Light Memories

Once again the cruel fates have aligned against me. I won't say I am "sick" because that is an evil and vile word, but I will say I am "not quite well". Also, Mike is suffering from an infection from getting his wisdom tooth pulled. Nothing but soup and yogurt and lots of pain for him. So you can imagine we are quite a jolly bunch this Christmas season. I am only writing this entry to distract me from the misery that is my life at the moment.

I love Christmas lights! More precisely, I love Christmas lights in moderation. I don't love when people cover every inch of their house in some sort of light. One or two strands of colorful (not blinking) lights is good for me. When I was a kid, I always had a small Christmas tree of my own in my bedroom. I always would ask my mom to turn the tree lights off after I went to sleep because I loved looking at them while I went to sleep. The fact is, I wish everyone would keep their Christmas lights on as long as it is dark. It's just so sad to me when a place that once had beautiful lights is dark. The lights are somehow comforting to me.

I have many memories of putting up Christmas lights with my family. Me and my brothers were always so excited to break out the brown paper bags containing the lights and test each strand to find burnt-out bulbs. Then it was on to the roof, a strange and new land, to spend hours placing the lights. Afterward, we usually had hot chocolate and listened to Christmas music.

One of my brothers was so into Christmas lights that he would cover the entire ceiling of his bedroom with blue icicle lights. Why blue and why icicle? I'm not sure. But we all loved being in his room even though it was about 100 degrees in there from all the lights. Ah, Christmas memories. Maybe I love Christmas lights because they bring back so many memories.

Here is a picture of Mike and I's little tree. It's not much, but I still love it.