Community Christmas

This is the weekend where we put up our Christmas decorations.

You know how I know that?

Because no less than 6 different neighbors told me at my garage sale last weekend that this is the weekend that we ALL put up our Christmas decorations and they made it pretty clear that participation was not optional and delays would not be tolerated.

I apparently moved into Dr. Seuss' Whoville. People take city trolley tours through my neighborhood to see the lights and buses full of nursing home patients are brought over to gawk. I mentioned having a Christmas party and a neighbor told me to forget about it and to forget about leaving my house after dark for most of December since the traffic is terrible. Good times!

On Christmas Eve, everyone gets paper bags and candles and goes down to the community park to fill the bags with sand they truck in and then we all line our driveways with the luminaries. Isn't that nice? I had 3 different neighbors mention the Jewish guy 4 blocks away who refuses to participate since he doesn't celebrate the light of Christ. Not a popular fellow. I'm going to guess that being too lazy to bother would make us social pariahs.

So, Mr. Ashley will be out there putting up Christmas lights with everyone else. I also have to call Neighborhood Mom today because she is intent on our children playing together--which is nice and all but it's a bit of a problem that I can't ignore her calls because she knows I'm here because she can see my car from her front window.

I don't think I'm neighborly enough for this Leave it to Beaverland. I might even be the grinch of our Whoville.