La luz…

My husband is an engineer, he is a bit persnickety, he likes things a certain way, he likes things done “right”, &  I love him for that. He has taught me discipline, follow-through, the importance of being on time, persistence, & cleanliness (yep I was a giant slob before our marriage).

But due to the previous mentioned behavior we have been Christmas-light-less for the past 5yrs.  Mostly because he has a dream: a dream of all our lights facing in the same direction, perfectly color coordinated, anything extra matching perfectly to the color of the house & other lights.

Needless to say there was never “light display” money in the budget, there was always a better place for it to be spent.  So we had bows, precious red bows for the past 4yrs have been wired to our outside lights, they were cute & delightful (maybe a little boring) but they all matched & all hung at the right angle; which meant a stress-free Christmas for the husband.

Let me now introduce you to my dad, better known as Papi Grande, he is a Christmas-light-a-holic.  There is no rhyme or reason to his light show but mere delight!  Less is better…oh no no no the more, the brighter, the bigger…the BETTER!   There are rope lights, angels & Santa playing together, snowflakes mixed in with red chili lights, candy canes surrounded by twinkle lights…it’s a magical place during the holiday season & when I was a kid I loved it!

Well Papi Grande has grandbabies now & wants them to have the same delight & Tyler’s uncle was cleaning out his lights & sent a few fabulous ones our way.  So yesterday I called up my dad & asked if he would come help me put up a few icicle lights, because turns out that the kids were not impressed with the red bows & asked everyday when we would have lights on the house.  He was ready to come the next day, I chose not to mention it to Tyler…

Yes you see icicles mixed with blue snowflakes, different colored candy canes, an LED-lighted deer & a soft lighted dear, a Moravian star & the red bows

Welcome home honey; I made his favorite dinner to soften the “imperfect” light blow. Chili with hotdogs cut up in it over white rice…what a gourmet, right?!?

Out in our pjs & barefoot on a cold night to see the lights again…couldn’t help ourselves 🙂

Please know that Tyler was a champ, he was thankful for the help getting the lights up since he has been so busy at work.  It was also pretty magical to see the kids you’ve wanted for so many years run up and down the yard in awe, telling everything that lit up “feliz navidad”.  As Papi Grande said, “every kid needs a light on their house; otherwise how will Santa find it?”

At the dinnermesa,

Beth