're really looking forward to hearing the space too!

That night, Mom, Dad, Pop, Polly and us went to the Grand Old Opry at the Ryman Auditorium. Pop has been a fan of the Opry since the 20's when he listened in Colorado on his crystal radio set. When we bought the tickets, we were stuck over in Section 8, but Saturday night was an Opry Live night on GAC, so the usher came to our row and politely asked us if we could sit in an empty row right in the middle of the floor. Uh, yeah. The show was great, filled with country Christmas music. If you run back the show on TV, you can just see Mom and Dad in one of the audience pans, so we can prove they were there!

Sunday, we went to church and Lydia and I kept the one year-olds while everyone else went to the service. That afternoon, Mom and Lydia cooked ahead for Christmas dinner. We went over to our friend Elaine's house for cookies and eggnog and then went to the Christmas Eve service that night.

Monday was a nice relaxed Christmas day, with a late breakfast and then a conference call between Nashville, Los Angeles and Oregon to do our family gift card exchange. Then, Lydia's parents came over and we all sat down to a great meal of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, country ham, and all the fixins. Afterwards, we went and toured the Opryland Hotel to see the decorations and the lights.

Tuesday morning, Lydia, Mom and I hit a couple of after-Christmas sales and then came home to nap! Pop and Polly were originally going to leave on Tuesday, but extended their visit another day and joined us at the Frist Center for a tour of the travelling galleries there. Afterwards, Lydia showed Polly and Mom where she works and I showed Dad and Pop where I like to shop.

Wednesday morning, Pop and Polly left for Ohio, Mom and Dad got a LifeWay tour and then left for Texas, then Lydia and I blogged about it.

in sympathy

Please say a prayer today for the family of Morgan Reynolds. She passed away during the night after battling mitchondrial disease for her entire 2 1/2 year life. Her mother, Leslie, grew up at our church (she now lives in Atlanta). Morgan's grandparents and great-grandparents are still members of First Baptist. I don't know Leslie personally, but I know many people who do, and they all have wonderful things to say about her. Leslie is only two years older than me, and I cannot imagine being in her shoes today.

I have followed Morgan's life via their website, and felt a special interest since Morgan was just a month older than our niece Reganne. Morgan's older brother, Carter is only five years old, and I'm sure he is struggling with this reality today.

This is just one reminder that in the midst of this happy holiday season, there are those who are suffering tremendous pain.