Day 334 -- Christmas Lights

Yesterday, my kids helped me to put up our outside Christmas lights. 

Well, they didn't help so much as run around the front yard while I strung them up and tried not to have a panic attack every time they appeared to be making a beeline for the road.

The light job is far from fancy.  In fact, it takes all of three strands of white lights to wrap our front pillars.  But I just walked by, and they looked beautiful twinkling out there in the cold, dark night. 

It made me realize, too, that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which means that my favorite season in the world is nearly upon us.  I think there is something truly magical about this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and tonight I'm thankful that a symbol of this time is boldly declaring its coming -- right on my very own front stoop.

Thank God for Christmas Lights!

Lord, thank you for this season that I love.  Thank you for all that it represents and for the way that it makes me feel every year.  Thank you for the chance to put up Christmas lights.  Thank you for their beauty and for the way they help me to anticipate the coming days even more.  In your name I pray, Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 162 -- "Showing Us the Way"

Image
One of my favorite things about the spring is the baccalaureate celebration that takes place the week before graduation.  I love the chance to see my seniors in their caps and gowns and to praise God for their arrival to the finish line.  For every year since I can remember, I've listened to Western's Select Choir perform the song "Showing Us the Way" by Michael V. Ficocelli.  When I was a senior, I even got to sing it at my own baccalaureate.  That year, and every year since I have taught at Western, I get choked up listening to the perfectly fitting lyrics of this song.  Tonight, on a perfect evening at the Cascades Falls, tears ran down my face as I watched the seniors I taught sing the words of this song to their classmates, parents, teachers, and friends.  I smiled and cried a little more as I realized that someday there's a good chance I'll be watching my own kids sing it at their baccalaureate. I had to share it with you.  This isn't Western's
Read more

We Dance...and We Sing...When We Play the Drum!

Let it be known that my son gets his money's worth out of his toys. Or, in this case, someone else's money's worth. Whatever. You know what I mean. The toys that he likes, he really, really likes. He uses them a lot for a long time. This particular toy is a drum that was given to him by our friends, The Tappans, at his FIRST birthday party. Needless to say, tonight he was REALLY enjoying his gift.
Read more

Day 80 -- Calvin and Hobbes

Image
When I was in junior high and high school, I used to read the anthologies of several comic strips, including Garfield, Fox Trot, The Far Side, and Calvin and Hobbes.  I remember reading them by the light of my bedside lamp, trying to stifle my giggles so that my parents wouldn't come bust me for staying up too late reading (the horror!). Calvin and Hobbes, especially, resonated with my sense of humor.  I found the strip simultaneously witty, funny, thought-provoking and perceptive.  I collected all of the anthologies, but somewhere between then and now, I either lost them or gave them away.  I told my husband about my tendency to read them from cover to cover, and how I was sad that I no longer had them.  Not too surprisingly, for Christmas, I received The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book from Santa. I have been slowly working my way through the book, and tonight I was reminded of Calvin's finicky eating habits and of his gift for creating macabre snowman art.  I w
Read more