The Arrival of a Florida Christmas

Garden department at Lowe's

Our first Christmas in Jacksonville is looming large for us. I had to snap this picture from one of our local home improvement stores. They are selling lots of flowers in pots outdoors along with evergreens and Christmas trees. At this time of year in Colorado, the garden shops are closed up tight and selling snowblowers, shovels, and ice scrapers. In conversations we've had with a few of the locals, I'm not sure they know just exactly what a snowblower is!

After we had signed the contract on our house last April, we discovered our new neighborhood makes a statement with the Christmas decorations and everybody is expected to participate in a big way. Although we've been putting out Christmas decor for many years, our display has never been what you would call a 'showstopper' so we felt intimidated about what we had got ourselves into.

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But we are doing our best to be good sports and play along while at the same time not compromising our focus on the significance of the season.

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There is one person who makes the yard signs and then we put on the lettering ourselves for the theme of our decorations.

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The imagination goes wild around here with some pretty clever ideas.

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My nighttime photography doesn't do the show much justice so I'll simply say people have done a great job of it.

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Be sure to note the big red apple and the ice skater in this one representing New York City.

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This one with the "marvelous" Christmas has blow-up Marvel characters that stand up in the yard at night, but during daylight hours they lay limp and lifeless on the grass.

This is our sign. I am  happy to report our yard is one of four in the neighborhood that features the Nativity.

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Here are pictures of our front porch taken in the daylight and at night. Joseph casts a big shadow on our dining room windows. 

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Internet photo

This illustration from the Internet is the idea we were aiming for with our Christmas theme.

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This is what our house (on the right)  looks like at night, combined with the neighbors.

I really like these giant light bulbs!

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On the Friday night after Thanksgiving, our neighborhood had a huge party in a cul-de-sac with food, lights, a warming fire, a hayride, music, a bounce house, and even a snow machine!

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The hayride... (blurry because it was moving)

One of our neighbors let his work car be used in the display for the party.

More pictures taken during daylight hours:

Late autumn/early winter looks entirely different to us here than it did in Colorado! We decorate fully-leafed out trees here!

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There are two of these hanging Santas on our street. I love them because many of us feel like we are barely "hanging on" during this season of lengthy "to do lists"!

Truth be told, Florida weather is probably more like how it was in Bethlehem when our Savior was born.

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I will be wishing my readers a wonderful Christmas all through this season. I hope you are able to take the time to reflect on the true significance of the birth of this baby that affects all of us for eternity.