Christmas Lights All Over The Place 2015

Happy New Year, good readers! I still can't believe that 2015 is already a swiftly receding view in my rear-view mirror. Boy, that was fast. And wouldn't you know it...January 2016 is also going to be in our rear-view mirror unless I get caught up on my blogging soon. So here goes!

 

(By the way: my next few posts are grouped by theme over chronology, so some of our Christmas happenings may appear slightly out of order. But the Christmas season is a big busy blur anyway, so it kind of makes sense that these blog posts reflect that scattered feeling.)

I realize most of you are so over Christmas by now, but too bad! You're about to be inundated with photos of Christmas lights...lots of Christmas lights. Looking back through my photo archives, it seems our family saw quite a lot of them this year. Here they are (in more or less chronological order):

Despite having the warm glow of our lovely Christmas tree in the front room, our family craved more holiday spectacle. And what better place to experience spectacle than at Winterhaven, the Tucson neighborhood that holds its annual light show every December? The Monday after the kids got out of school, we headed over to see what the residents had come up with this year.

There were a few "nerd Christmas" houses this year that amused us greatly, like this Game Of Thrones-inspired home:

 

 

This home used to be Harry Potter themed, but apparently the residents found a new franchise to geek out about!

Another house had this goofy Star Wars nativity.

 

I laughed.

We also enjoyed this Nightmare Before Christmas house as well:

 

And the girls always enjoy the Disney Princess house. This year, there were even actors there to greet the visitors!

 

There were other, more traditionally Christmas-y houses too, of course:

"All you need is glove." Cute!

 

 

Our family loves the movie A Christmas Story, and there is a house in Winterhaven that goes all out with Christmas Story decor. Every year, they have added something new! The first year we saw this house, it was the famous "leg-lamp" in the window; after a year or two, cardboard cutouts of most of the characters in the film dotted the lawn.

They triple dog-dared her.

This year, the residents added the piece de resistance: you got to "meet Santa" on an elevated platform, then slide down to the ground when you were done telling him what you wanted for Christmas!

 

The girls had a great time going up there and then sliding down afterwards.

As usual, we had a great time checking everything out. Each year, our girls get a little older and a little more capable of walking the neighborhood without succumbing to exhaustion and/or despair. There was some whining along the way, but for the most part everyone behaved themselves and had a great time.

In the week leading up to Christmas, we went out to see the lights again...this time, we stayed closer to home and visited a few neighborhoods in Green Valley and Sahuarita. There is one neighborhood in Green Valley that is known for its copious amounts of Christmas lights. The amount of decorations we saw was especially impressive, considering this neighborhood is part of a retirement community, where the majority of the houses and their yards are quite small. And as we drove by the nearby country club, who did we happen to see?

SANTA CLAUS!! Boy, were the girls excited (especially seeing as how I forgot to take the kids to see "mall Santa" this year). But as if seeing Santa weren't good enough, he then offered them all presents. Yes, this Santa had a truckful of toys he was handing out to all the kids passing by (some of them were previously owned, it seems...it was nice to know that "Santa" had lots of helpers).

Lovingly clutching their new toys, the girls and I stopped off at one more (amazing) house before heading home that night...

...the "Christmas House," as it is known in our family, is really something to see. It's almost National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation levels of decorated. I've been told it takes months for this family to set up all the lights, and I can believe it. To make the home an even more appealing visit, the homeowners set up a collection box for canned food items outside their home, to be donated to our local food bank.

 

 

The "Christmas House" is located very close to the girls' charter school, and so we've been to see it a few times. This last visit (our last before Christmas, and our last visit of the year, as it turned out) felt very special. It's magical to stand in the midst of that glow, and dream of Santa coming to visit. It was a great way to end our "Christmas-light watching" for the season...

...except that we went to see lights one more time after Christmas, this time in Mesa, a couple of hours north. Every year after Christmas, our family takes a day trip to the Phoenix area. We play, have fun together, eat out a couple of times, and always (to cap off the day) head to the Mesa Arizona LDS temple to check out all the lights!

Even though Christmas is technically over when we go look at these lights, the atmosphere on the temple grounds always helps me feel an extra jolt of Christmas spirit. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir music is piped through the grounds; Nativity scriptures are narrated by church leaders; beautiful statues of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus are set up facing the Visitor's Center, which has a yearly display of stunning Nativity sets from around the world; the girls excitedly flock to the large Christus statue...it's a wonderful night, every year.

 

The Visitor's Center had been updated a bit since our last visit. On the night we visited, there was a lovely new multimedia exhibit highlighting missionaries and their work.

 

My favorite part was looking along the wall at the hundreds of former missionary name-tags; it was fun to guess where all those missionaries served. I enjoyed spotting all the Russian and Ukrainian-language name-tags in particular; there were more on display than I'd thought there would be!

Visiting the temple lights is a great way to cap off the holiday season (even if it may seem late to some!). It's a good reminder to us that even though the Christmas season brings a lot of excitement, the Savior is whom we should be remembering and honoring during this holiday.

 

I know my Christmas posts may seem repetitive at times, dear readers, and I do apologize if my love of Christmas gets a bit "samey," year after year. But I'm afraid my great love for Christmas can't be restrained! Every year, I get caught up in the joy and the magic.

I'm so thankful for my knowledge of Jesus Christ, and I'm so thankful for my wonderful family. Both of those possessions mean that my Christmases in recent years have been wonderful. It's a busy time of year, but it's also so beautiful!