A Little Ink Blot

"Look, out Esther's window, Santa! Reindeer! Train! Christmas Lights!"
"Where, where, where? Oh, I missed 'em."
"Oh, where, oh where, are the Christmas Lights?"
"Here, Christmas Lights. C'm'ere, Christmas Lights!"
"Look, out Daddy's window, lots and lots of lights!"
"I see'm! I see'm"
And on and on it goes. From the time the sunlight begins to fade in the afternoon until the girls are herded into the house, there is excitement in every car ride. Christmas is approaching, and the electric companies are making lots of money, because Oregonians (and Washingtonians, we saw today) love to put up lighted decorations.
Many yards have more than 30 individual displays, plus the lights on eaves and roof and trees and shrubs. There are wire reindeer with animated body parts; Santas on trains with wheels that go around and smoke that rises from the stack; old fashioned plastic figures with lights inside; new fashioned nylon figures with air to make them stand up and lights inside; six foot tall snowglobes with foam pellets circulating by fan motor. Anything winter, anything holliday, anything festive the mind can dream up, it can be found alit on some lawn in Oregon.
It is one of our traditions to drive around for an entire evening and see all the lights we possibly can pack into a single night. The girls are excited about it every time we get into the car. "Will we see them all tonight?" they ask over and over, and "Is tonight the night?" "No," we say, "there is more to come!"
Every hillside, every town, every block, nearly every yard has something to show through Christmas Lights. And everywhere we go, we look, and search and hope. Even Esther, who is only two, notices when we see yard after light after display with no Baby Jesus in sight. She does ask, and so does Alene. "Where is Jesus?" "Where is the manger?" "Look there is a star! Where are the angels?"
And we ask them, "Who is most important at Christmas?" And they know! "It is Jesus, He's the best!" And so we keep looking! And I know we are not alone. Especially at this time of year. People are looking!
"So, let your light so shine before men...!"