Every year at this time, you can see a myriad of lights and decorations outside and everyone has their tree up for the holidays. In the country here where the fall has taken all the leaves and when the days are mostly grey in color, the added color of the lights makes the heart grow warm as the twinkle of the them shine in our eyes.

A well decorated yard can take you back to the land of believing in Santa and Christmas. And decorating the tree together can bring families together.

If you are like me, my Christmas tree has decorations and pictures of Christmas pasts and it’s always a great joy to take these out of the box and look at them again. It gives you a trip down memory lane when the kids were younger, at a time when Christmas was at its most magical. A simple trinket can bring back a most special moment in time.

We are lacking the white snow this year so its a little darker than other years when the snow covered ground offered a bright white blanket, but the lights are still pretty just the same when you travel home at night.

I still occasionally park on the side of the road and have a hot chocolate while I watch someone’s display puts on a twinkling show quietly but brightly.

I am grateful for what warm feelings these decorations bring and also the fact that they break up what would be very long fall and winter months, especially that we get darkness shortly after 4  in the afternoon here.

So if you find yourself feeling down sitting in the dark, get yourself some twinkly lights and listen to Nat King Cole and let your spirits rise to a better place.

Or better yet, invite some friends or family over and decorate your space for the holidays. It should make you smile and reconnect you with the ones you love.