Christmas Festivities & the start of 2024!

 I failed at putting out another post before Christmas, so this one (a month after my last one) is going to be packed with pictures of our holiday fun!! 

The boys had a scout meeting/potluck dinner (which is no surprise to us that Johnny absolutely loved and had 3 plates worth!) and small award ceremony where they were given some of the awards that they had earned thus far this year. It was a really nice night! 

One of my favorite things is watching the boys walk into school together each morning.....the only thing that makes it even better is when they are carrying in Christmas gifts for teachers. 

I got sent this selfie from some sweet girls who were on a bowling incentive trip for school....technology can be so great sometimes even if I hate it so much most of the time haha! 

Cargill Christmas party date night.... it was a casino night and we played the craps table the whole night and had a blast!

Our little family Christmas "morning".....Several years ago we started giving our gifts to the kids and them exchanging their gifts between each other the Saturday before we left for KC. This gave us some time together before the "crazy" starts and it also means that we don't have to travel with even MORE gifts! Win-Win! 

This year was extra special!! The final gift that the kids opened on that morning was a scavenger hunt through the house for some small gifts they would need for their "final" gift.....which was a puzzle telling them we were headed to DISNEY WORLD!!! The kids have been begging for at least 3 years to go and and I've been planning it for like 5, but, covid mixed with other conflicts kept pushing it back until we finally started planning it this past spring! I'm totally amazed that John and I were able to keep it a secret for so long, but I'm so glad we did because they were in such shock and it was perfect! Definitely a Christmas they will never forget and we are counting down the days!! 

I help in Johnny's classroom a few times a month and on this day another mom brought in some cookies to decorate....it was so fun and such a great activity. The kids really loved it. 

Johnny happened to take his gift in to his teacher on this particular day as well. Johnny gifted him a Chiefs "Karlaftis" shirt and Chiefs flag. Mr. R is a huge Purdue fan and grad, and Karlaftis is one of his favorite players (he played for Purdue..) so Johnny thought he would gift him the shirt to convert him to become a Chiefs fan through George Karlaftis. Sounded like a good idea to me! It was super sweet because Mr. R put the shirt on as soon as he opened the gift and it made Johnny's day!

I tried something different this year when it came to packing. I gave each kid a list of items they would need and how many and they gathered the items then brought them to me to put in the suitcases. It worked like a charm and took WAY less time! Charlie needed a bit of help, but overall it was amazing and I'm planning to continue the process for future trips! 

We're off to KC!!!!

Once we were there, the gaming began! 

Christmas Eve with John's family....

....and Santa boxes!...a Covid "pivot" that I don't think will ever end....

Miss. Quinn loved reading with Nana and Uncle John...

Christmas Morning....SANTA CAME!

An "off-roading" hoverboard for Charlie

A PlayStation5 for Johnny

A TV and bedding for Mellany

"Santa Loves Kansas City Football" 

Christmas Day with my family

Day after Christmas with my family.....somehow the only picture I got was of the boys shooting off their nerf guns...(likely because several times I was in major tears over my Uncle Brian being absent from Christmas this year...)

My dad and Teresa's gift to all of us was a private tour of arrowhead stadium! It was FANTASTIC and I would highly recommend! 

We toured a suite...

....Mellany got to sit in one of Taylor Swift's seats and was in HEAVEN!...

We toured the locker room....

....walked through the tunnel to the field....

....visited the press room...

....and the hall of honor which had a huge tv screen that showed past games...

....and the Lombardis!..

After the tour we hit up an arcade and Bass Pro Shops....

We celebrated Teresa's 55th Birthday! 

I got to have dinner with one of my HS besties and it was so good to catch up! 

We headed home on New Year's day completely happy and exhausted. We had some happy kiddos when we opened these up! 

Winston was also extremely happy we were home! 

Charlie forgot his "foxy" at Gammy's so she shipped it to us and he was one happy boy when it arrived! 

Johnny wanted to enter the 4H handbook cover contest, so he looked up on YouTube how to draw a certain kind of lightsaber and submitted this drawing. I thought it was so good! 

When I'm at home and in the living room, this is where Winston likes to be :)

Whew! That wraps up our 2023 Christmas holiday! It was so great to have the time with family and for the kids to be out of school and John off work. Going back to "normal" life has been tough for sure. 

Here's to an incredible 2024!

Countdown to Christmas!

 We are officially counting down to all things Christmas! Christmas programs, Christmas parties, Christmas Presents with just our family of 5, Christmas lights, Christmas Movies on Friday nights and our Christmas trip to KC! After being sick most of the past week, everyone is back to feeling healthy and I'm hoping we don't see anymore illness for a LONG time! 

Here's what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks! 

I've been busy playing Santa and wrapping all the gifts and sorting through all the things we need to take to KC. We've got a BIG surprise for the kids this year and I've made their gift a bit different. They will be given a clue that starts a "hunt" through the rest of the house for additional clues that give them one big final clue they will have to put together. All the clues put together will tell them what the gift is. John and I were just talking about how proud we are that we've kept this secret for 6+ months and the fact that we are just days away from being able to talk about it in the house has me giddy!! (Also note the cute chicken Chrsitmas wrapping paper I found at Tractor Supply.....we've become those people! haha!)

Mellany had her first dance competition of the season at the beginning of December. Pictures and video aren't allowed with the exception of one person per team, so there's no video/pics of Mellany but I did snag a picture of these cute brothers who literally only looked up when their sisters were performing. :) 

The night of the dance competition started our 2023 Barrett Fam "Downfall".....Johnny spiked a fever that night and then woke up with serious congestion on Sunday morning. Sunday morning Mellany woke up not feeling well with a low fever but no congestion. I just knew in my "mama gut" that Johnny had the flu so he and I ventured to urgent care where it was confirmed (after he was given a major bloody nose by the nurse--insert mama bear angriness here because he and I had BOTH warned her to be gentle...) that he did have the flu but also had covid....(I'm a little skeptical of the fact he had both, but it is what it is...) We grabbed some antibiotics and headed home! Mellany and Johnny spent the day resting and neither of them went to school on Monday. Mellany was feeling much better Tuesday so she went back but because of Johnny's covid diagnosis, he was home until Thursday. Once everyone went back to school on Thursday, I got a call from the school that Charlie had vomited after riding the school bus to their christmas performance auditorium and that I needed to go get him. We all assumed he had gotten overheated and motion sick so because he was feeling better Thursday night, we let him perform in the Christmas program he so badly wanted to perform in. Shortly after his performance, he drank some water and then started gagging so he and John left (I had just arrived for Johnnys performance with Mellany and Charlotte who had a dance performance that night as well...) Therefore, Charlie was home on Friday as well! I was convinced he had strep throat, but the culture for that came back negative, so he just spend the day resting. Thankfully by Saturday, everyone was feeling back to normal! 

Lots of snuggles for the week! 

Poor Winston was so thrown off by the change in schedules! 

Thankfully Mellany made it back to school by Tuesday because that night was her first ever band performance. I stayed back with Johnny but John and Charlie said it was incredible! 

I'm so sad that this is the only picture of my boys that I got before their concert...but it is also very "on brand" for them :) 

The Christmas program put on by our elementary school really is the most amazing Christmas program. Our music teacher does a phenomenal job! Charlie's program was up first and then Johnny's was after that...

Charlie...

Johnny...

I grabbed a picture of my girl this past week wearing my shirts and looking like such a grown up young lady....Not that long ago were the days where she would only wear dresses that would twirl....and now she's in denim and cardigans....time flies so fast! 

One of my most favorite gifts to gather and wrap are teacher gifts. Charlie wanted to do a "12 Days of Christmas Basket" for Mrs. Baker this year, so we did just that. I picked some things, he picked some things and it was so much fun to wrap and place in a cute basket. Johnny wanted to do something more simple for his teacher....so Johnny picked a few Chiefs things (all by himself!) that he felt like Mr. R needed and then wrapped them in chicken Christmas paper and was all set! 

Our children's pastor at church is quite the performer so after he told us he would be acting as Buddy the Elf in a Christmas Variety Show, we put it on the calendar and made it happen! Luke was the most perfect Buddy (other than Will Ferrel himself) and we had a great time. 

Lots more to come and hopefully at least one more blog post before I take some quality time with my people....Only FOURTEEN more days till Christmas!!!!!