Christmas lights

The Missus is nuts for Christmas lights on houses.   When we are taking our evening walks she gives awards to the deserving houses in the neighborhood as we pass them.  "Best use of traditional lighting"; "Most Christmas themed yard ornaments"; Best Hanukkah display", "Newest technology in a Christmas light display" and so on.  Of course I am the only one aware of the awards as she tells me as we walk along.  The lucky homeowners who win the awards are unaware because we do not carry certificates on the walk to hand out.

Our community newspaper also give out awards but they actually present the homeowner with a prize and write them up in the paper.  The Missus read about a display nearby that was worth driving to, so she rounded us up and had us set off to find the house.

It is difficult to imagine that there are rural areas close to the megalopolis of Los Angeles but our happy little city (which was a ranching and farming community up to the early 70s) is on the edge of development for the L.A. octopus and there are some open areas not yet swallowed up by development.  It turned out we were headed for one of these places. 

The missus had the directions and we set off up the freeway a few minutes, off at a traffic roundabout which the locals can absolutely not handle.  They stop when coming to it, circle at about 1.3 MPH and hesitantly feel for their road.  I think one lady in a Lexus SUV is still going in circles.  The Grouch expedition having driven in these things in Germany 3 decades ago are old hands at this and handled it with aplomb.   We proceeded along the well lit 4 lane road that then turned into a two lane road that then looked like tobacco road.  I didn't realize that we were supposed to be headed into the wilds and turned back thinking we missed our turn off.  The Missus set me straight, got us turned around again, and we went deeper into the country.  Fortunately the Jeep has enough lighting on it to duplicate the rising sun so we were able to see in the very dark night.  After many twists and turns we came to semi civilization, and ended up in an area of mini ranches and the home we were seeking.  The display was amazing!  It is one of those that you may see on You tube in which the lights are coordinated to music.  It was well worth the drive. 

Part of the very large display

Little Ladybug was not used to the late hour (8 p.m. our time but 11 p.m. for her).  She was also cold so I did my best to warm her up.  She isn't as small and light as he used to be!

Young son in full holiday mode (notice the scarf?)  Don't ask me about the Brony T-shirt.  It is a teenage thing.

Part of the display before it kicks into action.

Starting up!

Of course the flash takes the impact of the lights away but we do what we can with what we have!