Getting the Tree and Nela Park, or, This is how traditions get started

7 foot Frasier fir on the way.

We got our tree last Saturday, which is unusually early. Bill's birthday is December 9 and the general rule since we got married has been never to decorate for Christmas until after that date. He feels, and I agree, that a lot of December birthday kids get gypped because well-meaning, overextended, deluded parents think that combining birthday and Christmas is a good idea. It's not. But this year the 9th was also a Tuesday, which meant that we either waited until the following weekend to get a tree, which would significantly lessen our chances of getting a good one, or do it early. Obviously, we had to do the latter. We always get a Frasier fir, because I like the shape and the needle quality (my parents were Douglas fir people, and the needles were just too bendy for heavy ornaments). We also always get it from the same guy, but we've had to follow him around Lyndhurst for a few years. He was next to a funeral parlor for a while, then the Methodist church on Green. Now he's in front of the Episcopal church on Cedar, next to that perpetually-in-construction synogoge near Legacy Village. His trees are good and reasonable--we've paid $72 the last 4 years that we can remember. This year we let the girls out to help and fortunately no Ralphie "Fudge.........." incidents occurred (come on Christmas Story fans, you know what I mean). Then we zipped through the drive through at Dunkin' Donuts, got Munchkins (for them) and hot chocolate (for us) and took the kids down Green and swung back up Noble in East Cleveland past Nela Park.

http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/education_resources/conferences/institute/fun_facts.htm

The display was great this year and the girls really enjoyed it. We turned around 3 times just so they could really get a sense of how pretty everything was. Ellie is very into lights this year ("where's more Chistmas lights?" is a constant refrain) so Nela was a winner. I'm proud that Nela continues to put the effort into this display. It never fails to impress me.

We'll take the kids Christmas light sight-seeing a couple more times this year because they are old enough to enjoy it. I love when I hear Emma squeal, "OOOOOOOOOOOOOH" from her back seat. That makes the whole thing worth it.