Thanksgiving ~ 2016

Happy Turkey Day!

Boy oh boy, I LOVE Thanksgiving…I love the food, I love the fellowship, I love the few days of freedom. But ever since becoming the dreaded A-word (“Adult” I mean! This is a G-rated blog, people!!!), I especially love Thanksgiving when I’m not the Chef.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy cooking (well, most of the time). But like all of you Mamas out there, I spend so much time in the kitchen these days that when holidays roll around I’m not all that interested…or motivated. Okay, so I’m running for the hedges like a turkey with its head cut off.

Turkey…get it?

And so I’m happy to report that 2016 was a good year for this here Lazy Bones. And for my Cadre of Little (Food) Vacuums.

Our family kicked off the Thanksgiving week with a very fun FRIENDSGIVING with some of our very best pals, the Diazes, Densmores and Potters.

(Quick Tangent: Here’s a photo of Carrie Diaz, Marnie Densmore, Lori Potter and me, along with our favorite Server and Wine Pourer, Vlad, at our latest Ladies’ Night this fall.

Oh my word, it was So.Much.Fun. These women are MY PEOPLE. MY TRIBE. They listen to my crazy stories, they encourage me, they pray for me, they make me laugh, and they love my family. I am so thankful for great girlfriends! Oh, and ridiculously funny Waiters too!)

Okay, back to the main event…

Carrie and Brian Diaz hosted such a merry (and delicious!) evening for our 4 families. All told, we have TWELVE Littles between us all, and the kids always have so much fun together (as evidenced by the noise and mess they generated). And the adults had a blast too!

And then on the Big Day we headed to Raleigh for a great FAMILY THANKSGIVING with all of the Wrights.

This feast was hosted by Paul and Courtney, who I must declare made one of the most delicious Thanksgiving meals that I have ever tasted. Just don’t tell my Dad I said that.

And then the rest of us tried to pitch in as well.

I made a salad. I know, I know…LAME. But it tasted good. And I tossed it real fancy-like.

It’s pretty rare for us all to come together these days. But the stars aligned for one special evening!

And getting all of the Wright Littles together is always a hoot.

As is getting a photo of them all smiling. Yours Truly may have resorted to entertaining them all with my best “booty dance” (as the Lil Sir calls it) to capture these chuckles.

That’s right. You’re welcome.

But the apple (err…blackberry?) doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Let’s just say there’s a whole lotta personality (and energy! and ebullience! and sass!) in this group.

Daddy, as usual, was the Ringleader of most of the pandemonium. It’s hard to compete with the magnificence of my salad contribution, but this Guy’s pretty awesome. And fun.

I think the kids would agree.

So there you have it…Thanksgiving 2016.

It was a week full of great food and great fun. I’m pretty sure I have a whole lot of exercise ahead of me to make up for it. We hope you all had very happy holiday as well!

Westward Ho! ~ Uncle Will’s Wedding

Each year our family journeys out west to the Plaxico family homeland – Southern California – so we can commune with our inner hippy and soak up some (humidity-free) surf and sun. This year’s trip was a little different because we had a very special event to celebrate…

You heard me right, folks! Uncle Willy got HITCHED! Hitched to the lovely (and patient) Laura Rose, that is. She’s pretty awesome. We’re all big fans.

Uncle Willy and LR decided to tie the knot on a mountain beside June Lake, CA, which I gotta tell you, is not the easiest destination to travel to (especially when Southwest Airlines decides to have all of its computers shut down and planes grounded on your travel day). But for this shaggy chap, whom we dearly love, we’ll endure anything.

After the 17 hours of travel (which included the Little Mister holding my head in his lap during an especially bumpy plane ride while I prayed to not lose my lunch), we finally made it to June Lake.

Let me just say…GORGEOUS.

We spent the next few days tooling around the lake with family. Beachin’, hikin’, climbin’, swimmin’, boatin’, polar bear plungin’…you name it, we did it. With Nena The Cruise Director at the helm, we’d expect nothing less. It was so much fun.

And then it was time for the main event! We snazzed ourselves up in our finest Willy-wants-this-wedding-to-be-laid-back-but-we-still-wanna-look-nice-and-not-get-sunburned-or-frozen-on-the-mountain attire. Yeah, not complicated (or stressful) at all.

But I think we pulled it off…and even managed to tuck in everyone’s shirts just in time to walk down the aisle.

Let me just take a pause here to savor this moment…it’s not often that I get to have my 3 Littles all dolled up in coordinating outfits AND not covered in dirt. Be still, my proud Mama heart!

Bow ties are magical.

Okay, I’m back.

Bedecked and bedazzled, we headed for the mountain!

Most of the guests took the chair-lift up, but pulling that off (safely) with this crazy crew felt like a stretch.

So we hopped in some 4-wheel-drive SUVs and enjoyed a less harrowing (i.e., non-heart attack inducing) trip up the mountain. Cause you know, I’m all for adventures, but this Mama/Aunt has got to keep her babies safe.

And we made it! Let me say again, GORGEOUS.

And that beautiful view was followed by this very sweet moment…

The kiddos were all super excited to have been included in Will and LR’s special day.

We laughed, we cried, we sweated, we bribed fidgety children with ring-pops.

And then we partied!

I snapped this photo around 8:30pm (11:30pm EST), when all of the kids were starting to come unhinged from fatigue (not pictured is the Little Mister hollering to Uncle Joe, “YOU’RE the pizza pie!” and giggling hysterically).

So the Daddies took the kids back to the condos to sleep. We ladies made it until 10pm before we keeled over, just in time to watch a very merry Pops (my dad) boogie and jive like it was 1965. Word even had it that after we left the Festive Fellow actually attempted to do The Worm on the dance floor…all to the delight and amazement of my brother’s pals. THE WORM, people. I have no words.

And so with that ridiculous image echoing through your minds I’ll wrap things up.

The first part of our family’s westward odyssey was great fun. We had such a sweet, hectic, lively few days in June Lake and were so glad to have been a part of Will and Laura Rose’s big day.

To Will and LR, we wish you two a lifetime FULL of love, laughter and adventure together.

And hopefully a wagon full of babies to come along for the ride (hint, hint)!

Happy Mother’s Day ~ 2016!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
to all the sweet mamas out there!

I am so deeply grateful for these three Littles, plus one more who we’ll meet in heaven one day, who made me a Mama. Being their Mom is the greatest honor and the most important role of my life.

Thanks to the kids’ preschool, I was able to enjoy a whole week of Mother’s Day festivities. They kicked things off with class parties and homemade presents…

(Check out the Little Missy’s pants, courtesy of Aunt Ashley and Cousins Haley and Emily. She pretty much was the talk of the entire school that day. Hello hot pants!!!)

And then a field trip to pick berries at the strawberry farm!

In years past it has been crazy hot on our strawberry farm days, so we were grateful for the cooler weather that hit Durham this week. As you may recall, my Littles were not made for hot manual labor. And so armed with the (non-sweaty) resolve to actually pick a few strawberries this year, my Littles grabbed their containers and put on their game faces…

Here’s the Hyper-Ecstatic Game Face
(No kidding folks, this Little Miss sprinted up and down every row in the entire farm, all in search of the reddest, ripest berries)

The Bewildered Game Face
(The Little Mister picked berries like a champ, but all the while was more concerned about the location of his beloved Henrietta the Cow and Farmer Mark’s crazy flying chickens)

And finally the Let’s Get Down to BIZ-NESS Game Face
(Now I know this Little One picked a few berries, but all of them mysteriously never made it into any of our containers…)

Oh, and did I mention that Nena and Pops came to the farm too?!? We put ’em straight to work.

Pops got the extra special job of getting to chase the wild Little Miss all over the farm and try to keep her from falling into a ditch. Oh, and pick some strawberries too.