Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Lisa and I spent the evening with our dear friends Jim and Pam Wilson at the Richmond CYT production of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!”  It was a delightful evening.  The musical was amazing and I was very impressed on how they got that flying, floating car up on the stage.   We enjoyed the musical, but the best part of the evening was simply hanging out with Jim and Pam!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is a big deal at the Wright house!  Lisa truly has a thousand bins of Christmas stuff - wreathes and Nativity scenes and snowmen and Santas.  And it grows every year!  This year we brought it all out and it was a weekend deal to "get decorated for the holidays."

We headed out to Hanover Pines Christmas Tree Farm in Beaverdam, VA to cut down our own tree.  They have a terrific set-up there where you take a hayride out into the woods and are dropped off to start the search.  Once you have found your tree and cut it down, they hoist it up on the back of the wagon and take you back to the office, where they shake, bind and tie the tree to your vehicle, all while offering free hot chocolate and hot cider.   A great deal!  We picked our tree out pretty quickly this year.  It's only about 10 1/2-11 ft. tall, a little shorter than our usual 14 ft. tree, but it is one of the prettiest we ever have had.

The whole family, including Daniel home from college, decorated the tree to the sound of Christmas music.  Lisa put on the lights, as usual because she is the only one with patience for it, and the rest of us hung our collection of 1 million (it seemed) ornaments.

A fun holiday tradition, as we start to prepare for the celebration of our Christ's birth!

The Ballad of the Bobcat and the Bear

Michael Wilson and I took another of our famous trips this past weekend, and Paul DeValk joined us for the epic adventure.   Having camped throughout Virginia and North Carolina, we decided to head to Tennessee and spend some time in the Smoky Mountains.

Based in a cabin near Pigeon Forge, we spent Friday hiking Mt. Le Conte, which is the highest peak in Tennessee at 6,593 ft.  Although we saw no bears or bobcats, Bill the squirrel followed us past gorgeous overlooks up to LeConte Lodge which is at the peak.

 

Saturday we hiked up to Ramsay Cascades, an 8 mile roundtrip hike that cumulated at the 90-ft falls.

It was fun to spend some time with both Michael and Paul.  Being their former church Youth leader, it has been a neat transition from being leader/student to being equal friends.  They have both developed into good Christian men.

Just for fun, here are pics from a camping trip with them several years ago and then from this past weekend, to see how these guys have changed.

Truly an epic weekend.

Veterans Day

Thankful for all veterans today for their service to our country.  One such veteran is my dad, Louis Wright, who served in the Navy.

Kindle Love

For those of you who know me well, you know I love my Kindle.   Whereas I once loved the feel of a book in my hands, the smell of the pages, the sound as they turned......that all went away the moment I touched my Kindle, never to be missed.   It feels strange to me now when I am forced to..ugh...actually hold a paper book in my hands.

I've had mine (or some version of one) for over 3 yrs and I think it's one of the best inventions ever!   I even let Lisa touch it (once) but she is stuck in the ancient "I love the feel of a book" mindset.  Oh well, one day....