Barb’s Burblings

I put up my Christmas tree tonight (and it’s looking a little sad–it may be the last year for this tree. Not a bad run; I got it back in 2000, so definitely worth the investment!), and after hanging up lights in the living room, I turned on Invasion of the Christmas Lights on TLC. My favorite thing driving around this time of year is seeing cars with Christmas trees strapped to the roof; but seeing how people decorate is definitely up there, too. (And flying at night this time of year is fantastic.)

It brings me back to when I lived in Montana. The town we lived in was mostly flat, settled along the Missouri River. But on the edge of town was a hill, with a development of houses on the hill. And we lived on that hill. When I told people at school where I lived, they asked whether it was true that there was a clause in the contract when my parents bought the house saying that we had to decorate for Christmas. I doubt it, but it’s true that people in our development sure did decorate. That was the first time I remember my dad ever putting lights up on the house. (Actually, my sister may have done it one year.) We kept it pretty low-key, but some people put up some nice stuff. And you could see it from around town, the houses on the hill, covered in lights. And people would drive up and around the development, looking at the lights. Which was an issue. There was only one road leading to the development, which was set up like a V, with roads between the two edges. It took us a LONG time to get back to the house after Christmas Eve services.

Of course, none of us went as crazy as these people on TLC. I feel like the people who live across the street from them must have special curtains to block out the lights at night.