The Christmas Spirit and Burnin' Trees.

Yesterday we spent the day stoking the Christmas Spirit.

Our friend Catherine came over in the morning and brought the kids some early Christmas presents.  

Then we loaded everyone up (including Catherine) and visited the local assisted living center were we sang Christmas carols, visited with the residents, and distributed oranges and chocolates.

Zeke with our friend, Larry, at the assisted living center. 

We thought it would be fun to build a snow man for the residents to look at and came up with this beauty, which we parked just outside their dining hall, for maximum visibility and enjoyment.

After lunch, we started in on our afternoon service project: clearing a fallen branch from a single neighbor's front yard. She has a giant tree that lost a limb in the last big snowstorm. This tree is so massive, that one limb is the size of a normal tree, so were talking a whole lot of volume here. This neighbor's been out of town all week, so we combined with another family to clean up her yard before she came home. Our friend Catherine volunteered her truck to haul off the bulk of it and the rest of the smaller detritus we packed into three curbside dumpsters. It took 8 of us one hour to get the job done.

In the evening my mom came over for dinner and then joined us for our evening festivities: touring the surrounding neighborhoods in search of amazing Christmas light displays. Last year when we were doing this, we started making up hypothetical preposterous awards that we'd bestow on unsuspecting homeowners for their decorating efforts. Stuff like: "Best Use of One Bulb in a Holiday Light Display," "Best Monochromatic Tree," "Best Use of One Strand of Lights." You get the idea. Well . . . this year we made our dreams a reality. We designed and printed some blank awards to give out in our travels to deserving recipients. 

The Sullivan Awards: They're all the rage.

We'd drive around until we found something spectacular or unique, fill out the award, debark, gather on the doorstep of the unsuspecting recipient, ring the doorbell, begin caroling, and wait. When the surprised people opened their doors, we explained our purpose, bestowed the award, and wished them a "Merry Christmas." We had a blast! The outing produced lots of smiles and laughter from all involved parties.

One old man, who received the "Best Christmas Tree on Top of a Roof Award," was so delighted. He told us how his family thought that he was way to old and feeble to be getting up on a ladder to decorate his house, especially placing this giant lighted tree on the roof, and now he was vindicated. He has an award to prove his awesomeness! 

Thus we come full circle to this morning. Sunday. I was casually making breakfast and the kids and I were watching beautiful, fluffy, gigantic snowflakes fall softly outside the windows. Totally peaceful. At one point, Sophie casually mentioned that it had become quite misty outside. I looked out the big picture window facing the front of the house, and sure enough big billows of mist floated past. Then I looked out the back window. What? This weather phenomenon was only occurring in the front yard? Strange. Suspicious. I told the kids, "Hey, maybe there is a fire somewhere." Hallee quickly ran closer to the window and yelled, "Mom!!!! Our tree is on fire!!!!" I raced to see what she meant and sure enough, there were flames rising up the tree in our front yard.

Yes. It is all true.

We'd decorated that tree with several strands of lights in the spirit of the season and this morning they caught fire in total flaming holiday glory. I screamed the news down to Casey (who was indisposed in the basement bathroom) and rushed to the scene, unplugged the extension cord that was fueling the pyrotechnics, and extinguished the blaze with a flurry of wild snowballing. We could not stop laughing.

Because of said incident, I hereby bestow the following award on our family for our outstanding and creative efforts this year:
 

Long live the Sullivan Awards!