The thing that makes me happiest during the holiday season aside from spending time with my family is Christmas lights. Al always indulged me and made sure our house was strung with bright, cheery Christmas lights. It’s funny because while it was a pain for him to actually put the lights up, he was a perfectionist in HOW the lights were strung. When I was growing up my dad put little hooks under the eaves which made it really easy for him to just attach the string of lights to the roofline using the hooks. But Al would have none of that. Doing so would mean the lights might hang a little cockeyed here and there. Nope. Not for Al. He used a staple gun and carefully held the lights in position and then stapled them just so in order to have each light hang straight down at the correct angle. He was in charge of those lights and took great pride in them. Me on the other hand? I was in charge of doing the rest of the outdoor lights…around the porch, on the front pillars surrounding the porch, in the mesquite tree, up and down the ocotillo, etc. I’d start bugging him to get the lights up as soon as Thanksgiving was over. Sometimes the lights would go up by December 1st; sometimes it would be the 2nd weekend in December. I take such pleasure in Christmas lights that I drive a slightly different route through our neighborhood each and every time I'm out so I can see the different lights at night. The kids and I always used to search out the best holiday display in the area. There was the house up off Shannon and Overton where the owners dressed as Santa and an elf, had crazy displays in the front yard that included teddy bears playing football on a football field and a ton of other things. They lived on a cul-de-sac and traffic in and out of that neighborhood was Ri.Dic.U.Lous. They even handed out candy canes and hot chocolate to every person who came by to enjoy their lights and took donations for the local food bank. They did this each and every night up to Christmas.
Then there was Disney Lane. Another neighborhood in our area where on a particular street, every single house on both sides was decorated in a different Disney theme. They all had huge, similarly painted wood cutouts in their yards of different Disney characters. There was a Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs house, a Mickey & Minnie house, an Aladdin house complete with a “floating” magic carpet with Aladdin & Jasmine and music pouring out of the house and one of our favorites was the 101 Dalmatians house with the roofline decorated with wood cutouts of stockings, each holding a different Dalmatian pup.
One year my Christmas lights stayed up all year long and it annoyed the hell out of me. By the time December rolled around and we plugged the lights in, they were no longer bright and vibrant. The sun had bleached them and they had become pastel colored. But what the heck, we just lived with them that year and then took them down after Christmas and put brand new strings up the following year.
Well this past Christmas was very rough for Al. He didn’t feel well, was weak and not eating properly. Marshall put our lights up for us. (Funny that Al’s obsession with hanging the lights just so was passed down to Marsh) Everyone got busy after the holidays and then Al went in the hospital. He was there for three weeks before passing away. The lights never came down. Now that the holidays are upon us, I was a little annoyed that I’d probably be looking at either having pastel lights again or having to buy new strands and have Marshall put them up. My kids all understand how happy Christmas lights make me. As we wrapped up Thanksgiving evening and they were each leaving, Les & Trevor plugged the lights in and called me outside. They were beautiful! I don’t have pastels this year! Granted, the blue bulbs need to be replaced but that’s an easy job and Marshall has already volunteered to help with that task. The lights on my house may not be like the famous display set to the music of the Trans Siberian Orchcestra that is such a hit on youtube.com but that's just fine with me.
I know the holidays will be tough this year but I’m going to do my best to make this season as happy as I can. Life goes on and I'll keep our traditions going. There will still be homemade eggnog (Yes Trevor!!), tamales & beans, snowballs and fudge, a massive live Christmas tree and the lights hung just so.
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