The Magic of Christmas

I have always thought Christmas was magical and loved the beauty of a decorated tree and the glow of millions of twinkling lights but each year I am amazed at how much work goes into preparing for the holidays. For the last few years, we have done 3 inside trees in addition to the outside lights. Between the two of us it literally takes us 3 weeks to get everything up and working. Here are some pics of our effort this year:

                                         

I thought 3 weeks was a lot of time to put into something you can only enjoy for a few weeks until I read about this man that plans his Christmas light show starting Dec 26 each year. This man lives in Deerfield in Plano, which is known for the entire neighborhood participating in the Christmas light show, and was even featured on Good Morning America http://www.deerfieldplano.org/.  Adam had never seen the lights in Deerfield so I convinced him to go on Dec. 23. There was literally a traffic jam to get into the neighborhood and a complete dead stop approaching this man's house on Old Pond. Once we got to his street there was a policeman directing traffic and you were not allowed to stop in front of the house to really get a good look. The house had a 'live' Santa sitting in the front yard collecting donations and a kid that handed out fliers that told you what radio station to tune to hear the music that accompanied his light show. There was so many people it took us about 3 hours to go through the neighborhood. The neighborhood had already handed out the awards for 2008 when we went on the 23rd and this house won first place. We really thought it was too busy and that the 2nd place house that had Santa with his sleigh and all the reindeer suspended in the air at an angle was way cooler. I can't imagine the patience and time it takes to create something like what we saw. We are doing good to not blow out a portion of a stand of lights on the house or in the middle of the tree. How do these people do it? The magic of Christmas I suppose.

Speaking of magical Christmas moments, we certainly have encountered a few this holiday season:  Shari will eat jambalaya if Adam makes it, even though she hates every ingredient except chicken; I'll drink milk if it has brandy and powdered sugar in it and served up as a milk punch; and Adam will even admit that I'm right...he FINALLY agreed that Braum's egg nog ice cream does not exist after 2 years of never seeing one gallon!