Beaucoup Christmas!

(It's pronounced boo-coo. Don't ask me about the spelling, that's just how the French do it. Because they're kind of spikey and, well...kind of French.)

I think my earliest memories of Christmas Lights on Steroids come from the trip on Highway 59 between Ottawa (where we lived) and Lawrence (where my great-grandmother lived and all the family gatherings took place), KS. A few miles south of Lawrence, there was a house off the highway that really stood out from all the others with the quantity of lights and elements used--eventually they even had a fully lit sign that read, "Merry Christmas from the Smiths!" We also noticed throughout the years that the displays got more and more elaborate until one year abruptly they had disappeared altogether. We entertained many theories...maybe they moved? Maybe the neighborhood got together and signed a petition to ban it? Maybe the wife died and the husband was just too sad to keep putting the lights up? Who knows? It's a mystery to this day.

When I was in high school, a radio station in Kansas City sponsored a contest of "White Trash Christmas", and it just so happened that the winner of said contest lived not so far from my Dad's girlfriend's house. It was this huge house on a corner and they just went wild. Their display didn't have any order, it was just lots and lots of lights. The house was on a little hill and they had strings of lights just sitting on the ground streaming down from the house and ending with a set of lights still in the display case. It was pretty impressive.

In Jersey, there is a family on the street where my closest friend there lives who just goes to town on an Elvis-themed display. There's only one street that feeds into the little group of streets where she lives too, so often during the holidays it takes her a long, long time just to make her way down the street to get home. Crazy.

So I know that people can get "into" their Christmas lights and give the Disney Spectacular Main Street Electrical Parade a run for it's money, but nothing prepared me for this.

This is someone's actual display from last year. They actually timed it on a computer to music. I was stunned.

My favorites are the Amazing Grace and Carol of the Bells, but I haven't watched all the videos from this year yet.

I thought Grant and I were doing good with our tiny tree, two stockings and two strands of silver garland around our doorways...

Then again, I could see this becoming something he finds neat, gets into and learns everything possible about until he optimizes and masters.

Luckily I don't have to worry about that possibility until we have a house.