With a little luck, I will get caught up on our family blogging in the next week or two. This entry, though, will be our "family Christmas letter" to all our friends and family. I would like to send this out sooner than last year, just in case an unexpected computer virus wipes out our computer again and we're delayed by several weeks! And for those of you who will be receiving this letter via snail-mail...we apologize for the lateness!
The Barrett Family 2012 Christmas Message
Hello everyone! We hope this message finds you all happy, healthy, and safe alongside those you love. This has been a year of challenges, adventures, and joys for the Barrett household.
Sadly, this holiday season has been touched with tragedy. Last week, within 24 hours, a young husband and father in our LDS ward died unexpectedly of a heart attack...and a disturbed (and heavily armed) young man entered an elementary school in Connecticut and opened fire, killing 26 people (including 20 young children!). These sobering events have made for a more thoughtful, less boisterous holiday season. And while we have spent time grieving these untimely losses, we have been also reminded of the love of our Savior Jesus Christ, and how He can bring comfort to those in pain. Our family has spent this season counting our many blessings and realizing just how short, fragile, and precious our time on earth is, and how important it is to make our time on earth meaningful and filled with service. We have also spent lots of time holding our children close to us...because they can never have too many hugs! We are so grateful for the beautiful spirits the Lord has sent our way.
Nathan has had a busy year settling into his job at the Pima Association of Governments (he started the job in summer of 2011, so he celebrated his one-year anniversary with PAG this summer). He loves his job, and he really enjoys his new coworkers too. He recently took on some new responsibilities, including the tracking of all transportation dollars spent in the region. He has a lot of "extracurricular" activities on his plate as well. Last spring and summer, he coached Lorelai's soccer team, and he was loved by the whole team! He also participates in two separate board-gaming groups each month; one with local church friends in Sahuarita, and one with his coworkers. He also attends a monthly Sahuarita Planning & Zoning Commission.
Adrianne is kept busy at home, raising three little girls and trying to keep the house in good running order. She taught eight piano students this year, and added a ninth in the fall when she started teaching Lorelai (she's very excited to share her love of music with her daughters!). She has continued to serve as the Primary (children's organization) president in her local LDS congregation; she oversees more than 100 children and their teachers. It is a busy but rewarding job, and she is blessed to have many wonderful people serve alongside her and give her good advice. In her "spare" time, Adrianne cooks (she spends much of each fall doing her family's home canning), reads, exercises, blogs, listens to music, and watches television.
Lorelai turned seven years old this summer, and seems to get taller, skinnier, and more toothless all the time. In the last two months, she has lost three of her front teeth...the Tooth Fairy has been busy this holiday season! It makes her look like what she is...a growing-up girl. She is also our resident "tomboy," preferring to ride bikes and play video games with boys in the neighborhood, and not being too interested in looking pretty! Lorelai played soccer this spring and summer, and when second grade started in the fall, she joined an "author's club" after school, taught by Ms. Voorhees, her homeroom teacher. It has inspired her to write lots of stories, all of which are very creative and amusing...she has a dramatic flair as a storyteller. She also started piano lessons this fall with her mama, and she is enjoying the challenge of learning a musical instrument. She has a contagious laugh, and is always energetic, passionate, and full of love for her friends & family.
Celeste is somewhat the opposite of her older sister...she is a "girly girl" to the core! She has a soft spot for anything involving princesses, ballerinas, babies, or fairies (she was in heaven when we took her to the Disney On Ice show in October!). Sometimes her mama has to force her to wear pants, because left to her own devices, she would wear nothing but fancy dresses everywhere, including to the playground and hiking in the mountains! Celeste has been in two different preschools this year. The first was a co-op preschool that finished in the spring; in the fall, she enrolled at Smart Scholars preschool, taught by Ms. Nichole, who Celeste idolizes. She is picking up a little reading and a lot of math (much to her right-brained parents' surprise!). Celeste is very affectionate with her parents...she has promised to take care of Daddy when he gets old, and she always wants to help mama cook dinner. She just turned five a few weeks ago, and she is very excited for ballet classes and kindergarten in the coming year.
Aurora is our little "spitfire"; she has more energy than the rest of us combined. She loves to run more than almost anything else, and she's very good at it...in fact, she has often managed to run far far away from our family in various locations, only to be rescued by strangers and/or the police! It can be somewhat stressful trying to keep up with her. Her speaking continues to improve every week, and now she is very good at telling us what's on her mind. She's also gotten good at bossing around her older sisters! She is a very opinionated kid, but she is very affectionate and loving as well...especially towards her mama! She can charm people wherever she goes; she loves to crawl into laps, hold hands, and shower her loved ones with kisses and hugs. Next month, Aurora turns three years old, and it promises to be a whirlwind year as she continues to grow.
The newest member of our family is our dwarf hamster, Tuck. We inherited him from a family friend whose housecat was eyeing him as a possible meal! Tuck has settled nicely into our home, and the girls all love him. He is not the most talkative guy, but he loves to run around in his exercise wheel late every night, and he has fun running around the house in his plastic ball when we're cleaning out his cage. He is very cute and it has been fun for the girls to have a pet.
As a family, we have had several fun excursions. Biggest of all was a two-week trip to Colorado in the summer, where we visited lots of family members and saw a lot of beautiful sights. This fall, we managed to refinance our home, which will help us make ends meet in the coming years. We also managed to paint several rooms in our house, including all the small bedrooms upstairs, the downstairs bathroom, and our kitchen and living room. Hopefully next year we'll finish all the walls downstairs. We also hosted Thanksgiving again, and were happy to welcome many extended family members to join us.
Next year should be a good one for us; we have several big trips planned, beginning with a trip to San Diego in February. We'll also have two children in school beginning next fall, and we're planning many more fun activities for all our girls. We realize we have been very blessed and are so grateful for the many ways in which the Lord has sent us help, joy, and comfort. We hope to be good examples and good helpers to those in need; please let us know if there are any ways in which we can be better helpers and servants of Christ. We hope all of you have a wonderful, blessed 2013.
Lorelai turned seven years old this summer, and seems to get taller, skinnier, and more toothless all the time. In the last two months, she has lost three of her front teeth...the Tooth Fairy has been busy this holiday season! It makes her look like what she is...a growing-up girl. She is also our resident "tomboy," preferring to ride bikes and play video games with boys in the neighborhood, and not being too interested in looking pretty! Lorelai played soccer this spring and summer, and when second grade started in the fall, she joined an "author's club" after school, taught by Ms. Voorhees, her homeroom teacher. It has inspired her to write lots of stories, all of which are very creative and amusing...she has a dramatic flair as a storyteller. She also started piano lessons this fall with her mama, and she is enjoying the challenge of learning a musical instrument. She has a contagious laugh, and is always energetic, passionate, and full of love for her friends & family.
As a family, we have had several fun excursions. Biggest of all was a two-week trip to Colorado in the summer, where we visited lots of family members and saw a lot of beautiful sights. This fall, we managed to refinance our home, which will help us make ends meet in the coming years. We also managed to paint several rooms in our house, including all the small bedrooms upstairs, the downstairs bathroom, and our kitchen and living room. Hopefully next year we'll finish all the walls downstairs. We also hosted Thanksgiving again, and were happy to welcome many extended family members to join us.
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