Christmas Lights

I love the Christmas season . . . I love the festivity, family, friends and food. I enjoy putting up our Christmas tree and hanging ornaments we’ve gathered over the years from various places we’ve lived or traveled. I especially enjoy the hand-made ornaments from our children. Touching them wraps warm memories around my heart. I love driving around to see decorated houses and twinkling lights in the early dusk. Nothing is too over-the-top for me at Christmastime!


I enjoy looking at pictures of family Christmas trees throughout the years of my growing up and of raising our own family. Some trees we harvested ourselves, some real ones were bought and some were artificial. There have been cedar, pine, fir, plastic and even aluminum! I remember the 70’s when aluminum trees were all the rage; they came with a rotating light disk that made them reflect changing colors. In 1975 someone gave us a silver tree . . . we kids thought it was the coolest tree! I later found out my mother really did not like it. When I look at the picture of all of the children around that silver tree, I have my memory of it, and now my mother’s. :) That tree came at a time when our family lived in a tiny two-bedroom house in the country . . . two parents, three children, an aunt, and four cousins. The little aluminum tree was just right.


What is light? In simple terms, light is “electromagnetic radiation visible to the human eye.” When we look around, what we “see” is light . . . reflected off objects in varying wavelengths which our brains interpret as color.

What is time? According to Wikipedia it‘s “. . . part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, . . . with respect to the transitory present (which is) continually changing.”

If you could travel back in time to “observe” . . . what would you “see?” Technically you would be observing light . . . in varying wavelengths . . . black and white, red, green, blue, and all the wonderful mixtures.

What is a photograph? It’s a capture of light wavelengths at a certain point in time (and place.) Every time you look at a photo, you are essentially traveling back in time to that place . . . as an observer.

Remember that next time you plan to go somewhere and think you don’t need your camera. Better yet, take photos of everyday happenings! I prefer looking at old photos that show what life is like, not what vacations were like. I want to see kids, parents, grandparents, extended family, friends, pets, clothing and hair styles, homes, schools, and workplaces. It’s better to have too many photos than not enough. You can’t time-travel backward to take a missing picture.

There’s no excuse for not taking lots of pictures these days . . . digital cameras are small and inexpensive, SD cards are cheap. Some cell phones have excellent cameras. Current computer hard drives are positively cavernous. And for about 50 bucks a year, you can back up everything online with Carbonite.

Time moves at the speed of light. The only way to stop it for observation is with a camera.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good light!

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1960 is baby me, and the cat's name is "Cocoa."
1962 shows the minimalist style of early marriage with minimal money.
1975 displays the fad/favorite Silver Tree, given by Aunt Dian Kitchens Allen.
1983 is a tiny tree we put on a desk, out of reach of our 13-month-old.
1986 is a tree was harvested from the Montana mountains (with permit) and the two presents underneath are the most precious kind of gift.