The Observation Deck

Good evening.

I'm not sure how many here remember my Jack o' lanterns wearing Santa hats last year, but those guys didn't make it through St. Patrick's day. (When we went with the green derbies.)

Here's this year's version. Our new ghosts are now wearing the Santa hats. I tried to find tiny ones for just their heads but I think this is working out better.

I believe they are ONE OF A KIND!

We'll see how they hold up in snow.

Betsy Voinovich


This is from the first top secret experiment.


Close up.


A successful transformation from Halloween to Christmas. (Which seems like it happened in about two weeks.)

Driving around, it is always fun to see what people do with lights, during the Christmas
Season. You can tell some people are really into it, and love it and have a plan.







Just as impressive to me, are the people without the plan, or the time or the enthusiasm
but still put up "the strand" or "the decoration"








.

Happy Two Days After Christmas!

It's raining on the edge of snow. This is the weather that makes me appreciate lights at night the most. This train was the first thing we saw, the first night we went to close on our new house which we finally took possession of two weeks before I had my first baby. It was not the best time to move into a house, but I felt that the train was welcoming me, and certainly any children that would be inhabiting my house. That was 12 years ago, and waiting for the Christmas train to go up has always been a big part of my kids' lives.

This is what it looks like in the daytime. Our neighbors don't mind having weird-looking bushes all-year-round.


This is what it turns into at night, from the same angle.


This angle is the more exciting one, because all of the wheels turn, and you can see Santa and all of his riders more clearly.


From what I've heard, this train has been running for more than twenty years, well past the first generation of kids in this house to grow up. When I was talking to the people on Chase who put up the amazing Halloween display, they knew all about the Christmas train. In fact when I told them where I lived, they said, "The Christmas Train street!" A gift from our neighbors that keeps on giving.

Betsy Voinovich

I lived diagonally across the street from the "train house" for almost 5 years. The headlight was a guiding light for several night trips home from an active Lakewood social nightlife. I have to admit that some of the nights the train practically drove through my front room window, or so it seemed.

The family at the "train house' does an amazing job with holiday spirit and are fantastic people, and were great neighbors year round. Ahh, if only I could write about some of the stories from before parenthood.

Nowadays, my kids like to find our old house when we drive down the street by looking for the train.

Corey