Family lets Christmas spirit shine bright

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December 14, 2012

Family lets Christmas spirit shine bright

By TAMMIE TOLER Princeton Times The Zope Gazette Mon Dec 17, 2012, 11:07 AM EST

PRINCETON — Carol Lusk hopes her mom can see Christmas lights in Heaven.

For Carol and her family, decorating brightly for the holidays is an important part of making the season merry, but since she lost her mother, Christine Bailey, it’s also a labor of love borne in honor of a precious angel.

“We used to always joke with each other and say that whichever one of us got to Heaven first, we could just look down and see the glow from the other’s Christmas lights,” Carol said Wednesday.

Seated inside her Ridge Way Drive home aglow with icicle lights on every eave, comforted by a manger scene on the lawn and guarded by Santa and Mrs. Claus, Carol is keeping up her end of the bargain with the mother she lost two years ago.

“She loved Christmas so much. Christmas, of course, hasn’t quite been the same for us since she passed away, but we do the best we can. We know she’d want us to celebrate it just as much as we did when she was here,” Carol said.

As a child, Carol can remember her mother placing wreaths on the windows of their modest home. Money for decorations was hard to spare, when gifts and groceries had to be purchased for the family, but Christine “did the best she could.”

“My favorite Christmas memory would have to be the time she bought several wristwatches,” Carol said. “She wrapped them on Christmas Eve and put them under the Christmas tree. They were all ticking under the tree when we snuck in to find our presents. It just about scared us all to death.”

Later in life, Christine and her family — including husband Eugene and daughter Amanda Martin — made a tradition of getting together to deck their halls and houses.

“It takes a while to get everything wired up. That takes at least a day, and it takes us about a week, sometimes more, to get the lights up,” Carol said.

Although the lights change slightly each year, the Lusk family said the manger scene is always important, since their purpose in celebrating Christmas is to pay tribute to Christine and to celebrate their Christian faith.

“Jesus really is the reason for the season, which is why we like to celebrate this time of year whole-heartedly,” Carol said.

Amanda revels in the family atmosphere that surrounds the crew once the lights, totes and extension cords come out.

“It’s just good, quality time. We have more fun putting these lights up than any other time of the year I can remember,” she said.

Now that Amanda’s daughter, Olive, is in on the decorating act, the tradition is spreading even more.

Olivia loved the Claus couple, and she chose to spend much of the preparation time petting their soft coats and fluffy hair and beards.

Carol’s most memorable part of this year’s light-hanging session occurred when Amanda stretched and teetered to string icicle lights over the peak of the family’s garage — a challenge for the young mother who doesn’t even live in the house that could easily belong to the fabled Griswold clan Chevy Chase made famous in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

Eugene sheepishly admitted he preferred the door decorations, which sit atop a background of red foil on the front of the brick home.

“She changed it three times before she got it the way she wanted it,” he said.

As hard as they work to install the light-filled exhibition just off of Old Pisgah Road, the Lusks believe their effort is worth it when it brings happiness to others.

“We pray that our lights spread a little joy to a fast-paced world, where it’s so easy to forget the little things,” Carol said.

The Lusks definitely let their lights shine for their neighborhood and for Christine, each Christmas.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

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