Monday Dec 22, post #2

Tonight, I snapped a picture of all the Christmas cards we've received. I put them up on our wall so we can enjoy them all throughout the holidays. If you've sent one, it's here. Can you find your card? :)



Tonight we took the kids to drive around & look at lights here in our little town. It's always fun to find the house that gets the "money can't buy class" award. You know the house ... it's the one with 3 inflatable Santas riding a Harley, 2 light up plastic snowmen, baby Jesus on the front porch, lights twisted around every branch & shrub in the yard, 3 motorized reindeer that drink from the blue-lights river in the yard and don't forget the oh-so-classy (and anatomically correct) lit up bull. (Wait, maybe those are only in Texas.) We drove around looking at the pretty lights & searching for the "winner". I wanted to share a few pictures of some of the top choices, but my camera blurs when I try to take nighttime pictures w/ lights (think stadium lights at the football games, Christmas lights, etc). I think you still get the general idea, though, from the pictures below.

This house is on our street. There is a helicopter with a propeller that turns on the right side of the picture, a lit up inflatable snowman on the left and a full motion carousel with teddy bears on swings in the center. Yes, truely a thing of beauty. I mean, after all...I look at this house & think "Jesus's Birthday"....don't you? (snicker, snicker)

This one is also on our street. It really lights up the whole street with the inflatable snowman, lit up train and the snowglobe (complete with falling snow inside---but you can't see it in this picture). I think there are 3 Santas in this yard, not to mention the house is lighted & there is a Christmas tree in the yard. Wow. That's a lot of lights.

This one is very pretty & well done (but not on our street).

This next one is the house that makes me smile the most tonight. There is a story behind this one, so allow me a moment.

In May of 2005, we bought our house. The lady who was our realtor died about 6 months later. She had battled cancer off & on for years and when it came back the last time, she didn't live through it. Her widower husband lives in this house. Every year by the first week of November, he's got the most massive lights display you could imagine started. This yard could definately win our "award", but rather than look at it as a crazy yard of lights, we see this sweet old man out there stringing lights to spread Christmas cheer. We see an elderly widower looking for something to fill his time & make him smile. Sure, we drive by & giggle at the vast number of lights in his yard, but we also smile... a lot. It makes us happy to see him doing something that clearly gives him a lot of joy. He runs his Christmas lights display from early November til somewhere around Valentine's Day.

In mid-November, we drove by one night & saw the lights. Samuel commented that we should do something for Mr. "T". When I asked why he wanted to do that, he said that it was sad that he was alone at Christmas & since he does so much work to share his lights with us every year, we ought to do something nice for him in return. (sniff, sniff) I agreed that it would be wonderful to do that & we all began trying to think of what we could do for him. It was decided that we'd make him some cookies at Christmas time. And so, today we baked some snowman-decorated sugar cookies for Mr. T. While we were out driving around, we stopped by his house & the kids went to the door to give him the pretty little red box of cookies & thank him for all his hard work on the lights. Mr. T was touched & thanked the kids. By the time we got home, he had called to leave us a message, inviting us to come over sometime. He said that he has a ton of lights inside the house as well and that he'd give us the grand tour if we'd like to come over & see it. I think we may take him up on it tomorrow or Wednesday night. This picture is not such a great one, but it shows the kids at the doorway waiting for him to open the door.

As I sit here sipping my hot chocolate, I remember again how blessed I am.

I'm proud of the kids for reaching out to someone they barely know, just for the sake of being kind. I'm honored that Mr. T would invite us over to see the inside of his home & all his decorations.

Merry Christmas!