November and December!!! What is the deal with time these days!

In Mid-November John and I went to Branson, Mo to see the incredible family-oriented entertainment. We saw 9 shows in three days! We were about the youngest people in each audience! Never have I seen more walkers and wheelchairs in one sitting! The Hughs Brothers, The Bretts, The Duttons, (my favorite) George Dyer were all LDS families that we enjoyed and felt up-lifted by. A Christmas pageant with live horses, goats, camels...gave us a lot to feel grateful for as far as our Savior's birth and the circumstances surrounding it. The Osmonds and Lennon sisters (John's favorite) put on a great show. Shoji, a violin player was good and so was the Abba tribute we saw. We only had one dud-The Redneck Tenors. It was more like a road show quality and we left that one early. In between all of those shows we drove to Carthage, Mo where the "Precious Moments" gift store and chapel are. I have always loved the little figurines and having been to the origin of them, I love them more. It was a sacred kind of feeling there in the chapel dedicated to loved ones passed on and filled with paintings, murals and stained glass depictions of scripture passages in Precious Moments people. Bigger than life-size figurines were through-out the grounds.

 Just one of the rooms in the chapel at Precious Moments. It was worth the hour and a half it took to get there!

 Part of the reason John and I went in the dead of winter to Branson was because my bestie girl friend, Connie was going to be there at that time. She lives in Utah and has been to Branson many times. She has always talked up what a great experience it is to go in November because of all the decorations and shows being centered on Christmas. We sure were NOT disappointed! In the picture above, it's her fingers above my head! She is a kooky, fun friend and I've loved her since we were Sophomores in high school!

 Christmas 2013 came and went in a blink of an eye! Leading up to the big day were many activities that stand out in memory...decorating gingerbread cookies, cheering on our cheerleaders, Charlee and Oaklee, from Adam's Academy in the Glendale parade, seeing the movie "Frozen" with Devin's and Brian's families and taking a carriage ride with Devin's family and Santa.

 Our Very Barry Christmas party was on December 23 and began with MaCayos delicious Mexican food!

 We did a little service project this year called "Socks of love". We filled up a pair of socks with the toiletries and things that homeless people might need. We are keeping them in our cars so that when we feel impressed to give something we will have them handy .

 This year we even had King Herod in our nativity! It is getting tricky to come up with costumes for our ever growing family with now 20 grandchildren (eleven is the oldest!)

 Here comes Santa Clause!

All the GRANDS got beanie hats!

All the girls got tazers!

All the guys got T-shirts!

 Anya has created a Barry video for the last years of all of our favorite pictures of the most recent year. Brooklynn has created a video of each of us giving tribute to whomever she is assigned to give to. We are all enjoying watching Devin and Allison's tribute here.

 Ashlyn got hold of the microphone and told us a story that she laughed so hard at she could hardly tell it...Cater poured his own milk on his cereal!

Brooklynn on Christmas morn!

The whole bunch of us and Sam summing it all up!

The best gift this Christmas was little Eva LaBelle, born to Rich and Treslee on December 26th. Welcome to the big, crazy, happy, loving family Eva!