We’re Lighting up Happy Camp with Christmas Love!
We’re Lighting up Happy Camp with Love
It was so delightful to see large white flakes of snow falling from the heavens! Sunday afternoon a young buck strutted through the yard. My camera wasn’t ready to capture the moment, and didn’t run to get it. It was so special, just enjoying it with Silent Night playing in the background!
You may have seen a Facebook picture of a young lady shopping along a sidewalk with cheery lights emanating from the decorated storefront windows. Another sign that Christmas is near!
Robyn Eadie shared, “This just brings to mind; who else loved to walk the sidewalk enjoying Christmas shopping the old fashioned way, before online shopping took over…..?
The three shoppers in the photo must have finished shopping late as there aren’t bustling shoppers all down the sidewalk! Only three, properly “social distancing!”
That painting brings back memories of our family and three girls on a Sunday evening before Christmas. We often went down Nicolet Avenue in Minneapolis looking at Christmas windows. They were all decorated and many animated.
We also took an annual photo with Santa, but usually spent a day after Thanksgiving making the photos for the Christmas card Mom sent out!
Our home in Minneapolis was near enough to hear the roar of the crowds and playing of the big brass bands when the University of Minnesota played football. It was just a short way from the St. Anthony suburb where we frequented more economical shops for our own shopping. My youngest sister Nancy could buy all her family presents for a quarter in the five and dime! No one else quite matched her frugality in Christmas Shopping.
After taking a Retail Sales Class in High School, I worked at Power’s Department Store in downtown Minneapolis. I remember mostly being at the jewelry counter as people came to look at the gems for their loving Christmas gifts.
On occasion, I was able to help in the toy department. It was always in need of much straightening and calling for cleanup when kids spilled their popcorn and juice while pointing out to family what they wanted Santa to bring them for Christmas.
Some Saturday’s I was able to help the “elves” in the adjacent area as they made red and white candy canes for Santa to hand out to the same kids. The two colors confections, white with the red strip, were rolled out and twisted. The candy maker was so skilled and efficient in producing candy canes! It was a rather sticky effort on my part, but fun too!
The little area of St. Anthony has made national news for a different reason lately. A nurse who came home tired from serving Covid 19 patients on the cold dark December evenings, put up a wreath and a string of lights on her home. A neighbor sent her and several others an anonymous letter chastising them for displaying Christmas lights. The anonymous “Grinch” called it a “systemic biases against our neighbors who don’t celebrate Christmas or can’t afford to put up lights of their own.”
The item was reported by Crime Watch Minneapolis. It really surprised me, as it is purely delightful to me to see Christmas Lights on our neighbors homes!
We haven’t put up a great amount of decorating since the first year that we bought the home, which was the Willis home for decades. In 2003 we put up lights, formed lights into a Christmas tree shape at the front porch and had a “Precious Moments” nativity scene on the front lawn. That was the year that Dan’s cancer was discovered by a CAT scan a few days before Christmas and New Years Day we were in Sacramento, awaiting our first of many appointments at UCDavis. We were there when he had two surgeries in February, and then daily radiation and several chemotherapy until May. He wasn’t expected to recover due to the aggressiveness of the SNUC! Friends from church took down the decorations, as we weren’t home for several months.
At that time, we appreciated so very much the prayers and kind thoughts of so many in the Happy Camp community! Dan is still “with us” but still recovering from another brain surgery, this time for an abscess infection in his brain. Again, we are very grateful for all of your kind thoughts and prayers.
In case there are thoughts that Christmas lights are unwelcome, to us they are pure joy! On a cold dark night, what could be prettier than tree lights at the Happy Camp District Office of the KNF that the Volunteer Fire Fighters lit!We are also having a Lighting Contest with $100 first prize, and other prizes of gift cards and gas cards for those who decorate for all our neighbors to enjoy! Thanks to those who decorate! They bring cheer to those driving by. Whether you celebrate the joys of the secular aspects of the holiday, Hanukkah, or Christmas birthday of the Christ Child, there are those of us grateful that you share celebrating, with the entire community!!
Don’t forget to share a little love with everyone you meet today. Give a bit of kindness, a smile or good word!