My absolute favorite thing to do at this time of year is ...

My absolute favorite thing to do at this time of year is to walk around my neighborhood and appreciate all of the time and effort my neighbors put into their amazing holiday decorations. Sometimes Brooklyn is a place prone to displays of excess, and the Christmas displays never disappoint.

In case you didn’t know, it’s Christmas

When I was a little girl, for a while we lived on a block in Illinois on which our neighbors had an elaborate Snoopy & Peanuts Christmas display with life-sized wooden cut-outs of characters skating around an ice skating rink. It would take that family an entire Saturday afternoon in early December to set up the decorations, complete with colored lights scaling 15-foot trees and silver garland wrapped around their front doorway. I was in awe of that house, and liked to fantasize that the ice skating scenario on that lawn was real.

I’ll post some more pictures of the night displays from around my neighborhood. They really make this week a special time of year.