Happy Holidays: The Barrett 2013 Wrap-Up

Here's our "holiday letter" for the year...we hope it finds you all in good spirits and safe with your loved ones!

Happy Holidays 2013!

Season's Greetings! We hope you all had a prosperous and happy 2013. Ours wasn't half bad. Here's a quick update on each of us:

 

Nathan's 2013:
-Loves his job as Senior Transportation Planner with the Pima Association of Governments
-Became Ward Mission Leader for LDS Sahuarita First Ward; enjoys helping out the full-time missionaries
-Still enjoys board gaming with friends; has also taken up jogging in the morning
-Got to take his dream vacation to Washington, D.C. in October. Toured the nation's capital, and even got to see a government shut-down in action. Fun times!

Adrianne's 2013:
-Acting COO of Barrett Household; serves double duty as shuttle driver, taking kids from activity to activity
-Released as Sahuarita First Ward Primary President in July; now serving as ward missionary and ward choir director
-Teaches piano lessons to 11 awesome students, including her oldest daughter
-Still loves trying out new recipes, reading new books, and occasionally participating in mud runs featuring "zombies," as pictured above

Lorelai's 2013:
- Turned eight years old in August; baptized a member of the LDS church in early September. We are all very proud, and love to see her make good choices every day!
-Loves to read, play piano, ride her bike/scooter, and write stories
-Started third grade in the fall; got a small part in an upcoming school play
-Played softball in the winter; took swimming lessons in the summer; ready for karate next year (we hope!). She loves to try out new sports!

Celeste's 2013:
-Finished preschool in the spring, and started kindergarten in the fall. She loves math and is getting better at reading every day
-Loves her ballet class and likes to show off her dance moves at home
-Enjoys fancy clothes, Barbie dolls, My Little Pony, Tinkerbell, Littlest Pet Shop, and anything else that involves dresses, princesses, babies, fairies, or any combination of the above
-Very good-natured and helps everyone in the family feel happy and loved

Aurora's 2013:
-Loves nothing better than jumping, running, climbing, and wrestling with her sisters; despite all the rough-and-tumble, she is our cuddliest kid who loves to give out kisses and hugs
 -Enrolled in a dance class in the fall, which helps her work out that energy!
-Started a weekly playgroup/preschool with her friends, and loves spending time playing with them
-Has a secret crush on Jake from the TV show Jake And The Never Land Pirates; wants to join a pirate crew and satisfy her thirst for daily adventure and excitement

Midnight and Cucumber Barrett:

-Our newest (furry) family members; joined our home after Thanksgiving. Looking forward to cuddling with them for the next few years!

We love you all, and hope you have a happy, healthy, and safe 2014! Best wishes to you all.

Love,

The Barretts

A Merry Black Friday, In Which We Gain New (Furry) Friends

I don't usually do a lot of shopping on Black Friday. A couple of years ago, I went to one of the late-night sales with a friend, and it was an oppressive, claustrophobic experience that I have no desire to repeat. What to do, then, when I've got a lot of shopping to do and have a small budget? So Black Friday it would be!

However, I decided to do this Black Friday on my own terms; even though I'd be missing the biggest deals, I still decided to go out shopping "when I felt like it," not before! That meant I rolled out of bed around 7:30 in the morning, and made it to the first store by about 8:15 or so. I still ended up shopping for close to seven hours, and I still got pretty tired out, but I feel my time was better spent and my stress level was much more manageable!

I went here, there, and everywhere this Black Friday; athletic shoes in one store; pajama bottoms in another; stocking stuffers in the dollar store; puzzles and crafts from the nearby craft store; and so on. I ended up buying a little of everything; hopefully my bank account will forgive me someday.

I have since had to go back and buy a few smallish items to finish up the holiday shopping; however, I would say that three-fourths of my Christmas shopping was finished on Black Friday. It was a great feeling! And while I didn't get all the best deals (the cheap pajamas were all gone, as were the cheap children's scooters), I still managed to score some pretty good deals and get lucky a few times.

Probably our biggest purchase this Black Friday were some new family members...of the small, furry variety, that is.

We finally took the plunge and got some guinea pigs.We had been talking about doing it for months...ever since our pet hamster Tuck died last May. The girls have been begging us for a dog for years now, but we don't feel like we're ready to take that plunge just yet. We thought a smaller pet like a guinea pig would give the kids some good experience in caring for animals, while not being quite the time and budget drain that a dog might be for us at this time. In other words, these guinea pigs will be our "gateway" pets that will warm us up for bigger purchases later.

We were going to wait until Christmas (or just after) to actually buy the guinea pigs, but while I was out and about on Black Friday, I noticed that the guinea pigs were 50% off for Friday only! So my desire for a good deal won out, and Nathan and I decided to "pull the trigger" on this particular Christmas gift a little early. Still, Nathan drove the girls up and we bought the guinea pigs, their cage, and all their supplies together as a family.

The girls got to name the guinea pigs (both are boys). The brown-and-white one is named Cucumber, and the black one is named Midnight. I think Lorelai came up with both those names and strong-armed the other girls into accepting them, but that's life when you're the oldest kid. The other girls seemed happy with the names, at any rate.

We've only had our new furry "brothers" for about a week so far, but they're already a little more interesting than our hamster was. They are definitely more cuddly; they are often content to sit on your lap and be petted. They sometimes get a little restless and try to go "exploring," though; and once Cucumber peed on my lap...yuck! Oh well, it's just like having a human baby again.

Hopefully Midnight and Cucumber are getting more used to us and will get more comfortable around the girls in time. Right now, the girls are so excited to have new pets that their enthusiasm and energy can frighten the guinea pigs somewhat. I suspect that time, age, and tender loving care will mellow them out.

So, Christmas started a little early for our family this year. But on the plus side, all of us will be together when we open up presents for each other on Christmas Day! Now to survive the rest of December...

Thanksgiving 2013: Featuring Lots Of Football And Turkey

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Christmas season is upon us. In all likelihood, that means you'll be seeing precious little of me on the blog this month, and a slew of Christmas-related posts in early January. But I'll see if I can keep up.

The beautiful view from my in-laws' beautiful backyard

For the first time in a while, we didn't host Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Nathan's parents, Glenn & Sandy Barrett, took on the hosting duties for us. Nathan's brother Ryan, his wife Judy, and their son Cameron also came into town, so our meal was a family affair (albeit missing a few other siblings and their families. Nate's family is pretty big and it's hard to get everyone together, so we do the best we can).

Even though our family didn't host the Big Meal this year, I still bought a turkey for our own use at another time. I guess I just like to cook turkey once a year or so! As it turned out, we ended up using the turkey two days before Thanksgiving; we cooked it for the sister missionaries serving in our ward. We thought it would be a good way to give the sisters some leftovers, since they didn't have a whole lot of dinner appointments that week (lots of people out of town, etc.).

I decided to go easy on this turkey, and I didn't make bread stuffing. Instead, I stuffed the turkey's insides with some usual flavorings (herbs, onions, garlic, celery), and some not-so-usual flavorings (a quartered orange...a friend told me it was a delicious way to prepare turkey).

Here's what my house looked like for most of the afternoon (and yes, it smelled wonderful and it was very distracting when I was trying to teach piano lessons):

And here's the finished turkey:

I can't say the oranges had any great impact on the meal; the turkey was nice and moist, but didn't taste very "citrus-y" in my opinion. It was delicious anyway, though.

Unlike "actual" Thanksgiving, I didn't go overboard on the side dishes that night. I did try one new dish...these roasted carrots & parsnips. I thought they were delicious, and the girls liked them too. I don't usually have parsnips lying around, though, so I don't know how often I'll be making it.

The sister missionaries were very happy with the dinner, which made me happy for them. We sent a lot of leftovers home with them as well; hopefully it helped them get through the week.

Finally, it was Thursday...the official Turkey Day. We actually spent most of the morning lazing around at our house, while I cooked the few side dishes I was responsible for (a strawberry-rhubarb pie; the sweet-potato souffle; and an orange tapioca gelatin salad). The kids had a lot of fun watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (I'm glad I got them started on that tradition!). And for a short while at least, they were able to watch the National Dog Show on NBC as well. I am a total sucker for dog shows, and it was hard not to sit down and watch the whole thing with them.

Finally, we pulled ourselves away from the TV, loaded ourselves (and our car) with food, and headed over the river (wash) and through the woods (pecan orchards) to Grandmother's house!

I am sorry to say I didn't take any pictures of the actual feast; but trust me, it was delicious. Nathan's mother is an amazing cook, and everything was wonderful. I went back for seconds and thoroughly enjoyed everything. Ryan and Judy were great company, and it was nice to sit and watch football for a while afterwards, letting our stomachs expand and slowly drifting in and out of consciousness.

In completely random news: I noticed that this picture on the wall behind the dining room table appeared to have stegosauri running along its border. Certainly a weird choice for an Old West-style abstract canvas, but whatever floats the artist's boat, I guess. Yes, these are the things I notice when I am descending into a turkey coma.

The girls had a lot of fun playing with their cousin Cameron that day; at one point we tucked them all into the guest bed together to watch a movie, so the adults could have some unwinding time:

After some relaxing, we all ate a bunch of pie (I had three small slices of blueberry, strawberry-rhubarb, and pumpkin), and then made our way home. We were preparing ourselves for a big weekend with friends and family. But our Thanksgiving Day was wonderful and we were very grateful for the opportunity to be served by family. It was a little weird not to host dinner, but pretty nice too...it made the whole day a lot more laid-back and relaxing! Thank goodness for kind family members and their excellent cooking.

Now, on with the rest of the holiday season!