My Neighbors' Christmas Spirit

My neighbors ... I like our neighbors, but they seem to be a bit, uh, odd. My sister's best friend, who still lives a couple houses down from us, calls them a derisive name which I don't remember. I don't think they're that, whatever that is. What I do know, from what I've observed, is that they're a large bunch, they have a lot of cars on the driveway, and they're a group that doesn't care about, let's just say, the social graces. That last point was driven home -- actually parked home -- when I came home one night and saw that there was a gathering at their place. One of the people who drove over decided to park on the front lawn.

But they are nice people, from the couple interactions I've had with them. And that point is driven home this Christmas season. They have this inflatable snowman that has lights and can rotate. I've seen it working, and I've seen it when it's totally deflated. Poor snowman looks all ragged, flat on the grass.

Come to think of it, there's a chance they turn it off intentionally, when it's too dark to keep it on, for example. I was thinking that the snowman gets blown around by the wind so much that it deflates on its own, but the family continues to pump it full of air again so it can be lit up and rotate again. And when it's knocked back down, they'll go outside again and pump it back up.

Either way, unintentionally or intentionally, reinflating that snowman shows that they are determined to show their Christmas spirit. And that's a good thing.