Light and Simple Christmas Eve

Tonight is Christmas Eve -- the part of Christmas I like most.  It's a time when Christmas has begun, but the anticipation is not over.  Christmas day and the opening of stockings and My Grandmother's Coffee Cake are still to look forward to. In our home, this night heralds the beginning of good eating, Oggy gets his Christmas bow (whether he likes it or not), and the we have the opening of the presents.  (We compromise around here.  Presents on Christmas Eve.  Stockings on Christmas Day.)

This year, we decided to keep it all pretty simple and enjoyed a quiet evening with my sister and Byron's dad.  Then, after dinner, dessert, and presents were over and the others had left, Byron and I took a walk in our neighborhood to try out a new camera lens that Byron had given me.  It's a 20mm f1.7 lense, which is perfect for capturing the insane Christmas light spectacle that our neighborhood has become this month.

I promised photos of the lights, so here they are.  We had to dodge lots of cars that were driving through the 'hood v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w-l-y.  It seems that a significant number of people in Seattle have a Christmas Eve tradition of coming to our neighborhood to gawk. At one intersection there was basically a traffic jam.

Whatever your personal feeling about holiday lights, it's undeniable that there is something cheery about so many lights at the very darkest time of year.

Here's hoping your holiday season is filled with light and joy -- and maybe some gawdy holiday lights, too.