A Holiday Tradition
I wish I could say this was the most exciting weekend I have had in quite some time, but unfortunately, that isn't the case. Last weekend I spent the majority of my time taking care of @mrsbozz as she was sick with some kind of head cold. Surprise, surprise, by this weekend, that same cold had its hooks in me and I spent the majority of my time on the couch blowing my nose.
I swear I have been through about three or four boxes of tissues already. I'm kind of over it. This isn't the sickest I have ever been by a long shot, but it's just this constant annoyance that won't go away. I wouldn't mind so much if I could at least breathe, but I think we all know how that goes. Saturday and Sunday were probably my two worst days so far. I hope that it is mostly behind me now and I can start the path to feeling better.
I think the thing that bugs me about it the most is due to the lack of being able to breathe properly, I haven't been able to work out. Which wouldn't be a bad thing if I was sick in a way that my appetite was gone. However, my appetite seems to be okay, so I have been eating without burning calories like I normally would. I know it's probably best just to focus on getting better, but it still drives me crazy!
Friday night I was actually feeling well enough that we decided to take a drive and look at Christmas lights. This is something that we have started doing over the past five years or so as a way to get out and enjoy the holiday season. Typically we hop in the car or truck with a cup of hot coco or something like that and just drive around with Christmas music on looking at the lights. This year I replaced the coco with a box of tissues!
It's actually kind of surprising how few people decorate their houses for the holidays anymore. I remember when I was a kid, I feel like it used to be a much bigger deal. I'm not kidding when I say we drove for miles on some roads and didn't see a single Christmas light.
Thankfully, I was able to find a website from a local landscaping company that (with the owners permission) listed all of the houses that they had professionally decorated in the area. I center in a on neighborhood that had a dense population of homes that had been decorated by this company and that led us to the photos you see in this post.
As we were slow rolling through the neighborhood with just about every other car in the county, @mrsbozz and I wondered how the people who live in the community must feel about all the extra traffic up and down their roads this time of year.
Their quiet neighborhood was suddenly quite busy. We also noticed that the Home Owners Association (as there most certainly was one) did a pretty crappy job of keeping the roads clear of snow. We then surmised that might be by design to keep cars from flying through the area this time of year.
Either way, they did a really good job. You could tell there were trees on the outlawns that the association must decorate themselves, and then there were homes here and there that had went above and beyond for their own property.
It was probably the best area we found all night.
As we were heading back towards home, we came across this area where a couple of houses next to each other had went a little crazy with their lights. Unfortunately, I was driving too fast because there was a car right behind me for my wife to get a better shot than this. The big thing this years seems to be the permanently installed lights that go under your eaves. They are LED and you can change up the colors and pattern to match whatever theme or holiday you want.
We saw a lot of houses with these lights. Many of them were a simple red and white alternating pattern, but then there were others that had them synchronized to music or something else.
Friday night was probably the highlight of what turned out to be a pretty crappy weekend. I'll be happy when this cold is mostly out of my system and I can get back to normal.
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Oh boy sure hope you over nasty cold soon, nothing worse than not being able to breathe properly.
Thanks for showing us the joy of Christmas, not seen here anymore, it's actually sad that most towns or city centers put up lights either.
Durban botanical gardens do, I won't drive in the dark to the city. Merry Christmas to You and @mrsbozz
Oh, that sounds like it would be fun the lights in a botanical garden like that. We have a local public garden that does a little bit of that. I think I posted on it a few years ago.
I've had a cold too lately, but I will not let it stop me running. It is not actually affecting my performance too much, but when I get back I may cough a lot.
I'm not aware of companies installing Xmas lights apart from if people get someone in to do the ladder work, but there are some houses around here with a lot of lights. In the last few years we've seen more projectors putting moving patterns on the houses. We don't have to snow to go with the lights here.
Get well soon.
Thanks, I am hoping by the middle of the week I should be able to get back to my routine! It's been pretty miserable. I heard that people seem to go all out a bit more over there for the holidays. I wonder what is holding people back over here.
I know what you mean about not being able to breath. Last time I was sick I finally decided to do something about that and bought a netti pot. I think they have become popular in the States too — you might look into it. It's a little awkward the first few times you do it, and you feel dumb, but it works wonders.
Netti pots scare me. I think you have to be really careful or you end up dumping bacteria and stuff into your system and you are worse off than you started!
Sorry to hear about your cold, is this some bug going around your neighbourhood? Sounds like you're in the mend now 👍
UK seems to be the opposite of America, we're seeing a lot more people going wild with their Christmas lights in recent years. Many go to great lengths with their decor and I've seen online how festive they look. I haven't seen much with my own eyes as it's just too cold to go out, even driving. I'd much rather stay inside the warmth. I've had my bout of cold already this year ☺️
Yeah, I think it must must be a bug that is going around. I think we have some places that go a little crazy, but they are too spread out. We need more neighborhoods like the one we found that make a big display of it to try and bring people in.
Here almost no houses decorated for Christmas. We were like the only house with Christmas lights the last few years, but this year I am skipping it because I am tired of association mailing me a letter to take them down or face fines a week after Christmas...
I wonder if it is a money thing or if people just don't care like they used to. It's kind of sad. I mean we don't go crazy at our house, but we at least have a little something.
Here it seems to increase. Some houses are beautifully decorated while other ... euhm ... they went for over the top. Up to a point where it gets ridiculous.
Others houses then have nothing.
We don't have a lot of decoration outside and also not over the top inside the house.
But it would be great if we could do a trip like that. I mostly stay at home (when it is cold and dark) or a driving the same path to the pool hall.
To bad we don't have the snow because that add another dimension to it.
We had some nice flurries coming down on this night. It made things a little more exciting. My wife prefers houses that have a sort of theme. Some folks just throw whatever color lights they can get their hands on up with no real plan. Those are just kind of tacky!
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Looks like people take the outdoor light seriously in that neighborhood. Its amazing what some people do. My street is not like that. I know of one spot that goes all out like that but its far from my house, out of town, so I wouldn't go past it unless heading that way for something else.
Cool tradition!
Yeah, we used to have a house near us that had pretty much every single blow up you could imagine. I don't even want to think what their electric bill must have been like each year. I don't think they do it anymore now.
Yeah really makes you wonder?
The blow up ones are strange to me. During the day when they are deflated, if there a lot of them, it looks like a garbage truck dumped a load of trash on the lawn lol. I drove by a house like that on the weekend and did a double take because I thought a tornado went through their house (which didn't make any sense). Nope, just deflated Christmas decorations lol.
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