Why I Oughta...

This year, after a couple of years off, we brought back our front yard Christmas tree.  You can see it in the photo below, along with our guy Santa and three of his reindeer.  This is the second year for these blowmolds being up on tomato cages and they look great .   It appears that this is only the second year that we put up a front yard tree since we moved to Downers Grove.  That first Christmas - back in 2017 - we had one (here) .  But, I can't find posts from 2018 and 2019.   This year, Nat tried to get some of our neighbors to do a tree in their own front yards and we saw a few of them do it - which is really nice.  We always loved Indiana Street being lit up with these trees. Here's the history of our front yard Christmas Trees over the years on the blog: 2020 - this post showing the tree and our blowmolds are back. 2017 - our first year in Downers Grove, I picked up a little tree at Menards for the front yard . Here's the photo and post from 2016 when we were at Vic

We brought just a little bit of Indiana Street with us to Downers.  Over the weekend, we put up our trees inside the house, but we also went to Menards and bought a small 5' Fraser Fir to put up in our front yard.  Just like we did on Indiana Street.  Starting with our first Christmas in Elmhurst (in our first house), we participated in the tradition of erecting a 'front yard tree' along with our neighbors.  My sister Vic told us about the tradition before we moved in and sure enough, we fell in love.  The street(s) always looked so great when all of the homes had a uniquely-styled and lighted tree.  You can see the C7 bulbs I put on our tree this year out in front of our #newoldfarmhouse.  Nat did a great job doing 'classy' decorations on the porch with garland and lights.  And wreaths in the windows that you can see above.  So, while we have moved out of Indiana Street, we still wanted to bring some of that tradition with us in our new digs.  So, right no

Last night, Indiana Street in Elmhurst looked like a winter wonderland.  With the big snowfall, we went out to clean the sidewalks and driveway and while I was out there, I snapped this photo of our Front Yard Tree.  This is the seventh Elmhurst Front Yard tree that I've posted on the blog and the second one in front of Vic and Equation Boy/Man's house down the street from our old place. Although you may not be able to tell, this year's tree is a really nice-sized tree in terms of height.  I put one strand of C9 LEDs on it, but Nat didn't think it was bright enough, so she went out and picked up two more strings of C9 LEDs and now there's 150 lights on that thing. Here's the post showing our 2015 tree out front of Equation Boy/Man's house. Here's the post from our 2014 tree out front of our old house (sad face). Here's my post from our 2013 tree . There's no snow in the photo of our 2012 tree . Here's my post from our 2011 tree .

Same tradition - different house.  Here's a photo of the Elmhurst front yard Christmas tree that we put up at Equation Boy/Man's house where we've been living since August.  (Equation Boy/Man took that photo above, btw.) I've posted about these trees before here on the blog, but this is a really nice Elmhurst holiday tradition.  Each fall, the Elmhurst School District runs a fundraiser where you can buy a tree for $19.  It is organized by a block captain who puts out the order forms and collects all the money.  They then 'host' a little get-together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving where all the trees get dropped off for the neighborhood. Our street does a really good job of participating - maybe the best around town?  Anyone else want to stake the claim as best front-yard-tree-street in Elmhurst? Here's the post from last year's tree out front of our old house (sad face). Here's my post from our 2013 tree . Don't seem to have posted

As we've done since we moved in, we participated in the annual Elmhurst front yard Christmas tree tradition where we - along with our neighbors and folks all across town - erect small trees in our yards and light them up for everyone to see.  It's a really nice tradition and we have a particularly active block as almost everyone had a tree up. The full story is here in this post on our 2011 tree - which shows the sad state of snow that winter and looked a lot like this year's would have if I snapped the photo around Christmas. Here's my post from our 2009 tree . Here's my post from our 2010 tree .  Here's my post from our 2011 tree . Don't seem to have posted our 2012 tree. Here's my post from our 2013 tree .

I don't seem to have posted on our Front Yard Tree in 2012, but above is the photo (made #autoawesome by Google) of this year's tree. The full story is here in this post on our 2011 tree - which shows the sad state of snow last winter.  We're already ahead of last year's total it seems. Here's my  post from our 2009 tree . Here's my  post from our 2010 tree .   Here's my  post from our 2011 tree .

Sure, it is after Christmas.  But that doesn't mean we shouldn't document our annual Front Yard Christmas tree, right? Here's the post showing last year's .   Here's 2010's version with snow !

Every year, a number of folks around town participate in what I call the " Elmhurst Front Yard Christmas Tree Tradition " - where we put up small(ish) Christmas trees in our front yards and light them up to celebrate the season.  Above is a photo of our tree this year.  You'll note that most of the lights are off to the side (on the bottom left of the tree) - and that's because I was taking the tree down today and realized that I hadn't take a photo of the tree to post!  So, mid-disassemble, I grabbed this photo - to mark the annual tradition before I shipped it off to the curb. Here's my post from our 2009 tree . Here's my post from our 2010 tree .   I kept putting this off, thinking that I'll wait for snow to be on the ground to make it a bit more seasonal.  That snow never came. The trees are $17 and are a fundraiser for the Elmhurst School District.  One of our neighbors organizes it ever year and distributes slips of paper to each of ma

Just like in years past, we not only have a tree in our living room, we also have a smaller one out in the middle of our front yard.  Our front yard, you ask?  Yup. It is a fundraiser for the school district and they drop the trees off for our block on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Not everybody puts one up - there might be a person or two who are Grinches, but for the most part, the entire block participates. This year, I arrived early at the tree pickup and grabbed a tall one.  Everyone puts the old-fashioned C9 lights on them - we use the big ones, but in LED bulbs. There is a lot to like about Elmhurst, but this small tradition is one more reason to like living here - the sense of community around the holidays is nice and makes the season a bit more merry and bright. For reference sake, here's our other yard trees: 2009 Front Yard Christmas Tree

Going out to the curb with today's trash is our "second" real Christmas Tree.  The one in the house that we cut down after Thanksgiving went out last week, but we've had another one outside our house - in our front yard that was lit for the final time last night. Elmhurst has a nice tradition of putting "front yard trees" in for the holidays - and our street participates in an especially strong fashion - almost every house buys a tree and lights it up for the Christmas season. I'm (nor is my sister who lives also lives on the block) not sure where or when the tradition started, but in most parts of town, there's pockets of these real, fresh cut trees that spring up in late November.  The trees are a fundraiser (I think) for the grade school district.  They send around a flyer a few weeks early where you order them - they cost $17 a piece.  You have to go get a big stake (ours from Ace Hardware) and wrap the trunk to the stake so it won't tip