More Holiday Spirit Please

We're carrying on as we have always this year. The single event we've never compromised has been Christmas. Maybe because of our involvement in food service for over 40 years, we all still get caught up in the season - I was a Chef, my wife and youngest daughters are Pastry Chefs. Maybe because of the influence of my wife's Germanic roots - Sharon always breaks out her grandmother's old hand blown glass ornaments along with some of the ones we've accumulated over the past 4 decades. Maybe because 2 of our children still live under our roof (both adults). Whatever the reason, this is another Christmas for the history books.

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A very odd feeling as any other year since late childhood I'd be running pillar to post at this time playing anywhere and everywhere. This year I'm playing the stereo and incredibly glad to have it.

Still decorating... a pic outside, one inside and some on a walk to the mailbox this evening.
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Front porch decorations - I went crazy this year.

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A few days ago I got a message from a friend in the next BIA over, Ford City, an old working-class neighbourhood. Would Katrina and I be willing to take a segment of the area and judge house Christmas decorations? Sure, what the heck why not. I photographed the houses as we went along and Katina wrote down addresses and took notes. We didn't have a huge area to deal with but it still took a couple of hours or so and with plenty of possibilities for getting things mixed up. No idea who won overall as there were two other judges, but this one stood out in our area. No idea how many lights in total as there are more lights on the garage out back than on the house... as I said to my wife; "this clearly ain't their first rodeo"...
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taking a drive to The Grosse Pointes (wealthy communities) to see Christmas lights,
I don't know how long ago that was, but that one house on the northwest corner of Moross and Lakeshore has been absolutely batspit crazy with the amount of lights they have, and this year was no exception. The last couple of years up Lakeshore have been disappointing though. Not as many lights as I remember from years ago. But there are still a few houses that boggle the mind--you know, the ones with large trees who obviously hire someone with a cherry picker to put lights way up there.
 
I don't know how long ago that was, but that one house on the northwest corner of Moross and Lakeshore has been absolutely batspit crazy with the amount of lights they have, and this year was no exception. The last couple of years up Lakeshore have been disappointing though. Not as many lights as I remember from years ago. But there are still a few houses that boggle the mind--you know, the ones with large trees who obviously hire someone with a cherry picker to put lights way up there.
I’m talking way back when I was a kid, late 60s to early 70s. This was before the mini-lights that are the dominant type today were available. Most folks where I grew up didn’t have the money to buy many of the large (C9) light sets. So my dad would drive us down to the Pointes to see the lights on the well-to-do homes.
 
I’m talking way back when I was a kid, late 60s to early 70s.
My grandparents lived in the Woods, buying into the area back before it became a bit too upscale. Back then, our drive from home was mainly 12 Mile for about five miles east to I-94, and down to Vernier. Not many had lights back in the day along that route. My grandmother used to put these plastic candelabras in the window with red C9 bulbs in them, the extent of her decorating.

The Edsel Ford Estate used to have a holiday light show, and tours of the house with the holiday decorations in place--I think they still do (in normal times).

Back at home, my dad used to put the miniature lights on the blue spruce tree on the corner of the house. The tree finally got so big that he had to quit lighting it. I remember he'd always spend a Saturday outdoors on the ladder in mid December, usually windy and cold. I should dig out some old photos of it.
 
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