let christmas begin.

We’ve really had a nice weekend. It started with Parker’s football banquet at the high school. Parker received a Scholar-Athlete award along with five of his teammates for maintaining a 4.0 or higher this season and he also received the Coach’s Award for being the kind of player that may not be the best in any one particular area, but who’s indispensable in the coach’s eyes. 

I was so disappointed that I didn’t record the coach saying all those nice things about Parker, but the truth is that I didn’t need the coach to say those things. I already knew it. 

Since he was small, coaches and teachers have all said the same kinds of things about his character. But as a parent (I will admit), it is nice to hear and definitely makes my heart burst with pride. 

Afterward, we enjoyed a potluck dinner in the cafeteria. It was a good night. I think next year I’m going to volunteer helping with the banquet potluck. 

On Saturday, we were really busy checking off a long list of ‘to-do’ things-- from church stuff to Christmas preparations. And the kids had their black light practice for our church Christmas program and worship practice later in the day. We got everything done and were very ready for Sunday morning. Except  that we lost Tallulah’s Christmas socks right before church. Ugh! It got ugly. 

Church on Sunday was fabulous-- everything went so well. My class rocked their Christmas songs and did better than I could’ve ever expected. I was extremely proud of them. Again-- my only disappointment came because I was not able to record their performance since I was helping them with hand motions offstage. No pictures. I should’ve planned for someone else to help. I’ll have to remember for next year. 

We had a meet and greet after church, with coffee, milk and a terrific assortment of sweets that people made. We knew the kids were going to really indulge in the goodies so we had an easy lunch waiting for us in the crockpot at the house: homemade chili and cornbread. My Mom and M-I-L stayed for lunch and we had a really nice afternoon, but I was beat. 

That evening, we drove down our city’s ‘Candy Cane’ lane and the kids sang Christmas carols as loud as they possibly could. On the way home, we grabbed Panda Express and Christmas plates from the Dollar Tree. We had a good night celebrating Christmas early by opening presents with Grammy. The kids are so excited that Christmas has started in our home. 

Tomorrow we  will be having Christmas and prime rib with my Mom. And Wednesday-- they’ll get to open their secret Santa presents in our family before we head off to our candlelight service at church. 

I don’t know if I ever want Christmas to end.