So much

By the time you read this, I'll be on a plane back to the land of single layers of clothing and ground level weather. I've got so much to talk about... too much! I don't even know how to begin to find a starting and ending point for one measly Wednesday post. So, well, I'll just jump on in there, k? k.

Looking through my photos,  I can't help but love all of the group shot attempts; and I find that the discards are often more amusing than the keepers.

Case in point, Grammy and all of  her grandkids:

And then Grammy with her favorite grandkids (shameless attempt to coerce Julie and/or Jane into commenting):

My opinion about the above photo was that my girl was holding her eyes at half mast, so I directed: "Open your eyes!" to these results:

pretty.

On Christmas morning, those of us fortunate enough to be in positions of power based solely on our age and inclination made much of our right and caused the mere mortals to suffer, perhaps just slightly longer than strictly necessary, until we would agree to let them descend the proverbial (albeit literal) stairway to heaven.

There were older cousins clearly meant to sleep longer staking claim to the head of the stair...

 

While other,  younger types brought up the hallway passage:

Finally, we relented. It was Christmas, after all. The glory of torturing our young children started to lose its luster, and we let the wild rumpus begin:

Little Miss clothes? Check.

Mustaches? But of course.

Many of us so-called grown ups played the role of spectator rather than that of, ummm, gift opener.

Getting gifts is over rated????

The little boys had themselves an entire arsenal to assemble and enjoy:

The big boys had jungle pants to show off, straight from the jungles of Ecuador (thanks, Quito Grammy!)

We women had beautiful gifts from Ecuador as well, although it was perhaps the first of many roads not taken in terms of your  basic kodak moment, but the thing I keep reminding myself of is that living the moment is, without exception, more rewarding than photographing it.

SO MUCH more to come, so much.