Houses

Yes, there is simply no end to the creative ways people have found to celebrate Advent. For example; The Heights (scene of White Linen Nights in August) has Lights in the Heights, where entire neighborhoods decorate their homes with lights.

The houses are even judged, then one night (last Saturday) they had a neighborhood wide open house on the streets.

Each block has a one house with a band playing on the porch (Bernie and I danced a nice little fox trot together here).

Cookies are on tables out front...

...and the curb is lit up with luminaries stretching as far as the eye can see.

People filled the streets, strolling and visiting, and then...

A neighborhood parade began.

The dragon art car was my favorite.

Swing dancing anyone? These couples really had some wild moves, and each couple did a solo number too.

This house was amazing. How many motifs about Advent/Christmas can you see? Oh wait...the event is called "Lights in the Heights", it is about lights, electric lights, not The Light....
Pretty though. Just wanted to clarify what was going on here.

My co-worker Olia and her husband Bill were kind enought to invite the library staff to their home in the Heights. It was great to be able to park by their house, enjoy appetizers and mingles, then walk to the main display street.
It was 82 degrees by the way...shorts and tee shirts kind of weather....whew!

Then yesterday I started my *serious* Christmas shopping. The temperatures were dropping, and I needed a little Ho Ho Ho in my mojo. The mall is not my favorite place to be.

So...on the way to the mall I stopped by the east campus of Second Baptist (last that I heard it is the biggest single congregation in the USA each Sunday. They meet in four enormous buildings and the pastor speaks at one and the rest get a live feed to it.)

Each of the campuses are having a gingerbread house display. The various Sunday School classes and groups agreed to be assigned the task of re-creating one of the houses in Colonial Williamsburg in gingerbread.

There were two very large rooms filled with the houses.
What a wonderful scent!

Some were even decorated inside too.

They were each labeled with the name of the house, and a hand out gave the individual history of the Williamsburg house: who the original owner was, and how they fit into Williamsburg's history. Notice the little person peeking out the door!

There were ladies available to guide you through the village and to answer questions.

This was just one little part of the display. You can see that each house had a label with a bit of the history on a sign in the "snow" in front of the house.

I especially liked this door. I'm sure it isn't what is actually on the door in the house in Willamsburg though.

(And I have to say it...witnessing with waffles? Oy veh! And I got raise eyebrows for lighting Hanukkah candles?)

There are several huge gingerbread house displays in the Houston area. I hope to go see the ones down town in a hotel that are set up as an old western town display with cowboys shooting it out with the Indians. How Texas is that???

So tell me: What are you doing today to get into the Christmas Spirit?

What ever it is, I hope you are having fun!