Merry Christmas!

Dearest Family and Friends,

This has been a year of marvelous accomplishments for our family. From potty training to working on the final phases of our new house, we’ve all grown by leaps and bounds. The most notable of these growing things is my belly, which is holding Baby Parris #4!

Mackenzie is 7, in the second grade and due to make her First Communion in May. She is really pulling for a sister this time around, but like the rest of us, she’ll just have to wait and see. She is an excellent speller (as she has decoded many a spelled-out secret between Nelson and me) and a terrific reader, but to my surprise she says her favorite subject is math. Where did I go wrong?

Aiden is 4 and in the stage of a thousand questions…a day. People think I’m exaggerating until they spend a few hours with him and realize that he really does end every sentence with a question mark. The amazing thing is that he listens and remembers the answers (and still manages to come up with more questions). He’s let me know in no uncertain terms that, “Uh huh,” is not an acceptable response to these questions. What can I say? Sometimes, I just run out of words.

Dawson is 3 and is smart enough to know that his reign as the baby of this family is just about over. In the last few months, I have had more requests for help, holding and kisses than in the last few years. It may turn out to be better than he thinks because when Aiden goes off to Kindergarten in the fall, Dawson is really going to miss him. They are the best of friends (most of the time) and always partners in crime.

Nelson is still juggling the four roles of husband, father, provider, and …builder. On occasion he makes it home to eat dinner with us and then it’s off to the house he goes. I am on a first name basis with the employees of Lowe’s and every other home store in town. Sometimes so much time expires between when I buy the supplies and when they actually go into the house that it’s new again when it goes in. “Wow, I really like that! Did I pick that out?” has been heard from me on more than one occasion.

In the midst of all of the hustle and bustle, we managed to surprise the kids with a trip to Disney World in November. We made it to Magic Kingdom, Sea World, a petting farm and Arabian Knights. It was perfect timing for the kids. Everyone could walk, no one was in diapers and all were absolutely mesmerized. We figured it might be several more years until we reach this stage again and we took full advantage of it.

If you’d like to keep up with what’s happening with us on a more regular basis, feel free to check http://www.raisingangels.blogspot.com/. We hope this season finds all of you counting your blessings. And, we hope that sometime in 2008, we’ll be inviting all of you to count some of ours in our new home.