It happens every year.
Late summer creeps along into the fall.
We feel like we have plenty of time before the end of the year and we don’t.
We look up, as we have now, and realize we are less than two weeks from Christmas.
This means we are less than three weeks from the new year.
I’m not sure how it is possible.
I’ve written, over the past few months, about our family’s detour since September due to a car accident involving my son and father-in-law.
Indeed, this fall has been a bit of a blur for us. This has exacerbated the speedy passage of time.
But it’s like the old Merle Haggard song says, “If we make it through December, everything’s gonna be all right, I know.”
And that’s where we’re at— working our way through December and staring the first of the year square in the face.
The Christmas lights are hung.
Though, at least at our house, there are still presents to be wrapped.
Community activities and school events have us going in all directions.
Though we should slow down at some point.
This time of year is appropriate for reflection and I hope you find time to do the same in the coming weeks.
As I reflect on Christmas past, I realize— as another old country song says, “The only thing that stays the same is everything changes. Everything changes.”
Back in 2019, I wrote a column about my wife, Jennifer, and her old-fashioned C9 Christmas lights.
I wrote about how she had me string those old incandescent bulbs on the house every year since we first married.
I wrote about the semblance of continuing to use something that works.
I wrote about the pain in the neck that are those old bulbs, but I made the analogy to life— that sometimes life is a pain in the neck.
But life is a beautiful thing. Just like the glow of the Christmas lights on a dark winter’s night.
In that column, we recommitted ourselves to sticking with the old lights.
I’ve republished it multiple times over the years.
After much reverence and metaphor surrounding Jennifer’s old C9 incandescent lights, it is with mixed emotions that I report this year that the old C9s involved have been retired.
We broke down and converted to LEDs.
Everything you’ve read about them are true.
They are lighter. They don’t burn hot. They don’t use near the electricity and do not require near the extension cords.
We’ve yet to blow out a fuse and, after three weeks of being strung on the house, I have not had to get on the roof once to change a bulb.
They don’t burn near as bright though and that’s okay.
They are beautiful and they are new.
So why the change?
I don’t know.
Sometimes change is in order.
Sometimes the best way to honor old traditions is to start new ones.
A lot has changed for our family since I wrote that column back in 2019.
Our kids have lost multiple grandparents.
A few beloved old family dogs have passed away too.
Our kids are not kids anymore.
They are young adults with whom we will be making many college visits over the next year.
Change is inevitable, so sometimes the best way we can honor our past is by paving new futures bravely.
Maybe that’s a little too heavy of a metaphor for a simple Christmas light upgrade, but sometimes life can be heavy and metaphors prove helpful.
Swing down our street sometime between now and the end of the year.
Let me know what you think about the new Christmas light arrangement.
What did we do with the old incandescence C9s, you ask?
Did we throw them away? Did we donate them?
Of course not. Don’t be silly.
They’re still in a box, in the shed and ready to come back out if needed.
No need to get rid of something that works. We may decide to use them again someday, but that will be another metaphor for another time.