The Barrett Family Christmas Letter 2015

Merry Christmas!

Greetings to family and friends! We hope this message finds you happy, healthy, and enjoying the holiday season. We had a busy but wonderful year. So busy, in fact, that we never had time to take a formal family photo. You can probably guess that from our sweaty clothes and squinty eyes in the picture above. This picture was taken from atop Picacho Peak, which we climbed in November. It was steep, dangerous, and exhausting, but standing at the summit was an incredible moment. Even though we may not look great much of the time, it is nice to know that we can face challenges together as a family and overcome them.

Nathan is still plugging away at his job as a senior transportation planner for the metropolitan planning organization.  He enjoys the work, and enjoys being able to look at the “big picture” and not just at transportation in a single city or town.  In January, he was called as a seminary teacher, and finished that school year with the junior and senior class.  This school year he is teaching the Old Testament to his class of sophomores.  Over the last year and half, Nathan has been focused on his goal of losing weight.  Since he started in the middle of 2014, he has lost close to 60 pounds.  The weight loss, the hiking, and his new obsession with golf have all combined to make him more active and healthy this year than he has been in a very long time. 

Adrianne has had a “transitional” year, in which she has gone from being a mom “home with the kids” to being an “empty nester” of sorts. At first, she applied to a few local jobs. None of them panned out, but she is planning on continuing her search when the time is right. For now, she is keeping busy teaching piano lessons, reading, exercising, cooking, and staying involved in church activities. She started out the year as our ward’s choir director; now, she is an Activity Day leader. Adrianne’s also volunteering for various service projects around town. She helps out at the girls’ school once a week, and is a volunteer library assistant once a week at another school. Having always wanted to work in a library, these few hours of service every week have been a dream come true for her.

Lorelai turned ten last August; to celebrate, she got her ears pierced. In every way, she continues to become less of a “kid” and more of a “young woman.” She is our most curious child; each day, she has new questions for her parents about every subject you can imagine. She also loves to crack wise and has a very sly sense of humor. Underneath her sarcastic exterior is a thoughtful, helpful girl who gladly volunteers to cook breakfast for other family members and who can now baby-sit her younger sisters with ease. Lorelai is the most voracious reader of the family; she always has ten or more novels “on rotation” in the house, and rarely goes anywhere without a book.

In school (she’s now in 5^th grade), Lorelai has joined the advanced jazz band ensemble; she loves playing the trombone! Last year, she had a role in the school’s production of Beauty and the Beast. This year, she is working as a crew member for the school’s next play. Somehow, she also finds time to practice piano, take dance classes, and attend Activity Days at church.

Celeste has grown in many ways this year. She is no longer our “tiny” little girl; she’s had a big growth spurt recently and is now almost a head taller than several of her friends in 2^nd grade. However, she is still “young at heart”; she is a cheerful chatterbox who loves to talk about just about anything (as long as she has an audience!). She has also been known to sing loudly in random locations just for the fun of it. Celeste is not shy about sharing her opinions, hopes, and dreams. At times, she seems fearless; she gets up to bear her testimony every fast Sunday, and she is beyond thrilled to have a part as a Munchkin in her school’s upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz.

Celeste is also taking a ballet/jazz dance class in our local dance studio, and started taking piano lessons from Mom this year. Clearly, this girl likes to perform! She also loves to go to church and participate in the activities there. This month, Celeste is turning eight years old, and she has chosen to be baptized in January. We are very proud of her and are excited to help her prepare for this big milestone in her life.

 

Aurora is an incurable “cuddle-bug” who is always happiest when sitting in someone’s lap, snuggling up next to a friend or a big sister, or being held in mom or dad’s arms. She knows how to turn on the charm, and she has her parents, Primary teachers, and schoolteachers alike wrapped around her finger thanks to her sweetness and good behavior. She is quick to offer help when asked, and her enthusiasm and friendliness has revealed her as the “social butterfly” of the family.

 

Aurora started kindergarten this fall and has thrown herself into her studies. She is one of the best readers in her class, and she regularly helps her teacher pass out papers and even help other kids with their classwork. Underneath her charm is a tough, bold competitor who loves to succeed, and we’re sure she has a lot of success ahead of her in the future! She will turn six years old in January, just in time to try out soccer for the first time; she’s very excited!

This year has been full of challenges, changes, and fun. We've traveled to Utah, Arizona, and Colorado; we've camped on beaches in Mexico; we've done our best to serve our communities and each other. Through all our experiences, one constant is the joy we feel in being an eternal family. We are humbled and grateful for our blessings, and we want to wish blessings, love, and peace to all of you as well in the coming year.

A Magical Madcap Musical Christmas

Brace yourselves...lots of photos and videos ahead!!

What is the Christmas season without a little music? Okay...a lot of music? And I'm not just talking about listening to the Christmas mix on my Pandora station. (Although I also do that. A LOT.) I'm talking about the music whose performance you participate in, not just passively listen to.

When you know how to play a musical instrument, you have to figure that skill into your holiday time-management calculations. Because chances are, someone or another will need your assistance at some point during the holiday season...or you will be attending a holiday concert/performance of some kind...or you will be performing at a holiday concert of some kind. It's an inescapable part of having musical know-how. During November and December, you are a marked man (or woman). And of course, if you are like me and actually teach music...well, time to add a few more items to your checklist.

Our family now has three people in it who know how to play at least one musical instrument (and one overachiever who is currently learning two musical instruments!). On top of that, our kids attend a school that is heavily into the performing arts. So you could say we've got our hands full. We were sure busy this December.

In one week, we attended several performances...or at least, we tried to attend several. I missed out on the first performance of the week (Monday, December 14th) due to a piano lesson that ran late. It was put on by Lorelai's hip-hop dance class. Lorelai decided to take this weekly dance class in the fall, and this was to be the final class of the year. I felt terrible for missing out! Thankfully a kind friend caught the performance; the kids did a cute little dance to "Happy Universal Holiday":

Lorelai isn't as excited about dancing as her sisters, but I think hip-hop is a good fit for her sensibilities. She had fun with the 8-to10-year-old group this fall; Ms. Cindy, the teacher, told me she'd be welcome in the "big kids" class (11 and up) if she so desires. We'll see how it works out!

Just two days later, on December 16th, Lorelai was back in action; this time, at the holiday concert for the Great Expectations Academy jazz band. Last Christmas, Lorelai was in the beginning band; this year, she's moved up to advanced band and is having lots more fun. It was great to see her up there sitting with the bigger band and contributing to some awesome tunes.

The concert was a little long, so sadly I didn't record any of it. The highlights included some jazzy renditions of "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch." But the song that made me happiest that night was called "Blue Q." It's a song Lorelai complained about a lot when she was first learning it, but over time she came to love it. And the night of the concert, she surprised Nathan and I by performing a solo during this song!

The little stinker hadn't told anyone she was doing a solo except Celeste (whom she told just before the concert began). As a result, this hastily snapped photograph is all the evidence I have of her solo. But it was a terrific surprise to have! We were all very proud of her; I could definitely hear improvement in her playing from one Christmas concert to the next. I can't wait to hear her progress next Christmas; I'm glad she's having fun learning the trombone and making friends in jazz band!

Friday, December 18th marked the last school day for 2015. It also meant the morning was filled with a long Christmas concert put on at the school. The students were kept very busy; each class had not only a song to sing (courtesy of music class), but a dance to perform as well (courtesy of the school's new dance class!). And that doesn't even count the recorder performance the older grades did, as part of their music class experience!

I didn't get the recorder performance on tape; they played "Jingle Bells," "Jolly Old St. Nicholas," and "Ode To Joy." As you can imagine, it was shrill and not in perfect rhythm (because lots of recorders). But at least it was an enthusiastic performance! Recorders are a good way for students to get interested in other musical instruments in the future; they're kind of a "gateway instrument," if you will. So while they aren't the most pleasant instrument to listen to, I was still happy the kids got a chance to perform on them this year.

There were a lot of performances to sit through, but the kids all did really well. Kudos to the music teachers, dance teachers, and homeroom teachers for having their students so well prepared! Here are all the numbers I was able to get on tape:

Aurora's class started out by singing a medley of songs from the Disney movie Frozen. It was very adorable.

The kindergartners' dance number transformed them from Disney characters into "Whos down in Whoville," as they danced to music from the end of the movie The Grinch:

Celeste's second-grade class sang the old classic "Marshmallow World."

Their dance was very cute: they sang "I Ain't Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas!"

Lorelai's fifth-grade class performed a pretty lengthy rendition of Dr. Seuss' "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," complete with narrators. Most of the class stood in the background and sang songs, and did a simple dance at the end of the program. The sound quality wasn't super, but here are the videos if you want to see Lorelai strutting her stuff in the background (she's the one with the bowler hat and the knee-high socks):

The fifth-graders also danced to a hip-hop version of "Here Comes Santa Claus" which was...interesting.

And these were just the musical numbers my kids were involved in! There were a lot of other songs and dances, and they were all pretty impressive. It was one of the better Christmas programs the school has put together, in my opinion. I was proud of everyone for their hard work.

Aurora's kindergarten class had a small "Christmas breakfast" to celebrate the end of the semester. The parents were invited as well, and there was a small gift exchange. It was a good way to finish off the year.

Aurora had a very hard time saying goodbye to her teacher, Ms. Avelar. She has come to love her dearly, and she cried bitterly at the thought of not going to school the following week. I'm happy she loves school so much! And I suspect that all the free time she'll experience over the holiday break will soon wipe away her sadness.

But although school was done, our musical responsibilities weren't! The very next day, December 19th, we attended another recital...the recital for my own piano students!

This was the first Christmas recital I've held at the Green Valley library. It was a little sad; for the last several years our recital has been held in the home of our former bishop, Dan Bezzant. Sadly, the Bezzants moved to Utah in the fall, so we had to settle for using the library. It's roomy and comfortable, but it's not nearly as festive as the Bezzant's home was. In addition to the new venue, we had three kids drop out of the recital due to last-minute holiday traveling. So the recital was more sparsely attended than usual.

My family was also distracted because our car was making hideous noises on the way to the library, we ended up being several minutes late while checking out said hideous noises (as it turned out, our rear brake pads were worn through and we'd have to replace them a few days later. Boo!) So, you could say none of us Barretts were in the greatest frame of mind heading into this recital. All was not lost, though...the kids mostly held it together and performed their songs admirably, with only a few small mistakes. Here are all the songs Celeste and Lorelai performed!

I was still very proud of both girls for learning newer, more challenging songs for the recital, and overall I think they did a wonderful job. We had a few snacks afterward, then went home to crash.

Even after all this, I still had Sunday, December 20th (aka The Sunday Before Christmas) to prepare for. Traditionally, our ward does its heavily musical Christmas sacrament program on this Sunday every year. Since I am usually in town for Christmas, I am usually doing something musical on this day, and this year was no exception. Even though I was released as ward choir director earlier this year, I love to sing Christmas songs, so I kept on coming to choir and preparing to sing in the Christmas program. To my happy surprise, Celeste decided to join me at ward choir during the holiday season! Even though she is a little on the young side for ward choir, she has always been my most "sing-songy" child, so I am happy to give her additional opportunities to sing.

But as so often happens, I ended up playing piano that Sunday as well. One of the choir songs proved a little difficult for the choir accompanist, who asked if I could play it in her place. I was happy to take on that challenge, since I had a month or more to prepare (not to mention, our choir pianist has a lovely voice, and it was great to hear her use that voice in service of the choir for even one song). It ended up being a more challenging song than I was ready for (it was an arrangement of "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day," with a completely new melody), but I was able to stumble through it without too many errors.

In a strange twist, I also ended up playing an arrangement of "O Holy Night" in another ward on that same Sunday! A friend from that ward called me on Saturday morning, saying their teenage daughter had been asked to sing the song but had been unable to find an accompanist (with only a week's notice, I was hardly surprised; that is not nearly enough time for most piano players to get comfortable with a brand-new song). I agreed (hesitantly) to do the song, only because: A. I'd heard that particular arrangement before (it was performed at our ward's Christmas party just the week before, in fact!); and B. "O Holy Night" is a song that's very much about the vocal performance, not the accompaniment, so I figured I could get away with a substandard performance; and C. I love love love "O Holy Night" and take every chance to play it, no matter how bad I end up doing!

The end result was pretty messy (on my part, not the soloist's; she did a lovely job!). And the family rewarded me with a bunch of candy and oranges from their tree, so it was a win-win overall. But having such short notice on the song (and struggling through the song with my own ward), combined with all the other musical performances I'd gone through that week, left me pretty emotionally drained. Thank goodness for holiday break, when I can let Pandora do all the musical "performances" while I crash at home! But the kids and I will be back practicing our music after the holidays...after a well-deserved rest!

It's "Wicked" Great When Celeste Turns Eight

How did my beautiful second-born become such a grown-up kid? Celeste's eighth birthday seemed to arrive even faster than Lorelai's; how is that possible? At this rate, Aurora will be turning eight in about six months or so. Getting old is rough, man!

But whether I wanted to admit it or not, Celeste was about to hit a major milestone. So it was time to get to work planning her birthday party! I've promised each of my girls a large party when they turn eight. Lorelai chose a "Phineas and Ferb" party as her theme, and that was a lot of fun to plan. At first, Celeste wanted a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party, which I would have loved to organize (because I'm kind of a Ninja Turtles fan, ya see). In the end, though, Celeste changed her mind and wanted to throw a Wicked-themed birthday party instead. Well, I thought, at least the base color for both parties is green!

It came as no surprise to me that Celeste had Wicked on the brain. She has always loved The Wizard of Oz, ever since she was old enough to have an opinion on things. She has watched the movie regularly since she was two years old, and her three-year-old birthday party was Wizard of Oz-themed (in fact, I was a tiny bit disappointed she wanted a Wicked party; my first thought was, "I already did a party a lot like this!"). She is currently a Munchkin-in-training for our school's stage production of The Wizard of Oz. Last but not least, we took her to see Wicked on stage in Tempe just a couple of months ago.

I was happy to plan the party, but I wanted to model it more after the musical Wicked than on the movie The Wizard of Oz, mostly so I could mix up the style a little bit. Luckily for us, Celeste decided on her party theme well in advance of her birthday, so I was able to find lots of "wicked witch"-type supplies back in October, when all the Halloween stuff was in stores.

At our local dollar store, I bought a large supply of black witch hats...I almost cleaned them out! I intended to use the hats both as party favors and as a craft project. I also bought a ton of puff stickers (and dug a few old packages of leftover puff stickers out of storage). I also got some puff paint and glitter glue.

At the party, each kid would choose their hat, and then decorate the hat with the stickers, glitter, and paint. That way, everybody would have their own personalized "fashion statement" to wear home after the party. Plus, everyone would get to dress up as a witch just before Christmastime! I loved that oddball pairing of Halloween window-dressing with a holiday associated more with jingle bells and gleaming stars.

I also couldn't resist picking out my own goofy, outlandish hat from the dollar store while I was there. Granted, this wasn't a pointed witch hat, but I loved it! I thought like I looked like a character from a Harry Potter novel, which was okay by me. Of course, I looked a little dorky as well, but what are you gonna do?

The party favors would be in black bags (of course! Would Elphaba have had it any other way?), and contained a variety of stuff. A little jewelry; some noisemakers; some candy (green, of course); some bubbles (Glinda loves them, after all, and we don't want to completely leave her out of the celebration!). And, of course, a magic wand for everybody.

 

Of course, since this was to be a special birthday, we also needed to commission a special cake. Luckily, my friend Lexie is quite talented at making fancy cakes. She made Lorelai's "De-Cake-Inator," the Dr. Doofenschmirtz cake, for her eighth birthday. I thought it would be fun to see her at work putting together a very different kind of birthday cake.

After checking out several ideas on Pinterest, Lexie and I decided a simple tiered cake with a yellow-brick-road pattern would be best. This cake looks simpler than the "De-Cake-Inator," but was more complicated to put together (more fondant with more color variety! More large pieces! etc.). Here's how the whole thing came together, in pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved watching Lexie work through each step and explain everything to me. I learned a lot about fancy cake decorating that I'd never known before (You have to insert wooden rods into the cake to help it hold its shape! You glue pieces of fondant together with vanilla! etc.). She did a wonderful job molding the adorable little poppies and ruby slippers:

I got to make the hat on top of the cake, though! It looked...not terrible? I dunno, you be the judge. At any rate, it felt satisfying to contribute to the cake in some way.

The (gorgeous) finished product

Thanks again, Lexie, for the amazing cake!!

We'd originally planned to have the party at our nearby park; unfortunately, the morning of the party dawned cloudy and quite cold (for Arizona, that is!). We decided last-minute to hold the party at our house; luckily, the house wasn't a total mess, so switching gears didn't feel quite so difficult. This proved to be a smart move; there were scattered, ice-cold showers all morning. It was much cozier inside! The only downside was that I'd "underplanned" the activities and games, reasoning that the kids would spend much of their time playing on the playground. Oh well, thank goodness for Netflix; we killed a little time by watching the Wizard of Oz-themed episode, "The Wizard Of Odd."

At least the kids had a great time decorating their hats. It was neat to see all the different styles and designs everyone came up with.

And the pinata was still a big "hit" (pun intended), even if was in our backyard and not in a park.

 

 

 

 

 The pinata had a picture of the "Wizard Of Oz" on one side (since he was basically the villain in Wicked, it made sense to whack at him--and with a broom, no less!).

Inside, the pinata was filled with Skittles candy ("taste the rainbow," get it??).

She's "defying gravity"

In between all that action, each of the kids took turns making cool poses with a broomstick and getting their pictures taken.

Oh, and they also watched Celeste open her many many presents. She was one lucky girl this year, and she got a lot of great crafts and toys that she is already putting to good use.

For lunch, we offered several "green" options, like chicken roll-ups (with spinach wraps, of course); a mostly-green-vegetable platter with ranch dip; and of course, some "green elixir"...

All in all, it was a good birthday party. Even if it was indoors, the kids had a lot of fun one with another and there were no major issues. It was a fun way to spend a December morning!

Once the party ended and everyone went home, we had a few hours to crash before heading to our LDS ward's annual Christmas party! Whew, busy day. Luckily, the ward party was much more laid-back than last year's over-the-top, super-amazing Who-ville Christmas bash. Nope, this year, all we did was listen to a short musical program in the chapel interspersed with a few talks on the Savior. Then we all retired to the gym to eat our ham dinner. That was it. But it was great; it was nice to relax a bit and chat with friends, instead of wait in a roller-coaster line with your kids and trundle out hundreds of pudding cups. Every so often, a Christmas party needs to be more mellow, and I'm glad this was the year our ward chose that option!

The next morning before church, we celebrated Celeste's actual birthday! She got a new scooter, a silver necklace, and some new clothes, among other things. Her best birthday present, though, is still to come...she's chosen to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That is just a few weeks away!

I am so proud of my grown-up talented daughter. She is still a giddy chatterbox, but she has grown more thoughtful and helpful over the years as well. She has a strong testimony of the church and regularly bears her testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ (both to her family and to our ward during fast and testimony meetings!). She is imaginative, driven, and fun, and she is a loyal, devoted friend and sister. I love Celeste so much and can't imagine my life without her.