Fiancé had a work dinner/Yankee swap that I was invited to go to. It was near his work, which also happens to be some place he and I never go through. He had been telling me about all the Christmas lights that he sees on his way home, and he had been saying he wanted to take me through his drive home so I could see them. Well, last night was the perfect night for it.
I love driving around to see the Christmas lights. Fiancé and I had never done a real drive like the one last night. We'd been to a house in Danvers before that goes crazy with their lights and decorations, and we had noticed houses on our way to and from things, but never a proper drive. It was totally worth it.
There was one area that Fiancé likes to refer to as "the McMansions." Basically, they are these big beautiful houses that pretty much all look alike because some developer bought a section of land and built 12 of the same home... If you disregard the fact that they all look the same, they were quite beautiful. Most of them were adorned with simple white lights. One house has a beautiful window right in the middle in the front of the house that displayed a beautiful Christmas tree. Sometimes, the simplest decorations can be the prettiest.
I love Christmas lights and decorations. Yes, I do love the sparkly and the pretty and the glittery and the shiny... The thing I love the most, though, are the quick glimpses you get into people's lives.
During this time of year, people tend to leave more lights on. Whether they have candles in the windows, lights up on the house, or they are simply leaving on lights in their homes to give the outside a better view of the tree, there is more illumination. If you look closely at certain hours of the evening, you can catch moments of a person's life. Last night on the way to the party, I saw a woman around my own age petting her cat in the window. She had a simple smile on her face and she looked very content.
You get these moments that almost seem like a scene in a movie. Families are gathered around a tree. Friends are having parties. Older couples are coming home with gifts to wrap for the grandkids. These moments seem fleeting as you drive by, and they have no idea that you have caught that little moment. To them it's their life- to you, it's a few seconds. Yet for me, it brings an immense amount of warmth and comfort. I enjoy seeing people happy (at least I like to imagine that all the people I see are happy), and I love the Christmasy scenes that happen this time of year.
Last night truly put me in the Christmas spirit, and I hope that everyone finds their thing that puts them in the cheeriest of moods!!
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