Tradition

I can still picture the neighbor's house across the street from when I was in grade school. It was a blue, two-story house with black and white trim and a long front porch boasting white columns. However, the image in my mind also shows the house covered in snow, too many holiday lights wrapped around those pillars and lawn ornaments on the roof and the lawn. Each year the newspaper would print a list of houses to see with the best light decorations. I don't remember if our neighbors ever made the list, but I am sure they were trying to. While I am not fond of lawn ornaments I have always loved how lights shine through the snow. It's magic.

Then, I moved to Tacoma. I miss the snow. It never really feels right to have a winter pass without skiing, sledding, ice skating, frozen eyelashes, shoveling... But the tradition of Holiday lights is strong on the West coast - especially on our block! We definately felt like we missed the memo on holiday decorations. We let our neighbors light up the block instead. But it doesn't look the same without snow.

Lights in Tacoma are meant to be at the zoo. And that's where we go see them every year. The Point Defiance Zoo sets up a beautiful display every winter. We go, ohh and ahhh, drink hot coco, weave through crowds of children and strollers, see all the favorite displays and go home happy. Here a few pictures from this years trip.

I go every year just to stand in front of this tree.

Cyrus, Abbie, Corinne and Ryan in our matching jackets