an indiana morning, free with my hubby for a breakfast date. ahhh thanks again grandparents!
it doesn’t get simplistically better than breakfast at the hobnob in nashville, indiana. then we skipped over to bloomington, home to my recently-victorious-over-ohio-state alma mater, to visit one of hubster’s fave little record shops and pick up to-go joe’s from scholars inn.
next up: tucker christmas
1. breakfast with grandpa at the abe martin lodge 2. displaying her latest talent which she calls “tick-tocking her eyes” 3. the beginning of a 24 hr winter wonderland 4. venturing out into the snow with grandpa 5. i want this hearth in my daily life 6. darla’s thinking ” and so this is christmas…and what have i done?….” 7. michael 8. Big Woods Brewing Company Cattail. mmmm yummy.
the last of our christmastime festivities are wrapping up today and tomorrow it’s back to columbus to pack up and settle into our new abode. i’ll share our past week with you now, while i watch the fellowship of the ring. ahhhh holiday traditions.
first up: the wright stuff
1 & 2: family viewing of new muppets movie. popcorn overturned after 8 seconds in the theater. 3: lunch 4: salt dough ornaments with aunt colleen and cousin clarebear 5: upon discovering her stocking she exclaimed “what in the world is in here!” 6: opening presents and goodies with grandma 7, 8 & 9: so much enjoyment from a pair of wings and a lollipop 10: said lollipop 11: she said she was knitting a “thneed” with her new tent poles.
these last three pictures i’ve saved for a section of their own. the best part of christmas this year was seeing the littlest cousinfriends together. they have a relationship all their own now and they L-O-V-E each other like whoa. I want to go on record as saying that with this move mike and i weren’t sure, at first, if we were going to stay in columbus. we love this city but it’s not our forever spot. we considered moving on while we still have a flexible life but decided the reason for staying a bit longer is for these sassafrassies right here. there’s no guarantee that fortuna will bestow brothers or sisters or more cousins upon either girl. we owe them the opportunity to develop a strong bond. i say that if we give it one more year these girls will have a established a relationship that time and distance won’t be able to asunder.
but still wanted to take time out to say:
when i told her she had four more days to wait until christmas
when i told her grandma and grandpa wright were coming to stay with us today
when i asked her to pose again for the umpteenth photo in the santa hat
hope everyone is about to be off for christmas break. enjoy time away from your desk!
and there’s the last installment. in hindsight i probably should have just uploaded them all at once. sorry to be annoying about the whole process.
photos by claudia of aion arts
weekending:
moments from the weekend: 1. making breakfast with darla. occupy ladder. 2. child labor laws or no child labor laws, i take help when i can get it. 3. don’t tell me what to do! sign from a visit to columbus museum of art 4. clay art made for me by hubster and daughtster 5. animal building at columbus museum of art 6. she’s pretty pleased with herself for climbing up where she’s not supposed to 7. she looks sweet but she’s really formulating a plan to rip my decorations down. i know this because she told me so right afterward. 8. too cold to smile. 9. pretty holiday brightness at scioto mile 10. breaking out my festive socks purchased in LA. keeping me warm in style and reminding me of warmer days.
can i now narrate some of my favorite moments of the weekend to you? what was that? you’re too busy? it’ll only take a minute.
ahem.
one of my favorite things about having a girl is that if you throw a coupla tutus into the mix it turns any mundane task into a party. while folding laundry darla marched in with tutus and asked that i put one on, too. you know i never turn down a tutu, so i put it on then put the nutcracker suite on and soon i was pirouetting from drawer to drawer filing laundry away and having a blast. probably the most fun i’ve had doing housework evah.
the columbus museum of art was our playground for about two hours sunday. mike hadn’t been there in years and this was his first time with darla. our visit was soundtracked by school choirs singing christmas carols in the hall upstairs and it was sooooo cool. darla actually paid attention to the paintings and stayed with us for 90% of the time.
CMA really impresses me. besides the kids interactive zone on the first floor, they have interactive stations in all the galleries. plus they offer free admission on sundays. there’s really no excuse for not exposing the wee one with the set up at CMA.
we all put together an impressionist puzzle using the real piece as our reference model. and having the added bonus of the place sounding like a rehearsal of the vienna boys choir is going to be hard to live up to in the future. i will want it to sound like angels every time we go back. oh well.
around dusk we loaded up, grabbed hot chocolate and headed to the scioto mile. the city has the park all decked out in lights. we sat on a swing sipping our cocoas while darla pointed out different things she saw: helicopters, planets, cell phone towers, etc. we strolled down to where the fountains run in the summer and as soon as we made it to the open area WHAM!’s “last christmas” started up on the sound system. i hope i will never forget the three of us dancing to wham in the twinkly twilight, free and without a care.
it was a good weekend. how much more holidayness can we pack in this next week? we shall see….
we finally paid attention to getting our christmas cards ordered. they’ll now become new year’s cards. sorry. but i’m sure none of you expected me to be on time about it anyway.
i’m excited to share some images that claudia took that didn’t make the cut. they’re all so great but, alas, alack, alapeanutbuttersandwiches, there is only so much space on a card.
but there’s la la la la lot lot lots LOTS of space on the internet.
just look at this spicy peanut contemplating how she’s gonna get one of those outta the machine and into her mouth. ooohhhh she’s got her ways.
we took darla over to the columbus commons light display last night. just a short little trip to run around some lighted trees. the bonus action came when we saw a poster advertising a family fun fair there this weekend. WHO’S IN? food trucks, santa’s workshop, christmas carousel and fireworks. I SAID FIREWORKS.
months of planning came to fruition on friday night. the surprise couldn’t have gone any better. i’m continually amazed by the generosity and kindness of our friends. i’m also amazed at their extreme wittiness and the size of their stomachs. lots of good times. darla was in heaven. her idea of heaven is being the center of attention at all times. here are just a few of our moments together.
1. the morning after their arrival 2. mike doing what he loves the most in this world: playing music for friends 3. concentration during the snowflake party 4. darla’s snowflake 5. friends! 6. tophats are awwwwesome! 7. darla and fruncle james being “samesies” during the holiday photo shoot 8. wrights are genetically predisposed to like kanners.
momjeanz 