Merry Christmas ~ 2016

So I’m about a month late with this…but better late than never, right?  The truth is we’re busy, and by golly I’m tired.

Nevertheless, we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Here’s what was going on in the Wright neighborhood…

Christmas Eve

Aren’t we just adorable?

Of course the reality was that the photo (above) was proceeded by this one…

And many, many other outtakes.

Somebody’s always gotta be a comedian.  In our family, at least.

And the first photo took a ridiculous amount of parental cajoling and position modifications, followed by 4 grandparents hootin’ and hollerin’ in the background like monkeys.

Nena and Pops were there too, but in all of the photo-induced-mania I forgot to snap a picture of them.  Oops.

Good times.

With the mandatory photo shoot out of the way, we headed off to church.

Don’t ya just LOVE a candlelight Christmas Eve service?!!

And I only managed to get a few drops of hot melted wax on my pants (thank you very much, my sweet distracted Lil Mister), so that felt like a win.

And then we headed home for a yummy meal and pre-Santa preparations.

Christmas Morning

Up and at ’em, the Littles were excited!

Type in “wright” to watch.

Nena and Pops were excited too.

A bit bleary eyed, maybe, but Merry Troopers as always.

We had a very jolly morning (i.e., Presentfest).

Daddy was especially enthusiastic when I assigned him the privilege of giving these gifts to the kids.

Go Blue Devils!

Poor (Demon Deacon) Daddy.

Leave it to the Lil Sir Ham to cheer Daddy up with his silly faces.

So.Many.Faces.

Oh how I love my Silly Boy.  He’s a keeper.

It was a sweet morning!

Christmas Night

That evening we had our best pals, the Potters, over to join us for Christmas dinner.

The good times and sparkling cider were flowing!

As were the faces.

And the hugs.

Then it was time for a Movie Night!

(A.K.A. Adults Eat And Be Merry In Child-Free Peace)

Road trip!

After a few years spinning around the (frenzied) Christmas Race Track, the Hubs and I have learned that 2 weeks of “holiday” together in one house = a whole lotta family bonding time.

As in TOO MUCH family bonding time.

And so last year we started the tradition of traveling north to Annapolis to enjoy some different scenery (and get our wiggles out) with the Littles.

Not too bad, eh?

And this year we were spoiled with a house FULL of Garecht-Plaxico holiday companions!

We LOVE our cousins!

All of the fabulous Garechts were in attendance…I just was a bit lazy with the camera duties.  Maybe because I spent 6+ hours freezing my toes off playing beach volleyball with my nieces.  Nena and Pops even got in on the action too!

It was SO FUN.

And I was SO TIRED.

As the week progressed we all got a little loopy.

Okay, maybe a LOT loopy.

But you know what they say….

The family that goes crazy together, stays together.

Someone says that, right?  Right?!?!?!?

It was a fun Christmas.

And the Littles did just fine.

Crazy or not, we’re sure LOOKING forward to next year!

And with that we wish you a (belated)

Merry Christmas from the Wrights!!!

Standard
Little Miss

Not to be outdone by her brother, Annabelle finished her reading assignment the next day and also requested “ice cream with Daddy” as her treat (poor Mommy).

After loading up our cups with frozen yogurt and toppings, Annabelle and I sit, eat, and chat for a few minutes. Eventually she asks me to tell her a funny story. It’s the end of the day and I am fresh out of stories, so I have to rack my brain. I think of a story from my younger days and ask if she wants a true story or something made up.

Annabelle chooses a made up story and I do a pretty poor job of coming up with something funny (she lets me know this). I encourage her to pick the true story and she reluctantly agrees.

It’s an infamous story of mine where both of my elbows are broken, my legs are asleep and I basically fall off the toilet. Before I reach the funny part though, or even most of the major details, she starts cracking up that my legs fell asleep. SHE has a funny story about HER legs being asleep on the toilet!

And so I never really do tell the whole story (which is just as well), but she has a great time laughing about legs and feet being asleep at inopportune moments.

Ice Cream with Annabelle

Quote
Little Mister

Julie set up a reading schedule for the kids this month. Annabelle’s task was to read a book aloud each day for a week straight to receive a treat of her choosing. Elliott had to listen attentively to a book and summarize it’s plot each day for a week for his treat.

Elliott completed his assignment first and chose “ice cream with Daddy” as his treat.

After sitting down with our ice cream (frozen yogurt) I thought it would be good to remind Elliott of why we were getting this treat, so I told him how proud I was that he did his assignment so well and how well he was doing in school, etc, generally just taking the opportunity to affirm and love him.

After more talking and eating, Elliott asked for some water, which I realized had been left at home. I suggested we pack up the rest of our ice cream to finish at home and he agreed.

In the car, he asked me to say again how I was proud of him, so I expressed more pride and affection, thinking little of it, but just enjoying the rare individual time with my boy.

At home, as we were finishing up, I asked Elliott which part of the ice cream he liked best. We had loaded it up with sprinkles, caramel turtles, gummy bears, cherries, fudge, whipped cream… Without hesitation, and still eating, he said simply, “the love.”

Ice Cream with Elliott

Quote