Christmas in Austin, Texas

Like most towns during the holiday season, Austin brings out their festive lights. However, there are two areas in town known for displaying an awesome array of lights- 37th Street, and the Trail of Lights in Zilker Park.
Starting back in the early 80s, neighbors on 37th Street in Hyde Park came together to create a completely unique Christmas light experience that is creative, wacky, and fun- what today would be deemed as, “Keeping Austin Weird.” Resident Jamie Lipman began wildly decorating his home, and his neighbors followed suit. Discarded motorcycles have been wrapped in hundreds of lights, bushes were sculpted into automobiles (including headlights), BBQ cookout scenes were created, and several strands of lights crisscrossed the street. From the rooftop of one house, massive amounts of lights were strung, and every 5 minutes a volcano erupted with a cloud of smoke, and the lights turned red, mimicking lava pouring down a mountain. Lipman would go all out, decorating his front and backyard, with thousands of lights, and covering his home in black plastic to have his homemade creations show up better and brighter.
Though the street has gained national attention for its creativity, it has gone through many changes in recent years. Old residents have moved out, and a new crowd moved in. Even Lipman himself moved from 37th Street last year, though he has offered to come back and help set up his famous lights. Time will tell if the new neighbors will keep the spirit of 37th Street alive.
Boasting 300,000 lights, The Trail of Lights is put on by the city of Austin, and grows bigger every year. The Trail of Lights was originally named Yule Fest in 1965, and is a one mile strip of static and moving displays located in Zilker Park. “The 12 Days of Christmas” display was the first created, and still holds a prominent position at the beginning of the trail. Many of the beautiful craggy oak trees have brightly colored lights from the bottom of their trunks to the tips of their highest branches. Along with the 43 lighted displays, shops selling trinkets, hot food and apple cider dot the trail. A variety of local dance troupes perform on the entertainment stage, Santa holds court for a throng of youngsters, and a massive Yule log burns night after night.
For most visitors to the Trail of Lights, their trip begins or ends at the Zilker Tree. Located just south of the trail, the Zilker Tree stands 155 feet tall, and is not really a tree at all, but one of Austin s original moonlight towers. The towers were erected in 1894 as the city s first illumination system, and 17 of the original 31 still stand. The tree hosts 3,309 lights, and children and adults alike can be found underneath the tree with their heads up staring at the lights, and spinning in circles until they crash to the ground. This year s tree lighting ceremony will be held on December 2nd at 6pm, with the Trail of Lights open evenings through December 31st. If you are interested in Austin you can find information on Ki s Austin Real Estate Blog. Ki s site also is filled with information about the Austin real estate market along with a search of the Austin MLS for Austin Homes.

Top Resolutions for the New Year

It s that time of year again when we resolve to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. We all have different resolutions, but they all tend for fall into five categories:Get Healthy Get Financially Fit Self Improvement Improve Family/Relationships Improve Your Community
Get Healthy This is the most common category that our resolutions fall under, with losing weight being the most popular. Our goal may be to lose 20 pounds, get rid of that gut or to fit into those jeans in the back of our closet (it s been two years since we put those on!). We may decide to join the gym, diet for a month or change our eating habits to get and keep that weight off. We may have a fitness goal. The plan may be to get to the gym three days a week or walk/run fifteen miles a week. Maybe we are finally going to run that marathon!
Giving up or cutting back on one of our vices is another one of our most common resolutions. For those of us who still smoke, this is when we decide to give that up. Quitting drinking or drugs is another vice we try to get rid of as well. For some of us, caffeine may be our drug. This year, we are going to skip that third cup of coffee.
Get Financially Fit Finance seems to be on all of our mind this time of year. We ve all just spend more money on the holidays than we wanted to and are reviewing our finances from the past year. What happened to all that money? This coming year, we are going to save more money, spend less, pay off our debt, and get our finances organized so that we know where all that money went. We are going to setup a budget and stick to it!
Self Improvement All of our resolutions fall into this category for the most part, but we have specific goals to make us better. We want to get rid of those traits that we don t like; we are going to stop procrastinating and be more patient and relaxed. We are going learn to play the guitar, finally. And we are making resolutions to go back to school and learn something new. We all have something about ourselves that we are going to improve.
Improve Family/Relationships Spending more time with family and those that we love has always been important and at this time of year, we want more of it and we want quality time together. We want to stop arguing with our spouse and enjoy Date Night with them. We want Family Night with our kids once-a-week, breaking out the cards or monopoly. Talking to Mom every week and taking Dad out to lunch once a month is another one of our goals.
We are going to touch base with all of our friends more frequently. What has George been up to lately, we are all going to find out.
Improve Your Community We all want to make a difference in our community. We resolve to volunteer more time to help out at the local library reading to children, picking up trash at the local Clean the Park event or helping out at the local senior center.
Our vision isn t local anymore either; now we are trying to improve our planet. With global warming and environmental issues at the forefront of our everyday lives, we are resolving to do our part to improve our planet. Buying/using Green products is high on our to-do list. We are planning on buying hybrid cars, products with environmentally friendly packaging and energy efficient light bulbs. We are also resolving to change our habits by driving less, lowering the heater and taking shorter showers to use less water.
Let s hope we all follow through on our resolutions and improve life for each and everyone of us. Whatever your resolution is, good luck!
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