The One with the Christmas Lights

My parents have a large window in their living room, perfect for staring out into the street. Of course I'm talking about staring out the window as a child, but it's just as true now, with my dad checking out every unfamiliar noise. One time, Patrick stared out the window the whole time we were waiting for pizza to be delivered. He was between the window and the curtain, staring. He was going to announce when the pizza arrived, so that Dad could get up and pay the guy and get the pizza. I'm pretty sure my parents had kids so that they wouldn't have to get up as much (smart). We were the remote control when our television still had a dial. When Patrick and I got older, Eileen inherited remote control duty. By then, my parents had the better TV without a dial (Dad reminded me that they had to upgrade their TV because of the Christmas Nintendo), but it still had no remote, so they would call Eileen in from another room to change the channel. On the night that the sentinel awaited the pizza man, Patrick was quiet in the curtains for a long time, then suddenly announced, "The pizza man!"... and Dad got up... "is NOT here!" Dad got up for nothing!

Underneath this same window was a small flat circle, midway between the window and the floor, that would sometimes fall out of the wall. Among the many make believe stories that my mom would make up for us, she told us that a bunny lived in that hole. At the time, the couch covered up that wall, but we'd crawl behind it, because we were kids and we fit in small spaces. We'd take the circle out of the wall, and Dad would tell us to put it back, because at some point, they must have patched it up, because there's no circle now. One time, we took the circle out and there was a drawing of a bunny in there, which my mom had drawn and put there.

I remember looking out the window when asking if we could go to Disneyland, probably as a result of a television commercial or the weekly Disney Sunday Movie (back when Michael Eisner and Mickey Mouse introduced the movie and the world was a better place). My parents totally passed off the blame of us not going to Disneyland by always answering that we would go to Disneyland when Tina got married, which we did. Thank goodness for Scott. 

I also remember looking out the window the many times that I asked if we could put up Christmas lights on our house. I don't remember their answer, but they never put up Christmas lights. Our indoor Christmas lights were big fire-hazard bulbs that eventually had to be replaced with modern Christmas lights, since they had dwindled over the years. We would use those bulbs for the nightlight in me and Patrick's room. That was actually fantastic, because I'd go down in the basement (probably because Mom and Dad didn't want to get up) and pick out the next color of nightlight bulb. What would it be this time? Red, green, blue... life was exciting!

When I went to California for Bible College, I was away from home for four months. I left the end of August. I saw my mom when she came out in October for the Pastors' Wives Conference (but mostly to see me). For Thanksgiving, Crystal and Adam gave me a ride to Arizona, where I spent the weekend with Joel, and met his grandparents for the first time. It was my meet-the-parents experience, because I had known Anne and JB as long as I'd known Joel. A couple weeks before Thanksgiving, Joel's sweet grandmother sent me a letter at school, saying how they were looking forward to seeing me, and they wanted me to feel right at home when I stayed with them. I did have a wonderful Thanksgiving with them, and they made me feel very comfortable at their house. When the Christmas break came in December, I was looking forward to being at my real home. 

I flew back to Missouri, and my family met me at the airport, back when you could meet someone at their gate, back when our view of terrorists was the Libyans that were after Doc Brown for stealing their plutonium. We drove home in the blue Chevy Caprice. As we turned the corner from Stephens Place to Fairway Court, I saw one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen... 

My home... and that window was decorated with a few strands of Christmas lights.