Christmas Lights

It's now December; the safe zone where you can start your Christmas decorations and festivities without incurring the wrath from the Holiday Enforcement Legion. "Stay in your lane, Christmas," they say. "We haven't even had Thanksgiving yet!" So what if my Christmas tree is up after Halloween? Don’t tell me how to live my life! I get that some people are very segmented; every thing has it’s place and time. I just get tired of people getting irrationally angry over others wanting to celebrate a holiday about being nice to people, sharing presents, food, and general merriment with each other. MAN! That would be horrible if THAT holiday started earlier in the year! And really, if we as a people had two whole months of doing those sorts of things, is that really something we should be chastising each other for?

So, I got WAY off topic here. I'm writing this to talk about one of my favorite holiday traditions: Christmas lights. Seriously, I'm borderline obsessed with them. They're the coolest thing, especially when they're done well. My family and I went to Disney World a few years ago at Christmas time and saw the final year of the Osborne Family Christmas Lights in Hollywood Studios. It's incredible. Don't take my word for it, check it out!

It's an entire city block completely covered in Christmas lights. It's pretty damn impressive.

I started this blog with some frivolity and light-hearted joking, but I want to take it to a more somber tone for a moment. Why do I have this love for Christmas lights? My mom. Some of my favorite holiday memories as a child involve driving around with my parents and little brother to check out the awesome Christmas light displays. My mom and I especially loved Christmas lights.

When my mom's health was rapidly deteriorating from cancer in December of 2013, we decided to go to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia for the ChristmasTown celebration. Mom wasn't doing well. She looked like she was in pain all the time. Fact of the matter, she most likely was. We were only there for a few hours when she asked me if we could go back to the hotel. She wasn't feeling well. We were only about an hour away from it being dark enough for the lights to come on and I asked her if there was any way she could tough it out. She stayed and got to see this:

Her eyes lit up. "Wow, it's so pretty!" she said as she marveled at all the displays. As we walked back to the car she thanked me for making her stay and said it was definitely worth it. This was the last time I got to see my mom before she passed away. It was a great moment that we shared during our favorite time of the year.  We go every year and it's a wonderful reminder of that beautiful moment we shared before she passed away. 

This blog post is a call to action: share your awesome Christmas light pics with us at GGR. We want to share in them because it helps brighten the season but also, for selfish reasons, it helps me remember my mom. Make sure you use the hashtag #GGRholidaylights