I always feel like the holidays have begun once my husband hangs our lights. They lend a festive air to dark nights, and I love cozily reading by the fire, dogs on my lap and lights shining through the windows.
I was a teenager during the years Anchorage was known as the City of Lights and Flowers and it’s always stuck with me. I love how the flowers downtown add a riot of color and texture to sidewalks and parks during the summer, and in the winter, especially snowless winters like this one, twinkle lights brighten the night.
This year, Anchorage Downtown Partnership and AEDC’s Live. Work. Play. initiative are bringing the “City of Lights” theme back (it was shelved for a few years due to budget constraints) with a downtown focus. Meant to increase safety and walkability, the extra light will also lend a celebratory feel to spending time downtown. Lights will be going up at businesses during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and will last through the end of Fur Rendezvous.
For a bit of extra fun, we all get to vote on our favorite light display – online voting will be available during December. I already know my favorite… the lights I’m looking at as I type this! After our Thanksgiving feast is complete (countdown: two hours! OMG I have so much left to do!) and guests have been sent home with piles of leftovers I’ll be curled up in my softest pair of pjs, slipping into a red wine and tryptophan daze, watching the lights and feeling grateful for all of the wonderful things in my life (including all of you!).
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
