Anyway, back to the topic at hand, we went to Ice, which is an ice scultpure exhibit being held at the Gaylord Texan. We've always wanted to take a closer look at the Gaylord anyway, as it looks impressive just by driving around it. The exhibit was quite pricey at $20 per person for about a 30-minute walk through the ice sculptures, but it was very interesting as well.
Ghosts are getting ready for the holidays. Are you?
Scrooge, Tiny Tim and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future will greet visitors at a cul-de-sac on Parkrise Court in SpringPark, a neighborhood that straddles Garland and Richardson.
For residents on more than a dozen streets in SpringPark, choosing themes to dress up yards for the holidays has become a tradition.
Parkrise's theme this year, A Christmas Carol, features illustrations based on the 1962 Christmas special Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. According to block representative Kay Davidson, the street's lighted character illustrations and storyboards will be ready in time for the neighborhood's holiday lights competition on Dec. 15 and Holiday Hoedown on Dec. 17.
Winners will be announced at the hoedown, which is one big party for residents at the clubhouse with the roasting of marshmallows; a band; Santa; and free chili, hot dogs and homemade desserts. Ms. Davidson is excited about her street's participation.
"We're very competitive. And I think we're going to win!" she says.
Considering the plans for a dozen or more themes on other streets, Parkrise may have some stiff competition.
Lake Shore Drive is going full steam ahead with about 30 train decorations (including a train car transporting Noah's Ark) animating its "Lakeshore Express" theme, now in its third season. According to block rep Cindi Wakefield, all the participating houses are linked by a double strand of rope lights representing railroad tracks.
Mountain Ash Court is also going with a time-tested favorite, " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas," which will be highlighted by a manger scene.
Marla Howard, block representative for Newfield Court, says her street will illustrate the history of the candy cane with red and white lights. She enjoys the camaraderie of neighbors hanging out together and talking and laughing while putting up their decorations.
Ms. Howard says her 11- and 15-year-old daughters always look forward to the hayride to the hoedown at the clubhouse. And they get to enjoy the colorful yard displays along the way.
SpringPark comprises homes in Garland and Richardson. The neighborhood is off Jupiter Road, north of Campbell Road and south of Lookout Drive. From Central Expressway, head east on Campbell to Jupiter and then north on Jupiter. Entry to the neighborhood is at Jupiter and Springpark Way. Most displays will be on from about dusk to 10 p.m. on weekdays and later on weekends until New Year's.
– Bindu Varghese
Other themed streets
• Buckethorn Court "Stars at Night Are Big and Bright," with a large arch welcoming visitors. Decorations include stars on houses and hanging from trees.
• Cottonwood Court Frosty the Snowman.
• Cross Timbers Lane East Gift boxes, with a big box by each participating house and a sign elaborating on what the box contains (for example, peace, love and charity).
• Debra Court Patriotic theme, with peace trees lighted in white.
• Greenleaf Court "An Old-Fashioned Christmas," with wreaths and bows on participating houses.
• Newburyport Avenue "Stars," with a star on each participating house. The street's cul-de-sac has a Christmas carol theme, with each participating house reflecting a different song.
• Silver Maple Court Santa on vacation, with decorations such as Santa playing golf.
• Vista Ridge Cartoons, with cutouts of Snoopy on his doghouse, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester and Tweety Bird.
• Wheat Field Road "Amber Waves of Grain," featuring all-gold light displays.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
'The Kolors of Kessler' in Kessler Park
OAK CLIFF
For a diverse group of residents in an equally diverse area of Dallas, holiday spirit is one thing that brings people together. This year, the Kessler Park neighborhood of north Oak Cliff is celebrating diversity by expanding its community lighting display, with the colored lights signifying diversity. Volunteers were recruited to decorate trees on about a third of the neighborhood's 22 traffic triangles or parkways. "The Kolors of Kessler" features live and artificial trees of various types, each decked out in a different lighting scheme, along Colorado Boulevard, Winnetka Avenue, Clinton Avenue, Kessler Parkway and Canterbury Court. The largest tree, at Clinton and Canterbury, was the focal point for the neighborhood's Dec. 3 Christmas festival and is near one of the area's heaviest concentrations of home lighting displays. Ron Veech, chairman of the holiday lighting committee, estimates that about half of the residents of Kessler Park install outdoor Christmas lights, so there's plenty to see on a leisurely drive. "Christmas provides our residents an opportunity to showcase the neighborhood," Mr. Veech says. "We enjoy decorating with lights and welcoming others to visit the area."
– Kara Kunkel
• Christmas lights along the streets and at individual houses can be seen nightly in Kessler Park through at least the first week of January. Most of the lights are on between nightfall and about 10 p.m. Kessler Park is in north Oak Cliff, just south of Interstate 30 at Sylvan Avenue. The neighborhood extends roughly from Interstate 30 on the north side to Stewart Drive on the south and from Plymouth Road on the west side to Sylvan on the east.
A very Texas Christmas in Glenbrook
BEDFORD
Texans often put their own spin on the holiday season. For the last 16 years, homeowners in the Glenbrook neighborhood in Bedford have used the lights theme "The Night Before Christmas – in Texas, That Is," based on a 1951 poem by the late Leon Harris, a well-known Dallas retailer and author. In 1998, Mr. Harris attended the neighborhood's lighting celebration. In addition to the lights display, his parody of Clement Moore's A Visit From St. Nicholas has inspired a children's book and a song. In Glenbrook, eight storyboards, which have been refurbished to make them easier to read, recount the tale of the Santa who wears a cowboy hat and speaks with a drawl. While only eight homes feature the storyboards, other houses (all with red lights) show off lighted figures and props such as a cabin with bunk beds, cowboy boots (not stockings) and horses (not reindeer). And while you usually won't find any snow here, there are plenty of longhorns, cowboys, cactus plants and armadillos, some of which are pulling Santa's sleigh. Only in Texas, y'all.
– Toni Edwards
• Weeknights from 6 to 10 and weekends 6 to 11 p.m. through Jan. 1. From Airport Freeway, exit at Central Drive and go north to Cummings Drive, west to Brookside Drive and turn south into the Glenbrook neighborhood.
'Lollipop Lane'
RICHARDSON
Some Richardson residents call it Lollipop Lane. It looks more like Gumdrop Gardens. Red-, green-, orange- and blue-lighted squares, which resemble shoebox-size gumdrops in the grass, line the sidewalks and dot the landscape of several homes on Opal and Kirby lanes. One of the houses features mammoth red and white lollipops and candy canes – perhaps that's where the Lollipop Lane nickname came from. One thing is for certain: The folks in this Richardson neighborhood must drink a lot of milk. The illuminated gumdrop menageries are made of cut-off bottoms of plastic milk jugs, which are used as lampshades over strings of C-9 Christmas light bulbs to create the fantasy candy effect. Driving through the neighborhood, we couldn't help but wonder, "Who drank all that milk?" Also, several other streets in the neighborhood, to the south and east of the intersection of Floyd and West Arapaho roads, have some fun displays.
– Nancy Moore
• Opal Lane is off Floyd Road, one block south of West Arapaho Road.
'To Christmas With Love' in Old Town
ROCKWALL
Christmas ornaments magically come to life in Bonney Miller's book, To Christmas With Love. The tale provided the inspiration for a lighted holiday drive in the Old Town neighborhood in Rockwall. Residents painted wooden figures representing the ornaments, ranging from a star to a donkey, for 11 yard displays that are accompanied by poetry from the book. The tour, which begins near State Highway 66 and Parks Avenue, covers about seven blocks, and some of the historic homes along the route are decked out with additional lights. The neighborhood usually hosts a holiday home tour, but residents opted for a light display this year instead.
– Ann Pinson
• The lights go on nightly around dusk through Dec. 31. From the intersection of State Highway 66 and Parks Avenue, go north on Parks and follow the signs for the tour.
'The 12 Days of Christmas'
LAKE HIGHLANDS
Donna Jenkins grew up on Southwood Boulevard near the University of Texas at Arlington. She fondly remembers how her neighbors would coordinate their holiday lights to visually represent the song "The 12 Days of Christmas." Nine years after she and her husband, Steve, built their house on Timberhollow Circle in 1980, "we realized that we have 14 houses on the street," she says. "The idea came back, and it was just right." So after talking with the neighbors, they raided a children's book for images to make into yard signs. "We had a projector, so we blew up the figures and painted them in our garage. It took two nights, all night on both." Now a 16-year tradition, the cul-de-sac's modest, charming display (the two corner houses serve as intro and end points) attracts plenty of local foot and car traffic and is cohesive despite an almost complete turnover of homeowners within that time. "We've never said, 'Put your stuff out,' " she says of the yard signs, which transfer to the new owners whenever one of the houses sells. "We've never had to have any meeting. Everybody just puts them out, and it's great neighborhood fun."
– Mike Daniel
• Timberhollow Circle is in the Oak Highlands Estates subdivision. The entrance is one block south of Royal Lane off Abrams Road; from there, take a left on Moss Haven Drive, and the display will be on the right. The display lights are on from sundown until about 9 p.m. through December.
"Before" pictures...
Living room. Carpet may have been original with the condo, about 40 years old.
Living room and primary bedroom.
Guest bedroom. Apparently previous owner painted around furniture which was against the wall. Partial view of shades which were the existing window treatment in the bedrooms.
Bathroom. First picture shows the window treatments in the primary bedroom.
Everything seemed to take longer than I thought it would. As an example, there was a wire lath behind the dry wall at some places, and therefore, it was difficult to drill through. Also, often it seemed there was concrete behind the wire lath. I hope nothing I put up will be falling down!
As another example, changing a door knob should be simple, right? Well, the old door knob I was replacing on the back door was the type where the screws to remove the door knob are not visible, and one must stick an object through a slot in order to be able to release the inside door knob. However, it seemed it was rusty, so I could not remove the door knob, so I tried to rip it off with the limited tools I had on hand. Eventually, I got to a point where I could find where the release should allow the door knob to be removed and I was able to apply enough lubricant to get it to release the door knob. Then when installing the door knob, I thought it might be nice to have a lever door knob. However, the stores seemed to be out of the left-handed ones, but when I looked at the picture, it seemed that a right-handed one should work. After I started to install the door knob, even though by the picture, a right-handed door knob should work, the picture (or drawing I should say) on the box was assuming that the door is opening to the inside, not outside. In the case of my mom's door, it opens to the outside. Therefore, to install the door knob so that the keyed door knob is on the outside, that meant I would have to install the door knob upside down. So I had to go back to the store and get one which was independent of which side the door knob should go. Then, when I get the door knob installed, I find that it does not latch properly. The hole in the frame does not seem to be in the right spot but since it was an aluminum frame, I had to find something which I could use to cut through it. I tried a combination of a jab saw and jig saw. Obviously a recipricating saw would have been best but did not one to buy one just for this purpose... I was eventually able to make the hole big enough so the door would close properly.
I used http://www.tadalist.com for keeping track of things to do in Florida. Not that the following is accurate, but the following is based on the To Do list which I created. It had to be modified many times to adjust to our schedule based on problems... I mean challenges I encountered along the way.
On November 6, Soda-san had a grand opening event for the new location of Sushi Sake. I had not been to a grand opening event where the owner was giving free food to the patrons, especially not sushi! It was great (and extremely popular).
Normally in such an event in Japan, one takes a modest portion of the food (since it is free). However, apparently, many people were going back for multiple servings. No one made a fuss about this 'faux pas' behavior. 
