"It's the most wonderful time of the year. . . "

The back story is I recently moved. I moved into a house in a residential neighborhood and am roommating with a good friend of mine.

So last night I'm at home, the kitchen window is up, and I've just settled down to watch some Hulu when I hear someone out in the yard tromping through the leaves. I get up and go to the window, and the neighbor is stringing Christmas lights on a fence in the portion of her yard that comes near ours.

I've spoken to her across the fence once, so I went outside to say hi and ask about the neighborhood's lights. She tells me that there have been times when the neighborhood lights were so nice that people drove through. Some neighbors are still young enough to put things on their houses and even their roof. Some who are a little older may be doing just yard lights now. But that the spirit of Christmas is still alive in the neighborhood.

Then she tells me about her lights and kind of floors me.

She tells me that G-d woke her up and told her to come out and string the lights on the fence, because He knows that once she gets started, she'll finish the project.

She tells me how the Cross she has strung up is done in red lights, with an extra strand that comes down and pools on the ground symbolizes the blood flowing out of Jesus on the cross and turning into our salvation. That's why that strand alternates between red and white.

Then she points to a tree and tells me she puts lights around it in a circle that goes up the tree and symbolizes "the whole world" and the tree of life.

And she tells me that even candy canes are religious because He tells us "even in our old age."

She further tells me that she believes people leaving Him out of Christmas is the reason "for all those storms and things."

Ooh. It was interesting. Not in an overzealous kind of way. But definitely in an enlightening way. And in a "funny to tell friends later kind of way."

So anyway I talked to my roommate and he has Christmas lights and outside Christmas decorations. He has lived in a house, unlike me whose only been in apartments for years. So I feel confident that we'll be able to fit into the neighborhood for the holiday season.