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Health & Fitness

Oh, The Happy Holidays!

The pros and cons of Christmas in dear Kirkland

THE HOLIDAYS make me think of a few thoughts! First, of all the dang kids are home for the two weeks, or at least it feels like two weeks. The kids start with "what are we going to do?" the first night.

Locally in this land of Kirkland we go and look at lights. The lovely homes in Houghton are a thought. The Kingsgate neighborhoods will not let you down with lights. The are so awesome and so very local. We always visit the to shop for any of the stocking stuffers. Also any , like the one in Totem Lake has the coolest stuff.

But to begin my beef with the Holidays is as follows: the decorations could be turned down a notch. I do love lights. I really do. But the inflatables have got to go. No disrespect intended but, when it is daylight, which is mostly when I drive by your house, these deflated pieces of plastic look too dorky for words. They're lovely and precious at night, but geez, during the day it's a bit like a bad movie set going awry.

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Also there are the families that put up like 5,000 lights. It takes over the neighborhood, it is amazing, then there is the lone house that has a string here, and maybe one there. It is weird they even put the energy out to put up the 30 lights. Not sure the thought process is there?

The super best event that happened to me this holiday season was being in . We bought my usual hummus there and a few other items and went to the cashier. The dude says "Hey, so don't run your debit card yet, 'cause the last customer left her change to Pay It Forward." It was $2.47. I was so unsure what he was saying, he told us twice. So we payed the balance less $2.47 and off we went. It was super awesome!!!

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I love love this trend in America, the pay off the layaway deal! I feel that we are on the way back, America! Life is good, the kids are home from school, we have the holidays to celebrate with our loved ones.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


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Amy Bray is a longtime resident of Kirkland who lives on Finn Hill, loves to volunteer and works at a local elementary school.

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