Barry Christmas Letter 2014

Enjoy....



           Dear family and friends, My parents say it is ironic & bizarre that I am writing this year’s letter, but I don’t know what they mean. Then again, I am only 4 months old, so I don’t understand a lot of stuff. But I am learning & I am finding out about this family I was born into. Due to space limitations and my own abilities (did I mention I am only 4 months old?), I’m going to have to keep it short…

            Jackson: My oldest sibling out of the 4. He is in his final year of elementary school despite being only 9 yrs. old. My parents said he skipped a grade a few years ago and this is why he is so young for his grade. But that hasn’t stopped him from having success in school and loving sports. He is getting ready for a Lego League competition and loves being in 5th grade. He is playing 5th/6th grade basketball right now where most of the kids are 2 years older than him, but not too much taller. He is also taking piano lessons and getting ready for his 2nd season of tournament baseball with the Red Rock Rebels. He has found time to take up percussion in the school band, read lots of books, and create some pretty amazing things on something called Minecraft. He loves me and has been a great help to what seem to be worn out parents of mine.


             Abby: Oh boy, my 2nd mother. She spent my 2nd night of life sleeping side by side with Mommy and I at the hospital. She has changed more diapers than Daddy. And she never asks where anyone is going anymore, just where is Claire going…and she goes with that person. I think this makes Daddy sad because usually I am with Mommy, but Abby doesn’t care. She just loves me. She also loves 2nd grade, writing, drawing, and singing. She is trying piano lessons and basketball for the first time this year too. She loves to read and learn and even reads to all of her younger siblings. Her Carlisle softball team won the league tournament this summer and Abby hustled every where she went each and every game. She is high energy and high emotion and I just adore her. I can’t wait to grow up with her as my big sister!

               Quinn: This big guy (who now has an older sister, older brother, younger sister, and younger brother) is now in school. He started preschool this year and goes 4 half days a week. He LOVES it. But he loves coming home to Courtney, our nanny as well. Our daycare provider retired (Thank you Tracy for so many great years!) so we were unsure of who would take care of me and my brothers, but Courtney has been a Godsend. Quinn loves her (so do Sully and I!). Quinn loves pretty much everything in life. He proclaims his love of things out loud almost daily. He has loved making new friends and loves kissing me and kissing/hugging our new cat Gizmo. He fights with Sully about half of the day, but he of course, loves Sully the other half of the day. He can’t wait to learn to read and is getting close. For right now, his parents would be fine with him just learning to zip his coat or tie his shoes. But at least he is potty-trained.


             Speaking of…. Sullivan: My last older brother, Sully, also loves me. I get lots of kisses & hugs and sometimes some kicks or wrestling moves. But he can’t help it, when he sees how adorable I am, he has to smother me. Sully might be the biggest of my older siblings and he holds his own when it comes to family wrestling matches or baseball/football games. He has learned to run “hot routes” as a wide receiver in “Indoor football”. He likes to help feed our cats/fish. He loves books, Ninja Turtles, and has gone to a few of his first movies in a theater this past year. He loves participating in church and doing anything big people can do. However, he is not potty trained, but maybe by the time you get this card, we’ll get that done. I am supposed to learn from him, so I hope he figures it out before I am two. My family calls him the “Bull” and me the “Bear”, so we may be partners in crime when we are older.

               So, who is left? My parents? Me? How much space do I have? Well, I will try to be quick. I was born July 30th, 2014 at 2:32 in the afternoon. Just like all my siblings, I was born 2-3 weeks before my due date, but I was the smallest at 8 lbs. 5 oz. I got to meet several family & friends not long after. That was when I realized that I was truly the youngest of our family and of our extended family. Some family and friends came just to see a baby because they hadn’t seen or held one in awhile! Since then, I have been eating, pooping, and growing a lot. I love my parents even though I tend to cry with anyone but my mother. But I also love Courtney, my nanny, I don’t cry with her either. I have not yet rolled over, crawled, or started eating solid foods, but those are all goals of mine for 2015. My parents have not missed a beat since adding me. My mom took 11 weeks off of work just to be with me and my Dad got to spend 2 weeks with me before he went back to school. Mom works at Mercy East in Pleasant Hill as a Physician Assistant. She was glad to be back at work and her patients were even more excited to see her back. But she says she misses me each day. Dad is still at Carlisle Middle School counseling students and teaching a Guidance-based class. He says he’s enjoying his last year before 13 straight years of having one of us in the same middle school as him. He says he might need counseling during these years. I’m not so sure he doesn’t need counseling now! But my parents are very happy together and have been married for 12 years now. Although they get stressed at times, they seem to genuinely love our big family. It makes for some crazy days, especially remembering backpacks for schools and practices for after school, but we wouldn’t trade it for the world. I think I am a miracle and that each one of us is a miracle when we are born. And with Christmas approaching, isn’t that what it is all about? The miracle of birth? My parents weren’t expecting me. Mary wasn’t expecting Jesus. But both my parents and Jesus’ parents opened their hearts to this miracle and loved each moment. And because of the miracle of Christ’s birth, we all get to live and experience all of life’s miracles. When I wake up with my four older siblings Christmas morning and wrapping paper is flying everywhere and screams of delights fill the air, I might show a big smile. That smile will be because of the miracle of my family, families everywhere, and Christ’s birth. Merry Christmas to all of you! Enjoy life’s miracles!


 Merry Christmas and God Bless this Holiday season!
Claire Marie Barry (Ben, Reagan, Jackson (9), Abigail (7), Quinn (4), Sullivan (2),
Gizmo,Bo, Blizzard, our fish
Sadly, Jangles passed away this year and Avus, our black lab, ran away. We foster cats from the ARL and adopted Gizmo