snaps on saturday

Snaps On Saturday?  
(not!) 
These pics were taken on Sunday December 22nd, the first night TheNiece had arrived in town (and so begins my little photo tour of what we did during her visit, which will span the next few posts).

The night she arrived we all (we all being: me, TheNiece, MyFavoriteKid, and TheMostImportantGuy) headed to our favorite local sushi joint.  As we exited the freeway, I took a look to the right to make my turn onto the main drag, and my heart stopped. It was only dusk, yet the sky was completely aglow, a big blob of lights poking out from between a few trees several blocks away.  We went right past the sushi place and followed the lights like little flies...and there it was. A house decorated like none other. We drove around the block with out mouths gaping, but kept going and made a commitment to come back after dinner when it was dark for a closer look.

What we had stumbled upon was Christmas Lights Vallejo:

The most lights I have ever seen per square inch. It's a single family house, and these folks live on a corner lot, so it even wraps around.  There are lots of moving parts, like a ferris wheel and a merry-go-round. You can walk through the whole display. Christmas music is playing, and a couple of times a week, Santa is there for photos. It's all done by this sweetheart of a retired guy and his lovely wife, and one of them always stands on the porch handing out candy canes. He said last year they ordered over 18,000 candy canes and they ran out before the end of the season.

We had no friggin' idea this was happening right here in our little town.
Amazing.
It would absolutely bring the spirit of the holiday into any grinch-y little heart!!