Friday, December 20, 2013

How A Decapitation Changed Christmas

Our outdoor Christmas display was decapitated six years ago. It was a casualty of the 2007 December ice storm that left us without power for 12 days.
The poor snowmen were no match for the falling, ice-laden branches.

We "inherited" the snowmen and sleigh when my in-laws, Melvin and Marie, died. It had decorated their farmhouse 2 miles to the north for several years. Since it said "Season's Greetings from The Fritzemeier's," we were the logical choice for taking the sleigh home.

Truth be told, the punctuation on "The Fritzemeier's" drove me to distraction. But I decided it wasn't worth risking the paint job to correctly remove the apostrophe ... especially since I'm pretty sure I'm the only one it bothered.

Still, I really liked it, both for sentimental value and the fact that we had a nice outdoor display item that we didn't have to pay for. Bonus! During the day, it was visible from the road and, at night, we lit it with a flood light.

So, I was disappointed that the snowman and his wife were accidently beheaded by one of the thousands of branches that fell from our majestic old trees in the December 2007 ice storm.

Since then, I've kept my eyes open for a replacement display. I think Marie had purchased the sleigh from an Oktoberfest vendor years ago, but I never found anything similar.

Honestly, we don't have a lot of traffic down The County Line. Having outside lights is more for me than for the person who randomly travels down our road after dark. I tried some lighted Christmas trees, but they fell apart after one season. (Perhaps I should have looked for higher quality instead of lower price.)

But, this year, I saw a house in Stafford lighted with colored floodlights. And I thought, "We could do that!" We have a unique old farmhouse that I think is a real looker. And what could be easier than sticking a couple of floodlights in front of the house. (Well, the first green bulb didn't work, and Randy had to round up a timer. But it was still relatively painless.)
From our house to yours, we wish you blessings and JOY this Christmas season.

2 comments:

  1. Those ice storms wreck havoc on EVERUTHING! But they sure are pretty. Poor Mr & Mrs Snowman!
    That is a cool idea with the colored flood lights. Your house looks awesome with them.
    Merry Christmas to you and your family.

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