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The Lights of the Season

Last weekend we drove home from a friend's house after dark. That meant that we actually got to check out a couple houses all lit up for Christmas!

Putting Christmas lights on your house here isn't very common. In fact, the local paper publishes a map not of the best light displays, but simply a list of houses with any lights at all. We didn't have the list with us but en route we saw about 4 different houses full of lighting fun. Because it's early summertime when December rolls around, the sun is setting so late that Christmas lights just seem to have such a short window for viewing that maybe that's why people don't bother. I'm not sure. Anyways, I definitely miss driving around to view the different displays and how involved some people got with their decoration.

I also realized there's such a comforting feeling about a quiet house in the evening with just the Christmas tree lit up but no other lights on. There's such a beautiful still silence about it and I realized how much I enjoy that when we were at a friend's house and their tree was all lit up. We haven't even gotten our tree out yet (it's only a table top one too) and it's already the 21st! We definitely forego the nostalgic smell of the Christmas tree and I didn't ever think I'd be a fake tree person but then we have always lived in small places until now, and had trees to enjoy at other people's homes. I figured it would be a tradition I would continue - getting the tree, spending a lovely evening decorating it listening to Christmas carols and then enjoying it for a couple of weeks. But I think that because it's warm weather and we're gearing up for summer, it's incredibly hard to feel like it's Christmas. Our mindset is just not there and after about 27 years of cold Christmases that are dark by 4:30pm, it's difficult to unlearn that association. All I know is we'll definitely need to get out the Christmas decorations if anyone wants anything in their stockings...

Maybe next Christmas we'll try to make it a cold one! Until then, we will enjoy the warm weather and outdoorsy Christmas day you can have along with it!


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