Christmas Lights

Nothing beats the lights at Christmas, in my opinion. No matter how small or dim the string that has been placed on a single hedge in front of a house, or how grand and choreographed the LED light show, I am impressed by every bit of it.

The lights above are at Pioneer Place. The shops there are too fancy for my budget, but I ducked in to escape a downpour a few days before Christmas.

My favourite lights right now are on the watch face of my Apple watch. I like this particular watch face, that shows astronomical information. If I tap the time, it changes the screen for three seconds to show the length of the day. I managed to catch it at the shortest day of the year for us, at 8 hours and 41 minutes, surprisingly, not on December 21, but a couple of days before. If I tap the watch right now, we have already increased to 8 hours and 45 minutes. Each 60 seconds we gain is a victory! Brace yourselves my friends in the northern hemisphere: Spring is on its way!

For the first time ever, I tried melting Jolly Rancher candies to make stained glass windows in my gingerbread house. It’s so easy and so beautiful. Who knew? Pedro bought fairy lights small enough to tuck inside, and so this is my little house, warmly lit and so cute with the stained glass windows made of candy.

Pedro and I met up with our friend, Vladimir, for lights and dinner one night at Two Brothers Rakia Bar + Grill nearby (Balkan Food – SO DELICIOUS). It was raining hard the entire time and we laughed and got soaked and were glad we went. The food was amazing as always, and the crowds on Peacock Lane were smaller. At times, the rain came down in buckets and we were forced to walk through deep puddles.

The sign in the photo above was my favourite of the week, because it’s pointed without being too aggressive for a holiday display. It shows four inflatable animals, including the frog dubbed Freedom Frog, that are often seen protesting outside the Immigration Facility (ICE) in Portland where they hold captives ICE has been illegally detaining. These inflatables are famous for being the symbol of pushback against our President Dump calling Portland a hellhole, on fire, and a war zone. Our local citizens dress up as silly animals to protest, with the message being: Either you are afraid of inflatable animals, or it’s safe enough to dress as an inflatable animal with the purpose of mocking authority. Which is it?

This was my first year to see Zoo Lights. I’ve been told for years that it’s wonderful, but there is an entrance fee and it’s in a part of town that takes planning for a visit, since it’s not on the way to anywhere, except the zoo, or the Japanese or Rose gardens. This year, we took Pedro’s twins.

To avoid crowded and costly zoo parking, we parked at the Transit Center and took the MAX train to the zoo stop. Zoo Lights tickets can always be used as MAX tickets, as a way to address congestion.

The boys had all been to Zoo Lights in previous years, and they knew what their favourites would be. They like to see the train, but assured me that riding the train is not worth the extra cost, because you can simply walk and see all the same things. I did think the train looked pretty neat, so I took the video above.

I was impressed by the variety of animal-themed lights. There were butterflies and ants, crocodiles and parrots, monkeys, lions, whales, salmon, turtles, and so many more. I wondered if there is a company that makes animal lights, or if the zoo commissioned animal decorations for this display.

We had fewer decorations inside the house this year because of our kitten, Jupyter. She would certainly attack and climb any tree we erected, so we spent weeks trying to decide whether to have a tree, and if so, what kind. Finally, with only days to go before Christmas, Pedro set up a fake birch tree and added a few plastic balls. Anything could survive being climbed, batted, and chewed upon.

Despite its base being weighted down with several 25 pound weights from our workout area in the garage, our tree was knocked over at least three times, and half the balls have been swatted down the hall and under the couch. But so far, everything has survived. We had a quick visit from Kellen, their fiancé Cameron, and their roommate, Dane, on Christmas Eve. We each opened a single present together, then swapped the rest of the gifts, and plates of goodies, and hugged each other goodbye. Our Christmas was late because we waited for Pedro’s kids to share the holiday with their mom first before they came to our house for the weekend.

The boys have gone back to their Mom’s house. Kellen and Cameron are heading to a friend’s for New Year’s up in Olympia. Pedro and I now have a chance to clean up the house and address a few more home improvement projects while he has a few more days off. I hope yours was lovely, whatever it is that you celebrate, even if it was the celebration of people you love, or gaining another sixty seconds in a day.