December 13, 2011

To Our Family and Friends: Merry Christmas!

John Grisham wrote a cute, little Holiday book entitled Skipping Christmas.  It has since been adapted for the movies in the holiday film Christmas with the Kranks and chronicles the year where a husband and wife abstain from all holiday customs and use the money saved to purchase a cruise vacation package instead.  They inform their friends by telling them they will be, "skipping Christmas this year."

Well, we are not skipping Christmas for a cruise to the Bahamas (in my dreams!), but we are changing things up a little this year.  Rather than printing the Park Periodical, our traditional miniature Christmas  newspaper, we hope to reach a wider audience by utilizing our blog to spread the holiday cheer and update friends and family on the past year's experiences. Items listed that are highlighted are linked to past posts that give more details about the event and have more photos.  You may click on them if you want to know more about them.We hope you will enjoy this post and being able to access links to full stories of the events mentioned herein.  So without further ado, we present:

The Park Family Christmas Newsletter 2011

Ella's Blessing, March 2011                                                           Mother's Day 2011 

Nebo Loop October 2011                                                                     Christmas 2011

Our Family Highlights


Jason
  • celebrated 15 years of working at NuSkin this year and is currently a supply chain manager
  • released in May as assistant scout master (a church calling he held for over three years); now serves as Bear den leader (Brevin is ecstatic about the new call)
  • served as a coach and assistant coach for Brevin and Spencer's t-ball, coach pitch, and basketball teams with the city recreation leagues
  • traveled to Singapore in October doing work for NuSkin
  • began his fourth year as referee for high school and recreational basketball


 Amber


Brevin


Spencer


Brevin and Spencer's Sport Activities


Garrett
  • entered (and thankfully grew out of) a liquid dumping phase; dumped everything he could get his hands on such as gasoline, bubbles, car wash soap, milk, water bottles, etc.
  • had to have his first cavity filled in February 
  • had a Toy Story themed birthday party to celebrate turning 3
  • has become a bit of a "flight risk" and has been lost in places like Wal-Mart and Seven Peaks; left the house unnoticed and rode his tricycle six blocks away from home and through a four-way stop intersection, only to be returned by a kind woman and a police officer
  • has the most impressive vocabulary and is so fun to listen to when he speaks
  • shows absolutely no interest in toilet training and, therefore, remains in diapers
  • when Ella wakes up from naps crying, he likes to dump a bunch of toys and blankets in the crib and get in with her to play and cheer her up
  • is confident, fearless, and downright entertaining

Ella

Thank you for taking time to review the past months with us.  We have been blessed to experience a year full of events, changes, and growth.  Most of all, we have been fortunate to have family and friends influence our family through interactions over the years.  June Masters Bacher is quoted thusly:

"Love is like a violin.  The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever."

Until the music plays again, our love goes with you as yours remains with us.  Merry Christmas!

Love,
The Parks

2 comments:

Mandy said...

Always love your newsletters! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

This is such a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing the updates with us this year. We'll look forward to more. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas! Love you!