Lights ON 2025

Our annual Lights on party was splendid.  We have to start with Fondue-- it's mandatory at this point. When else can you dip and dunk and try to your hearts content.  We dip everything in chocolate or cheese.  we have meatballs, steak and smokies for our protein and a ton of fruits, veggies, cookies, chips and crackers.  (17 of us, we were only missing Laila and Markus)

 Christmas pajamas for all the grandkids.  I didn't do well with sizing this year... they grew faster than I thought..so we just passed down the pj's and Andrew didn't get any-- he was okay with that.  We pinned a little pair to his body for the picture.

We start in a dark house, and head outside for the TESLA light show and the turning on of the house lights.  We ooh and ahh over every light that gets turned on and we sing a Christmas song.  I'm so grateful that my family likes to sing.  The music is the best part for me.

Tese lyrics are particularly impactful to me this year: Away in a Manger-- "Be near me Lord Jesus I ask thee to stay close by me forever and love me I pray."  and from Oh come All Ye Faithful -- "Oh come let us adore Him!"  I love that Jesus is easy to love and we get to all do that together.

We huddle together and light up the Christmas village, the nativities, and finally the Christmas tree. Then we pass around a candle and tell how the person next to us lights up the world... most by being kind, generous, and thoughtful.  It's sweet to hear what the kids have to say about each other.

THEN  the Talent show begins!  We had Andrew and Sophia playing a song on the saxophone and flute.  We ahd Tayla, Lady and Elsie singing a Jesus nativity song with actons, Lady andd Poppy doing a dance and song they made up about themselves, Elsie doing a cartwheel and Geo a somersault, Alfie playing the piano while Poppy sings all 12 vs to 12 days of Christmas, Landon "Doing Choreography" from White Christmas as Danny kaye, Truman reciting a part of the Clueless movie, Addison juggling bags and hitting the drum on the exact beart of a Whitney Houston song, Bre playing the piano, Monson wiggling his ears, Lexi talking about all of her talents that can't be performed, Wayne playing the guitar and I led everone in a sing along.  Alex brought Brazilian cheese balls as his talent. I forgot to do a card trick that I had prepared... there's always next year.  Then we watched old family videos of our grandkids.  It was a glorious night.  This is my favorite holiday tradition.