A Belated Holiday Post.

For the past few years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of inflatable lawn Christmas decorations around town. Shannon and I generally prefer to keep things simple and stuck with our simple house trim lights. Until last year. That is when, primarily for the benefit of the almost 2 year old Wesley, we got a couple lit reindeer for the lawn. Then came this year. Wesley's appreciation for lawn Christmas decorations had reached a new high. It seemed everyone in our neighborhood had inflatable lawn decorations. Wesley and I began to go on walks after dinner every couple of nights just to go see his favorites. Afternoons were peppered with questions like "train up?" or "peekaboo Santa up?", referring to whether his favorite neighborhood decorations were turned on and inflated yet. Needless to say, Shannon and I broke down and bought an enormous inflatable lawn decoration for our own front yard. It was a Christmas train, which an absolutely exhilarated Wesley immediately named "Gordon" (a name he got from one of his favorite shows, "Thomas and Friends"). Days after that were spent answering questions about when the train would "go up", and naps were taken only with the assurance that the train would be inflated when he awakened. Sadly, this vacation in paradise for Wesley ended when his father decided taking down decorations a few days after Christmas was a good idea, only to watch the rest the neighborhood keep their decorations up for an additional two weeks. Next year I will be taking them down in July. My neighbors will hate me, but I will have the happiest boy on the block.