Santa Came To Visit in 2014

As busy as our Decembers get, the last few days before Christmas are usually pretty quiet. The "deep breath before the plunge," if you will. I really enjoy these final pre-Christmas days; it's usually a good time for me to rest a little, recover from the stress of the preceding weeks, and reflect a little on more spiritual things.

But we can't forget Santa either! In years past, we have traveled to the mall or to a local event to visit the "big guy." This year, I noticed a sign at our local grocery store, Fry's, announcing that Santa would be visiting them just before Christmas. The convenience was too hard to pass up! We decided to drop by and check it out.

Our Santa encounter was very lucky indeed. Santa was already there...he was shopping for candy canes, in fact. He wasn't pinned down in an easy chair with a long line of kids stretching away from him. In fact, there was no line at all! All my girls were able to approach him, hug him, and have a short conversation with him about what they wanted for Christmas. There was no time contraint. So what if I didn't get a staged picture of them sitting in his lap? It was a great chance for them to get a little personal time with Santa.

Just a day or two later, "Santa" paid our actual home a visit...this time in secret, as is his usual way come Christmas-time.

Nathan and I found this huge package on our front porch early in the morning on December 23rd. It was a brand-new trampoline. There was a note on the box, informing us that the trampoline was indeed for the "Barrett Family"...but there was no clue as to who had brought it. Nathan and I were by turns stunned, confused, humbled, grateful, and joyful. We hurriedly scooted the box around to the back of the house, hoping to reveal it to the kids on Christmas morning (unfortunately, they discovered it soon afterwards, but the surprise factor was still pretty high).

 Nathan and I have our suspicions as to who sent us this large, thoughtful gift. Only a few people knew our old trampoline had broken down. Only a few people knew we weren't planning on getting a new trampoline any time soon. However, I suspect these people would deny involvement if we were to ask them directly. I've already asked a few of our "suspects," and they've all denied it.

In the past, our family has been the recipient of a few "Christmas miracles." This trampoline was definitely another "miracle." We have been really worried about our budget and our debt in recent months, and we'd tried to keep our Christmas small. This gift was a total surprise and very sweet, and a reminder to us of how many kind, loving people we know. We are truly blessed beyond all deserving of it. We are not a big "Santa" family...Nathan and I haven't really done anything to encourage our kids' belief in Santa Claus. However, when we insisted to our girls that we had no idea who sent us this trampoline, I could tell that their belief in Santa will survive for at least another year. And maybe my belief in "Santa" grew a little this year, too!

Christmas was almost here! But before that, it was time for my girls to start having their one-on-one "slumber parties" with Grandma Barrett. Sandy came up with this idea as a way for her to have some additional company during the holiday season, as well as build a deeper bond with the girls. Aurora was the first one up, and she spent the night at Grandma's house on December 23rd.

 

By all accounts, a great time was had. Aurora had dinner at Burger King with Grandma, then had a luxurious bath in Grandma's tub. After that, they ate popcorn together and watched a Tinkerbell movie on TV. The next morning, after eating some of Grandma's famous French toast, Aurora went on a golf-cart ride with Grandma Barrett. I suspect this was the highlight of her trip. Soon after that, Aurora asked to return home (maybe because she had never been away from the family for so long?). Either way, it was lots of fun for both Aurora and Grandma. The other girls would get their "slumber parties" after Christmas.

On Christmas Eve Day, while Nathan was finishing his half-day at work, the girls and I made some cookies and delivered them to our local library, police station, and fire stations. It was a really fun, easy service project to do just before the holiday hit. Most of the police officers & fire fighters were "stuck at the office" for the holidays, so we hope the cookies brightened their spirits a little bit.

Plus, the firefighters gave the girls a tour of the fire truck as a thank-you for the cookies. It totally made their day.

After that, it was time to get ready for Christmas! After a "sleep-over" at her house just the night before, Grandma Barrett came over for a "sleep-over" at our house for Christmas Eve. We had pizza for dinner with the missionaries, and they helped us set up our trampoline too; bonus!

 

After the girls went to bed, it was time to put our breakfast casserole into the Crock-Pot and reach out all the presents.

The next morning brought the kind of wonderful chaos you come to expect on Christmas morning. Here are a few pictures of it all:

This was the weirdest gift of the day. Lorelai stole a book from off our bookshelf, wrapped it, put it under our tree, then unwrapped it. Nathan and I had been really worried about this book and didn't know where it was! Little stinker!

Grandma Barrett showing off her new golf hat

 

Aurora got the Ever After High doll she wanted...

...and Lorelai got the Studio C shirt she wanted!

Don't worry, Mormon friends...this box was full of golf supplies for Nathan

Celeste's gift to Daddy...a hot sauce collection!

Aurora got Lorelai a basketball...her most-desired item this year!

She was a little excited about it.

Aurora got Hungry Hungry Hippos...a game we all approved of.

We also had fun with this basketball playset.

I desperately needed new kitchen knives...thankfully, "Santa" provided many of them!

Hooray! I needed a new Crock Pot.

When all was said and done, our girls were happy with their gifts. Everyone played, read, and relaxed all day. A lot of unhealthy but delicious food was consumed as well.

That evening we had some friends from church, the Valles, over for our ham dinner. It was delicious and their company was very welcome. A good time was had by all!

Nom nom...ham dinner.

There was one black cloud hanging over my head this Christmas: my father's health. Late on Christmas Eve, my mother called me from a hospital in Denver to tell me that my dad, Ray Nash, had been hospitalized for the flu (there has been a particularly bad strain going around this year). No sooner had I hung up the phone then I heard the song "I'll Be Home For Christmas" on our radio. I broke down crying and spent the rest of the night consumed with worry. This was the second night in two months that my father spent the night in a hospital. After losing Nathan's dad earlier in the year, we have both been super-sensitive about the health of our remaining parents.

On Christmas night, I was able to call my parents. Although my dad was still in the hospital (he wasn't released until the following day), his health was much improved and he sounded happy and content. It was a relief to hear his voice and hear his sense of humor through the phone. It was not the ideal Christmas for my parents, but luckily they were able to spend it together. Just a few weeks later, Grandma and Grandpa Nash were able to travel to Sahuarita to visit us, and it was great to see them (mostly) recovered and more vigorous than we've seen them in a while (more on that visit in a later post).

I am thankful for my family, both near and far. I am thankful for the joy on my children's faces every Christmas morning. I am thankful for our possessions; even though they aren't very fancy, they are more than enough. I am thankful for kind friends and Christmas miracles. I am thankful for this glorious holiday season. It is always one of the happiest days of the year for me; in spite of any other bad things that may be happening, Christmas always boosts my spirits. This year was no exception.

Winterhaven 2014: This Time, We Brought Grandma

For the last several Decembers, our family has traveled to Tucson to see the beautiful holiday lights of the Winterhaven Festival Of Lights. In a nutshell, Winterhaven is an older neighborhood in north-central Tucson, many of whose residents elaborately decorate their homes for the holidays. For several nights each December, the streets are closed to traffic and visitors are permitted to stroll freely through the neighborhood and feel the holiday spirit (as well as marvel at some of the creativity and ingenuity of many of the decorations). As you can see by the picture above, this is a tradition that has been going on for fifty years now!

 

For the first time, our family was a little bigger the night of our Winterhaven visit. For the 2014 festival, we took Grandma Barrett along for the ride. We wanted to share this tradition with her, and she wanted more holiday activities to keep her occupied this Christmas season. Nathan's sister Kelli and her boys were originally going to come with us, but their arrival in Tucson was delayed due to illness, so it was just our immediate family and Grandma.

Here are some highlights from our 2014 Winterhaven trip:

This was a "green" house, which used all solar-powered lighting and decorations made from recycled products. I actually thought the final result was quite beautiful, if a bit difficult to photograph.

Probably the girls' favorite house...the "Disney Princess" house, now with characters from Frozen!

 

The girls take their picture with the "Claus family"

 

 

This home always decorates their front facade to look like a gingerbread house. It's one of my favorites; so cute!

Of course, there was an all-Frozen house as well! 

Hanging out with "Ralphie" from A Christmas Story

Another Disney-inspired house; the whole front yard was turned into the Finding Nemo aquarium

All things considered, it was a fun, successful evening. It had been a fairly warm day, so we weren't too cold walking around. Sandy was impressed by all the creative light displays and the holiday excitement. As usual, all the adults had fun watching the children's reactions to all the beautiful decorations.

Grandma Barrett on the right, playing "elf" with the girls

The only drawback was that it started getting very crowded and noisy in places, and more crowded overall as the night wore on. We ended up not seeing the entire neighborhood (although I'd guess we walked more than half of it) because everyone was getting tired and/or claustrophobic. Maybe one of these years we'll do the whole thing! But at any rate, we still enjoyed ourselves; and we warmed up with a treat from Culver's on the way home afterwards. Next year, we will have to remember to go on a weeknight. Now it was time to gear up for Christmas Day.

Christmas-y Crafts

As I have mentioned many times before, I am not a very crafty person. But during the holidays I do get a little more willing to be creative, if only for the sake of my Christmas craft-loving kids. Here's a quick look at some of the highlights from our holiday season.

For her last Girl Scouts activity of 2014, Celeste made a home-made "snow-globe," featuring Olaf, the talking snowman from Frozen. Her "globe" was actually a Mason jar, and it wasn't filled with water (the troop leaders were worried about the potential messes that might result). However, Celeste was still able to fill her jar with glitter and make a mini "blizzard" inside it by shaking it up. It was a cute project, and I suspect she will hold onto it for a while.

For the last few years, I have had the girls each make their own Christmas-tree ornament. I have usually picked up mini-kits at Michael's Crafts to make into ornaments, and this year was no exception. This year, I decided the girls would make ornaments out of melted beads.

We already have a large tub of melted beads that the girls have been using for years now, making a variety of designs. This particular project proved more challenging, since they had to follow a specific pattern in order for the picture to turn out right. This was made even more complicated in two ways: the pattern included in the kit was printed in black and white, so it was hard to tell what colors to use; and the image was mirrored (reversed) from the pattern to the full-color illustration of the completed image. So thanks for nothing, melted bead ornament designers! This project ended up taking way longer than all of us were expecting, mostly because of the terribly designed instructions.

I had expected the girls to make these ornaments all on their own. In reality, I ended up helping quite a bit (in fact, I did most of Aurora's wreath myself!). But they all turned out all right, and the girls ended up being even more satisfied than they might have been otherwise, due to their hard work.

Plus, they looked really cute on the tree!

For the last couple of years, we have also helped the girls make gingerbread houses. I am still too much of a chicken to make my own gingerbread squares for the house (maybe next year, I can have someone show me how it's done?). Instead, I pick up a kit from the store and have the kids build that. This year, we decided to try something a little different...a gingerbread train! There were three cars, and the girls each had one car.

This proved to be a little more complicated than the gingerbread houses, mostly because of the train's "wheels." It made assembling the trains and balancing them a little tricky.

But we managed to muddle through, and the girls had fun sticking candy all over their trains.

As usual, the girls each got a crafty item or two for Christmas; we've gotta fill the post-holiday doldrums with something fun, right? One "craft" the girls were very excited about was a "building" project of sorts...

...each one of them got a gift card to the Build-A-Bear Workshop! The girls all love stuffed animals, and they've all wanted to take a trip to Build-A-Bear and create their own friend. They started asking for that gift way back after last Christmas! At long last, they were getting their chance.

I'll blog more about the girls' post-Christmas craft adventures (including Build-A-Bear) a little later...after all the holiday chronicling is done. But it is fun to have girls this age; they are all in a very creative, experimental phase, and Nathan and I have enjoyed coming up with projects, crafts, and other ideas for them to try. I hope we can continue to nurture their resourcefulness and creativity in 2015.

Christmas Music Everywhere

Happy 2015, everyone! The holiday season is officially over, and we're at the beginning of another new year. However, since I haven't finished chronicling the previous year yet, get ready for several more holiday-related blog posts before starting in with the 2015 news.

Posts like this one, for instance!

Since Christmas is a more musical time of year than average, our family spent much of the last full week before Christmas listening to (and performing) lots of Christmas music. This started out on Sunday the 14th, when my friend Shannon invited me to her house to participate in a sing-along of Handel's Messiah. Shannon and her family are very musically talented, and it was a pleasure to sit in her comfortable home, surrounding the piano and singing a timeless oratorio with other like-minded souls. This was only the second Messiah sing-along I'd ever attended, but it was still great fun. I just wish I knew the alto part better...I pretty much sight-read the whole thing! Luckily, Shannon and her husband Rich lent/gifted me a copy of the music, for me to study and play at my leisure throughout the year. Hopefully this will help me be a better participant for Christmas 2015!

My youngest kid had a musical "surprise" prepared for me as well. Aurora's preschool class performed a cute Christmas song for us on their last day of school before the break:

 She was smiling and so enthusiastic the whole time. I am so in love with my baby girl, and I can't believe she is halfway through preschool, and that much closer to kindergarten. Yikes!

Lorelai seems to be following in her mom's footsteps musically, at least for now. She was very busy performing music this holiday season. Her first performance was with her beginning band class at school; she had been practicing her trombone part for months. In fact, when the band director Mr. Mark invited the kids to try out a solo, Lorelai volunteered to do so! She was very nervous, but I admire her courage in trying, even though she hasn't been playing trombone for very long.

Here's the song with Lorelai's solo; it's a number called "Who Let The Elves Out?" (a jazzy riff on "Good King Wenceslas"). Apologies for the video quality; I was never able to get a clear look at Lorelai (she's sitting in the very middle of the band and wearing a Santa hat, so her face is very hard to spot!). Her solo kicks in at about the three-minute mark.

Lorelai was a little disappointed in her solo, but I thought it was just fine for a first try! I hope it will give her the confidence boost she needs to keep improving in this instrument, and improving as a band performer. She seems to enjoy band so far, so we'll see how long her interest lasts.

Besides trombone, Lorelai is still playing the piano. I'm doing my best to teach her; we have had a few hiccups, but overall she's been making steady improvement! In fact, for my semi-annual piano recital on December 19th, Lorelai chose as one of her songs "Reindeers Are Better Than People," a song from my Frozen movie song book.

 I was surprised she wanted to play anything from my Frozen piano book; I initially thought all those songs were above her ability. But she was determined to play it, and she worked really hard on it for weeks! At first, I was worried she wouldn't get it done in time...but it turned out very well. I was so proud of her for challenging herself, and I think it has given her a lot more self-confidence going forward.

At my Christmas recital, the kids all get to pick a Christmas song to learn as well; Lorelai chose "The First Noel," and she performed it without her music! I haven't been teaching memorization to my kids, but several of them played sans book at the recital anyway. It was thrilling! Clearly, I need to push some of these kids a little harder.

 I am always worried going into the Christmas recital, but I am always thrilled when it's over. I probably say this every year, but this may have been the best Christmas recital yet. I was so proud of every single one of my kids; they had many personal-best performances and took a lot of chances. I am so lucky to have this great group of kids as my students!

Of course, once all the pressure to perform was off, we had to let loose a little...

 

After the recital, one more musical extravaganza remained: the Christmas program at our church's sacrament meeting. It's usually done the Sunday before Christmas, so the big day in 2014 was December 21st. As ward choir director, I have been dreading/eagerly anticipating this Sunday for a few months now. The choir performed three songs this year (up from the two they did last year), and I was very pleased with how all of them turned out. We sang arrangements of "Still, Still, Still," "Away In A Manger," and "With Wondering Awe." Two of those songs had cello accompaniment, and we were lucky enough to have a guest cellist travel all the way from Tucson to perform for us! It added a nice dimension to our songs that we otherwise wouldn't have had.

My beautiful student Paloma; I've been teaching her for almost 4 years now!

I am grateful to know so many musically talented people; it makes my job as choir director much much easier. It also makes my holiday season more musical and magical. Perhaps knowing how to play piano makes the holidays busier, but it also makes them much more enjoyable.