As I travel from mom’s house in Coconut Creek to dad’s house in Lutz (rhymes with “boots”), so does Chanukah fade into Christmas. Not only is my mom Jewish and my dad Catholic, but mom lives in very Jewish southern Florida while dad lives in very Christian central Florida. The change is palpable. Where there was once synagogues, there are now churches. Where there was once highrise condominiums with swimming pools and tennis courts, there are now run-down trailer homes with pickup trucks and gun shops. Where there was once menorahs in every window, there are now Christmas lights on every house. And dad was eager to take us on a tour of the town’s festive decorations.

The first half of the tour was lead by dad in his car. He took Jan and me all around town to show us the biggest and best Christmas lights and decorations on display in Lutz. I was in charge of video taping the tour. When we would approach a nicely decorated house, I was to pop up through the sun roof and start recording (you know, to get an unobstructed 360 degree view). We saw Christmas lights, plastic snowmen, nativity scenes, Christmas trees, giant candy canes, and these really freaky motorized reindeer. All the while he’d be chattering away. He didn’t really say much about the decorations or about who owned which houses. He sort of just went on and on about every random fact that entered his head. As he does.

Phase two of the tour was on foot and lead by Amanda around the immediate neighborhood. Dad had no desire to go with us, but commanded me to continue recording any interesting Christmas decorations we may stumble across. That way, he could watch the video later and see all of the pretty houses without having to actually walk anywhere. To make the project interesting for myself, I decided to narrate in the voice of Strong Bad and stage some random motorized reindeer attacks with the help of Jan and Amanda. We managed to make the 45 minute schlep around the block almost interesting.