This is how they do Christmas in Arizona.
I went to see the Luminarias at the Desert Botanical Gardens with my niece Heather and her kids Tatum and Brady last night. I'd been to the Desert Botanical Gardens before, but not during Christmas, not during the luminarias display. Besides the hundreds of beautiful luminarias lining all the walks (with real candles in them!),
and so many lights on the trees, we had fun searching out the big bugs scattered around the grounds, in amongst the cacti [→ damselfly]. The monster-sized bugs are a temporary display. My mind had trouble fathoming just how many hours it must have taken to get all the luminarias built and lit, and all the trees decorated. They had musicians scattered around the grounds as well. We enjoyed all of them, but especially the handbell choir, and the Native America flute. Tatum and Brady got to play bells for a few songs. The Arikara/Hidatsa/Mandan flute family was from a small town in North Dakota close to where Heather was raised - small world! It's country I've come to know well in my many recent trips to North Dakota, thanks to FEMA.
And tonight I went to the Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade in Tempe. I'd been to Lake Tempe during the day, but never before at Christmastime. There were over 60 boats in the parade. The reflections of all the lights on the shore, and the lights on the bridges, were pretty before the parade ever started. Then all these boats came drifting by, all lit up, most of them playing Christmas carols full-blast on their stero systems. It was all beautiful.
Oh, yeah. They had a short fireworks display at the end of the parade. I'm afraid after seeing the fireworks display-of-all-fireworks-displays at the IPG show in West Fargo, ND, last summer, any regular fireworks display is pretty ho, hum.
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