The holiday season officially began for me on Wednesday December 6 as I attended the Garland Noon Exchange Club’s annual Christmas Party for children.  It was an honor and pleasure to be a small part of helping 166 kids create some happy Christmas memories along with the Southern Belles, South Garland Football players, Naaman Forest Performance Choir and many Garland volunteers from various service organizations in our community.  December 6 was an especially appropriate day for this event since December 6 is the feast day of St. Nicholas who was the fourth-century bishop of a Greek province.  His reputation for piety inspired the tradition of leaving gifts for children on St. Nicholas Day.

The good heartedness of “giving back to others” permeated this event at all levels:  the adults from the Noon Exchange Club of Garland who organized, hosted and raised the funds for this event; the adults from many service organizations and individuals who assisted them; the youth from various high schools in our community who entertained and also assisted the younger students for whom the party was hosted. Then even the young guests themselves got into the act of giving back to others.  They colored and decorated cards and wrote messages of appreciation that will be sent to our troops overseas.

Volunteers from the Noon Exchange of Garland and other community service organizations at the Children’s Christmas Party hosted by the Noon Exchange Club of Garland – December 6, 2017

Some of the many student volunteers who entertained the children and assisted with making the event memorable for all

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December is also the month for saying good-bye to the flowers in our yards—except, of course, for the pansies.

Tonight (Thursday December 7, 2017) we are looking forward to our first hard freeze here in Garland as the temperature is expected to drop to 23 degrees.  That means, of course, that most of the flowers in my yard will be droopy and on the way to the compost pile in a few days.  I ran around this morning taking photos of them.

Here in Garland there is no such thing as “the last rose of summer”.  Our roses usually last into December.  The photos above I took this morning (December 7, 2017).

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GARLAND COMMUNITY HOLIDAY LIGHTING FESTIVAL

Next year, if you can’t make it to Rockefeller Center for that tree lighting ceremony, I recommend you stop by the Garland Texas square for our tree lighting ceremony.  I’ve been to both and I’m equally impressed.  But even if you missed all the fun and pageantry of the 2017 tree lighting in Garland tonight, you can still stop by any night from now through January 1 to view our beautiful animated light show on our downtown square.

Fireworks and Christmas Lights—the holidays could not be more exciting than they are here in Garland, Texas.

Experience the magic and beauty of the season:  Visit the Garland downtown square any evening between now through January 1, 2017.

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Speaking of lights, Charlie and I decorated my plum tree and a wire deer that a friend found curbside a few years ago and gave to me. That’s Santa Clause hanging on to the deer’s tail. December 7,2017