Wednesday, December 29, 2010

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.

3 comments:

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Oh how I love that final photo. (That is definitely a keeper.) Quito Grammy has excellent taste! Those jungle pants (I really can't decide which is my favorite color!), plus the rockin' red leather jacket?! I can hardly wait to see what was bestowed upon you women folk!

So much looking forward to SO MUCH more to come...

xo,
Beth

Me, You, or Ellie said...

I love that last photo too, Beth, but if you really want to be hip, you call the boys' gifts Jungle Trousers. J-Trou for short.

And I love you boy's ubiquitous (fake) 'shashe in that shot, too, Jacquie. Well, in that shot, and all week.

I think your boy had the time of his life, with his boy-cousins. Remind me to tell you about overhearing their conversation while driving in the front seat with Jane.

And *I* had the time of my life tormenting the poor children, making them wait to come downstairs Christmas morning [diabolical chuckle].

Love.

Ellie

never was one for waiting in PA said...

let me just say that it took until 3 am (!) for Santa's helpers to get everything put together (including a ping pong table) and when Cindy Lou Hoo came into our room at 5:30 claiming that it as time to go downstairs, I was not impressed. She finally badgered her teenage siblings to get up at 6:30...SO..I wish I had had ellie in my house to torture her! maybe next year?!
Love the picture of them all hanging out in the hallway. (I would have made my ankles crack in the room and then snuck down anyway)
It's my favorite ;)