"It's a String Thing" Christmas Eve 2013

It is Tuesday and truly your Good News day!

In honor of the happy days ahead, the challenge this week will be posted on Thursday, December 26 and extended to Sunday, December 29.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of how we have come to celebrate Christmas on our street.
Seven years ago, I approached our neighbor Walt about doing a decorating project for our entire street - to make story boards for the Christmas story and have our neighbors display them in their yards.

In typical Walt fashion, he provided the materials, manpower to cut the boards to my pattern, and supplied most of the lights to illuminate them.  My husband figured out a way to fit them all on our back porch so neighbors could stop in to help paint the outlines and illustrations.  I painted the lettering to keep the message uniform.

There are a total of 24 boards that contain verses from the second chapter of St. Luke's gospel. Most of the houses on our street have one displayed on the front lawn.

There are many blessings that have come from this tradition - people from all faith backgrounds participate, a steady stream of cars come by in the evenings, children read aloud to their families, vans from nursing homes and churches come through.  It has united our street.

Here is a photo of me with the twenty-fourth sign in the sequence just to give you a sense of the scale:

And here are the signs freshly varnished and set up in Walt's driveway before they were placed in the yards:

 ...and one set up next door:

Christmas blessings to everyone from our street to yours!