Just My Opinion - by Mary Kilen
Merry Christmas!
As I write my column, Christmas is just a few days away and I am excited to spend it with our family. Amanda, Zach and the kids are coming on Tuesday evening. I’ll put in a few hours on Wednesday morning and then we will spend the time together.
The presents are wrapped and under the tree, or at least most of them are. There are a couple of stragglers whose shipping time appears to have gotten delayed, meaning I’ve had to make a few last minute changes.
The house is decorated with my Christmas village on the mantle. My village is just a small part of my mom’s collection. Most of that is now at Amanda’s house and she spends days setting it up. One of my mom’s nativity sets is on the shelf under the television. The stockings are hanging from the mantle, waiting for Santa to fill them for the kids.
If you have driven by our house, you know how much Dale loves decorating the outside for Christmas. There is a picture of our house elsewhere in this week’s paper.
Dale started decorating right before Thanksgiving, taking advantage of a few days of warm weather. Decorating continued in December. Some of that was still setting up some of the collection, while some was replacing items. Our candy canes decided that only half of them would work along the driveway. We bought some new bright snowflake stakes. They are a beautiful addition.
The past few weeks have been a challenge, though. We have a beautiful angel that sits by our deck in the driveway. The gale force winds have blown her over three times so far. Mind you, Dale has a cement block holding her down. She has not stood up well to the 60 plus mile an hour winds. Each time, Dale takes her back into the garage and has to work at putting her back together in one way or another. He has warned me that she may not survive for next year. That will be highly disappointing and mean that we will be looking for a replacement next year.
The new snowflake stakes that I was bragging about also don’t like the high winds. We have been out there frequently setting some of those back up. Dale is already planning for how he will put those in differently next year with the hope that the wind won’t continue to blow them over.
However, every time I drive up to my house, I smile as I see the decorations. We watch cars slow down on the street to take a look at our yard. I’ve had people tell me how much they love it. I’ve had parents ask if we were going to put them up again because their kids love all of the different decorations in our yard.
That’s why we do it: for our own enjoyment and those who enjoy driving around looking at Christmas lights.
As we prepare for the holidays, the food and the celebration, I wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas. May your hearts be full of the true reason for the season. May you be surrounded by love and happiness. May the peace of this joyous season envelope you and grant you joy.