I was really trying to maintain a strict observance of the Season of Advent until Saturday night when my mother and I were steaming north on Redbud Trail after enjoying the Miss Buchanan Pageant in beautiful Buchanan, Michigan.
“Oh my,” I said, slowing suddenly and looking for a place to turn around.
“What?!?” Mom said. “Did you see a deer?”
“No,” I said, looking both ways before turning, “Something even better. Wait until you see this.”
And see it my 90-year-old mother did-the most amazing Christmas light display anywhere, right there on Little Glendora Road just west of Redbud Trail in Berrien County, Michigan.
“I tell you, Mom, we don’t have to go to Chicago anymore to see the big Christmas light shows. We have it all right here in our little corner of Michigan.”
And we do.
And so I am letting the Christmas Revels begin a bit early this year.
Why not?
And why not, after accidentally encountering such an amazing Christmas light show while driving my mother home from the Miss Buchanan Pageant.
Candles and Italian lights are the symbols of both Advent and Christmas. They sparkle and glow and tell us that something really, really, really, really, really big has happened and is happening in December when the sun seems to want to go to another galaxy and hide from the northern hemisphere.
Something big certainly happened Saturday night when Mom and I made our amazing discovery of the most amazing Christmas light show anywhere.
And this coming Sunday, on December 11, Mom is going to pound a royal staff on the stage and declare: “Let the Revels begin.”
And truly the Christmas Revels will begin at the Acting Theatre of Michigan City, Indiana on Sunday at 3 p.m. (CST) when Queen Hannah McKelvy decrees that they begin.
What fun!
And, if it snows, all the better, because we have a four-cylinder, enclosed Honda Civic sleigh in which to dash through the snow to the show.
Happy Advent Journey to all, and to all a Happy Christmas (when it comes!).