Merry Christmas 2025 from the Barrett Family!

 

Merry Christmas and a

Happy New Year

from the Barrett Family

We hope this message finds you all happy, healthy, and at peace. We hope & pray you are having a wonderful holiday season with those you love near at hand!

2025 was a year of many challenges for our family, but also a lot of joy. We enter the year's end feeling lighter in the pocketbook (we had a LOT of unexpected medical & appliance payments come up!), but thankfully we also feel richer in other, non-material things. We are certainly very grateful for each other and the love and closeness we share, as well as the time we are able to spend together. 

The Barretts took two family trips in 2025. In January, we took our first family cruise! We cruised from Los Angeles to Catalina to Ensenada, and had a great time relaxing & having fun.

After getting off the cruise ship, we also decided to spend an extra day in California visiting the "happiest place on earth" (at least to OUR family!)...Knott's Berry Farm!

Our whole family always has lots of fun when we visit this park, and this visit was no exception!

In June, we traveled to Aurora, Colorado, for a short visit to celebrate our beloved Grandma (Lori) & Grandpa (Ray) Nash’s 50^th wedding anniversary.

It was a fairly low-key event; we rented out a room at the country club and had a nice dinner & presentation. We spent the rest of the weekend playing games & hanging out with all the siblings and cousins!

We weren't able to stay too long in CO, but we were sure glad for the chance to see our extended Nash family...it's an opportunity we don't get enough! We are so grateful for Grandma & Grandpa Nash and we are so happy they reached this big milestone together!

The year concluded with another bittersweet event: Our beloved Grandma Barrett (Sandy) and her husband Owen moved BACK to Aurora, CO in early December. Sandy had lived in Green Valley, AZ for 17 years, so it is strange to be celebrating Christmas without her this year!

However, we are happy that she now gets the opportunity to live closer to some of her other children & grandchildren again. Plus, she moved into the SAME retirement community that the Nashes live in, so making visits will be very easy! We wish Grandma & Owen the best as they settle into their new home.

Here are a few more 2025 highlights for each family member!

Nathan:

As you can see, I don't always take a lot of solo photos of Nathan...he doesn't have as many "extracurriculars" as Adrianne and the kids, but he is a steady, calm support center to our family as all the women in his life try to maintain their hectic schedules. Nathan loves his wife & daughters and enjoys supporting them in their endeavors and giving out good, solid life advice & spiritual counseling whenever everyone needs it (which is often!).

Nathan did get to fulfill a lifelong dream in August of this year, when he was able to see "Weird Al" Yankovic perform live in Phoenix. Nathan isn't much of a concert person, but he loved Weird Al's show...so much, in fact, that he's already made plans to see him a SECOND TIME in 2026, this time in Tucson! 

In 2025, Nathan began his second year as Deputy Director of Planning & Building for the Town of Sahuarita, and has been getting more comfortable with the extra responsibilities & leadership opportunities. He has enjoyed team-building efforts with his department, gets along well with his boss, and has made a lot of great personal and professional connections.

In church, Nathan spent the first part of 2025 serving in the Elders Quorum presidency; in the fall, he was switched to being a counselor in the Sunday School presidency. He is a terrific gospel teacher, so this is understandably a calling he is really excited about.

In the spare time he has, Nathan still loves reading, puzzling, and gaming. He is also a die-hard foodie and loves to try adventurous new cuisine every chance he gets...be it high-class or low!

Adrianne:

Adrianne keeps trying to "hold it all together" as the family matriarch. Some days she does better at this than others. It can be tricky to try and balance her hobbies with the (many) responsibilities of her kids. Her focus now is maintaining a manageable work schedule, while helping facilitate her busy teens' schedules and helping them transition into adulthood! Oh, and she'd like to increase her date nights with Nathan as well. Hopefully their "couples time" will increase heading into 2026!

In 2025, Adrianne continued to cultivate her home-based piano studio, growing her client list to 20+ students! She's been teaching privately now for about 17 years, and she still finds it very enjoyable and rewarding. She also spares a few hours a week to work as an office assistant at local construction company Housley Builders (her boss sadly passed away in October, so her roles are shifting slightly).

Adrianne still serves as treasurer of Walden Grove High School’s music booster organization, which takes up a lot of time...especially during marching band season! But it has also been a rewarding way to stay closer to her busy teenage girls, get to know a lot of amazing band parents, serve in the community, and (maybe?) gain financial skills that will benefit her in future employment someday.

When she's not helping out with band or watching a soccer game, Adrianne's free (hah!) time is spent reading as many books as possible, cooking delicious meals (so long as someone will eat them!), and occasionally going on walks, either with Coco the family dog, or sometimes by herself (as you can see in the picture above, she even revisited the steep Tumamoc Hill hike after several years off. Hooray! She survived). Adrianne currently serves as the choir pianist in Ranch Ward and loves assisting such a talented group of musicians.

Lorelai:

Our firstborn continues to amaze and impress! She is a tireless worker, a dedicated student, and a skilled musician. She is also a loyal friend and a creative thinker. We all love her dearly. Even though she is a big-shot college student now, it has been wonderful having her live close to home and come to visit regularly. Watching her grow into adulthood has been a joy.

In the spring of 2025, Lorelai finished her second year at the University of Arizona. She is an A student, with very few B's and nothing else! She has also been holding down THREE jobs: An office assistant in the U of A's Honors College (she helps keep track of their financials); a paid internship with Governor Katie Hobbs' re-election campaign (she does campaign finance research, mostly online); and a weekend job waitressing for ANOTHER senior center (this one in Tucson; she finally parted ways with longtime employer La Posada at summer's end). She began her junior year in a new apartment in Tucson.

Lorelai loves to use her time off to goof around with her sisters. They had lots of fun together on the Colorado trip. When not visiting with the Nash family, the Barrett girls spent time visiting Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, NM (an eclectic, walk-through "living art" museum), and doing a little "Breaking Bad" & "Better Call Saul" sightseeing in Albuquerque, the city featured in those hit TV shows. 

In the summer, she also bought herself a car (using her own money!!), which she named "Gretel" (she's a beautiful Volkswagen Jetta). Gretel has helped Lorelai out a lot in commuting between school, home, & work, and she loves her new "baby"... when she isn’t in the shop getting fixed, that is! Gretel had a few issues and was out of commission for much of December. Here's hoping for a healthier 2026 for Lorelai's car!

In November (while finishing a VERY intense semester of school), Lorelai received lots of exciting news. First, she was accepted to the Honors English program at the U of A, which means she will be writing TWO senior theses (she's a double major, English and Public Affairs), which makes her eligible for the prestigious Da Vinci Award. Perhaps even more exciting news came soon after: Lorelai discovered that she was accepted to participate in the Washington Seminar, which means she’ll probably be spending the summer of 2026 working in Washington DC! Over the next few months, she'll be selecting her internship and preparing to become an intern (possibly in a congressional office) in our nation's capital! We are so very excited for Lorelai; we know she has worked hard and earned these honors through her efforts! We love her and can't wait to see what 2026 holds in store for her.

Celeste: 

Celeste culminated her VERY busy year by turning 18 years old and becoming a legal adult! It is hard to believe there are now TWO adult Barrett children. But Celeste has been preparing herself for this milestone. She maintains an incredible work ethic at school, in her extracurriculars, and in seminary. She is diligent, dedicated, and fearless. And she does it all with a smile! We are grateful for the positive spirit and humor she always brings into our home, even when things may be tough for her or others.

In 2025, Celeste completed a busy junior year of high school, and began an intense senior year as well. In the spring, she participated in both the U of A Honor Band, and was also the first-chair tenor sax in the Arizona Regional Band...for the second straight year! She also was a contributing member of Walden Grove's jazz band, which received their highest-ever score at the regional and state-level festivals. She also still practices piano regularly, and she & Aurora played beautifully at the TMTA Ensemble concert in Tucson in March. Celeste loves music and she is a dedicated, talented performer.

It is in marching band where a lot of Celeste's best qualities shine. She has spent the last two years in band leadership as woodwind section leader, earning the loyalty & hard work of her section. A lot of the band's hard work paid off this year; in November, the marching band took 3rd place in the state championships...the highest finish of any Pima County team! Celeste was an inspiration to many of the band and it was a great way to finish her marching career. She also loved being part of the marching band and jazz band with Aurora; it made for some wonderful sister bonding time!

Celeste had other amazing leadership opportunities in 2025. In June, she was selected to attend the prestigious AZ Girl's State event (sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary). It is a "mock government" week-long camp, that is both a learning experience and a resume-builder. Celeste was actually elected "Mayor" of her assigned group of girls, and made a lot of great friends in the process! In the fall, Celeste added NHS Secretary to her resume. Somehow in the middle of all this, she is getting straight A’s and holding down multiple jobs (lifeguard in the summer; busser at Arizona Family Restaurant; and later, a greeter at 19th Hole Bar & Grill). Her amazing hard work is paying off; she is starting to receive very promising offers from multiple colleges. Her 2026 promises to be an amazing one! We are so proud of her and can't wait to see where she ends up next.

Aurora:

Aurora still has an incredibly packed schedule, but she has her learner’s permit now, so soon she’ll be able to drive herself to all her extracurriculars! She became legal in July, and it is hard to believe that the "baby" of the family will be a full-fledged driver in just under a month from now.

Aurora continues to be a "double threat" in her extracurriculars, excelling in music AND in sports! She played Trumpet 2 in jazz band, which meant she got to perform more solos while also spending more time at school with her older sister. She tried out for Regional Band in February and actually made it in, but she sadly fell ill and was unable to participate! Better luck in 2026, we hope. She also had a great time performing in the fall 2025 marching band show, "The Pack," and was a great support to her high brass section. Like her sisters, Aurora also plays a little piano when she gets the chance.

In early 2025, Aurora began to see increasingly more minutes playing on Walden Grove's varsity girls' soccer team. The team made it all the way to the state semifinals, where she played really tough in a heartbreaking loss.

After the season was over, she received the "Freshman of the Year" award from the coaches at the team banquet. We are so proud that she worked so hard and made such a good impression for the coaches her freshman year.

This fall, she was finally promoted to varsity full-time, and she is a starter on the defensive end. This season, the varsity team is much younger (most of the varsity starters are either sophomores or juniors), so they are still learning to get in sync with one another, but they are improving fast and it is awesome to watch! We will be excited to see what she accomplishes in the remainder of the season in early 2026.

Aurora still plays club soccer with FC Tucson, although her time with the team is very limited this year (too many weekends filled with marching band etc!). She was able to participate in a couple of tournaments, however, and played very well in both. On her (rare) free weekends, she was sometimes able to work as an assistant referee for local league soccer games...it was a good way to earn a few extra bucks!

On the church front, Aurora is currently serving as the first counselor in her Young Women’s class. During the summer, she had a "back-to-back-to-back" whirlwind three weeks, in which she attended her High Adventure Camp, Youth Pioneer Trek, and ward Girls Camp (in that order!). She was exhausted by the end of those three weeks, but mostly had fun. For Girls Camp, our ward opted to travel to California, where the girls camped on the beach and went kayaking in the ocean! It was a neat, novel experience for them.

In Aurora's (rare) downtime, look for her with a book! She is a very driven, focused, sometimes competitive person (have I mentioned she is still a straight-A student??), but she also is a loyal friend with a very tender heart and a big imagination. She has so much potential and we can't wait to see what new challenges she takes on in 2026!

 We love you all and wish you health, happiness, and success in the coming year!