They're delicate like a butterfly's wings. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life, that you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting, while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries podcast.

Today I'm going to talk about my entry, our our family entry, into the city's holiday decorating contest and the judging this past week. It was quite fun, and then I'm also going to just mention our upcoming wedding anniversary. So if you've been listening the last couple of weeks, you know that I was intent on entering our city's brand new well and I guess it happened before. It wasn't brand new, but they didn't do it last year the holiday decorating contest, where they put out a call for residents and businesses to decorate and to enter the holiday decorating contest or the winter holiday decorating contest, however that goes. Anyway, knowing my preference for decorating the heck out of our front yard for Halloween and for Christmas, I was thrilled and I did submit an entry, a photo of our front yard. Now, it's really hard to capture everything in the front yard in one photo, but I did the best I could yard in one photo. But I did the best I could and we were entered. They were going to take up to 30 entries, but I think they only got 17. I think part of that is because it wasn't widely advertised. I don't know, it was only through a stroke of luck that I found it myself. Anyway, they have had voting online for the community favorite category, which was supposed to end yesterday, but I see that it's still up on their website, so I'm not sure when that's going to end. And then they have four other categories and then the judging was in person and that was supposed to happen last week.

I think the days changed in process, but there were two nights that they told me the volunteers were going to come out and they couldn't tell me which day. So of course they came the second night, not the first. I was on pins and needles on Wednesday night because I wasn't sure are they coming? Is that them? Are they here? I didn't want to miss them. They said that they would. Well, they said you'll hear us, so I assumed that they would be making a lot of noise. But our TV room, our den, is in the back of the house, so I was a little nervous about missing them. Anyway, they came the second night and, as luck would have it, bill and I had gone out in the front. The timeline was from 6 to 9 pm and so we had gone out in front.

I wanted to turn on some of the solar lights and some of the battery-operated lights just to make sure that everything was in place, and we went to sit in our car because it was so cold. We were sitting there looking at the lights and I was kind of making sure that everything was in place and the judging crew pulled up. It consisted of a police cruiser or a police SUV I guess it's the same thing, right. Suv, I guess it's the same thing, right. Then a big van that was decorated for Christmas and then another police SUV pulling up. They slowly went by and then they kept going and I turned around in the car. I was sitting in the seat and I said to Bill they're still going, they're not turning. Well, of course it was hard for them to turn around because there were three of them, and I said well, maybe there's somebody else up the street, because there's a big, there's several blocks of street, that goes up in the mountains, the hill above us, and there were no addresses on any of the properties that were pictured. Anyway, they did, they turned around and they came back and they parked and then people started pouring out of the vehicles. They were all dressed up with Christmas lights on their heads and their necklaces and stuff, and over the police loudspeaker I think it was a police loudspeaker I said we're here for the holiday decorating contest.

Woohoo, you know, and I live in a pretty quiet neighborhood, even though it was 630 at night. I was a little nervous about that, but nobody else came out. I don't know, maybe nobody else heard us, but about 15 people descended on our front lawn and they asked a lot of questions. They also asked a lot of questions about the tree, our redwood tree. Now I had done a whole episode talking about the tree. I know I talk about the redwood tree at certain times. And, yes, the tree, you know the tree is big, it always makes an impression and I've decorated part of the tree with big ornaments and so people were asking about the tree, they were asking about the decorations. They were asking about the tree. They were asking about the decorations. They were asking about the inflatables they were asking about. Well, somebody came up and said somebody here has a green thumb, commenting about all my plants.

There were people swarming all over the yard, all over the porch, which was a little bit decorated but still had some stuff on it. Luckily, I cleaned off all the empty boxes Okay, all the boxes from the lights, all my extra chewy boxes that I've been keeping things in, because I'm sure they saw everything and all my mistakes, anyway and they presented me with an envelope and they said it was just a small token of their appreciation. It was a lovely certificate, just a lovely certificate. I took a picture of it, but with my scanning app, but it doesn't really do justice to it. It's beautiful and they're just so much fun. They got back in to their vehicles and then they said, okay, thanks, tracy, over the loudspeaker Happy holidays, merry Christmas. And they all drove off.

So I had hoped that by now we would have known the results of the contest, but I still don't know the. I still don't know. Hopefully I will in the next couple of days or two. Maybe I will tonight. Anyway, the tree trimmer's out in front, of course, and the city's tree trimming today. And then the other thing that we're celebrating this week is that tomorrow is our 14th wedding anniversary for Bill and me. We were married in 2010 in Las Vegas. We would normally go to Las Vegas for our anniversary. We've done that most of the years, but this year we're not.

We haven't traveled in a while because mostly because of Bubby, our cat. Besides being diabetic and needing twice daily shots, he is an asthmatic cat and he needs daily medication for that. I put a transdermal ointment on his ear and he will let me give him shots. He'll also let his dad give him a shot, because Bill's pretty adept at giving shots, being diabetic himself. But it's pretty hard to find somebody else to successfully give Bubby a shot. I'm committed to staying home with my boy and taking care of him, taking care of Brownie and enjoying my front yard decorations.

I have to say that, even though I got everything up and the lights up and the inflatables up, I got, I think, 10 poinsettia plants. They're still doing well. They haven't dropped all their leaves or flowers. Pretty proud of that. I mean, I have a green thumb, but poinsettias are pretty tough because it's easy to overwater them or underwater them and they're delicate like a butterfly's wings. That's what I've found, and our weather's been so cold and then so dry and warm during the day, and they don't really like either one of those temperatures. Anyway, the poinsettias are still alive and I'm proud of that, but I've been able to refine some of the lighting that I've done from previous years and I just think it looks great. And I wish that Christmas was maybe an extra week away because I'm so proud of what I've done this year. If I don't win in one of the categories, that's okay, because to me I'm already a winner. Yeah, you got to just tell yourself that, but to me I'm already a winner.

And I've spent so much time in the front yard working on manicuring the plants and trying to keep the grass, or at least part of the grass, from dying, trying to keep the hedges growing with some water, because it's been really dry. It's been really dry Trying to keep the poinsettias up, trying to keep the inflatables balanced. That Saturday I went and worked in the backyard because I saw there were some extra leaves from the oak tree the neighbor's oak trees and before I knew it I had filled up one whole can garbage can greens can of leaves, garbage can greens can of leaves, and I was just thinking, you know, I don't really need two greens cans anymore. Well, that's yeah. There's just so many, so many leaves. So I did kind of get the backyard in shape because I've been ignoring it.

So so we get closer to the holidays, what am I going to talk about next week? It's going to be more holiday stuff, but whatever you're doing, whether you're enjoying the holidays or it's a stressful time for you please take care of yourself. Please be good to yourself. And yes, that's all I've got for today. Next week we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on and consider rating Only Child Diaries podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on and consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page Only Child Diaries or Facebook Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace and these are the Only Child Diaries.