Christmas Tree Lane

        East Bay Supper Club is an FMCSF small group that meets every Monday for supper at a group member's house. They like to say that they were the “original” supper club, since their activities have spawned a San Francisco Supper Club and a South Bay Supper Club. Everyone knows that East Bay is the coolest, though. This week's meeting was at pastor Sheri Hostetler's house with her husband Jerome and their son Patrick. We started by sharing our favorite Christmas hymns.  The almost-unanimous decision was "Lo How a Rose," which a couple of people didn't know, so the whole group just burst into song.  It was like an episode of Glee, or something!  Then we all had some soup and talked about kids. Most of the people have kids, and one of the couples just announced that they were expecting, so a lot of the conversation tends to center around children. I didn't find that I had much to contribute, so I just ate my soup. I did find out, however, that one of Sheri's neighbors has parents that live in Wayland, IA, which is where my aunt and uncle are from! And it's a tiny town, like 500 people, so they probably know each other! How exciting is that?!

         Sheri and Jerome live on Thompson Avenue in Alameda, which is called “Christmas Tree Lane” during the winter, due to the FANTASTIC amount of Christmas cheer on their street. It's incredible, really. There are 50 families that live on the street, and almost every house (there are a few humbugs) is decorated within an inch of its life. The house next to Sheri and Jerome's has a light and sound display that alternates between “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which plays every half hour, and “The Nutcracker” which plays on the alternate half hours. So every fifteen minutes, there is a show. And the lights blink in coordination with the music. Jerome says it gets a little old after awhile. But it is very impressive.

         The street also has a Santa mailbox, and volunteers from the street write back to all of the kids who dump their letters in. Every night of the week, one of the dads or guys from the street dresses up as Santa (Jerome's turn is this Thursday), other people sign up to be elves to pass out candy canes, and still more people sign up to be crossing guards (Santa's sleigh is on a median, and a lot of cars full of rubberneckers drive by in the evenings). It's magical, it really is. It's like a chunk of the 1950s (complete with LCD lights and state-of-the-art timers) right in the middle of Oakland. And it's not even tacky or kitschy or anything!

         I was super dumb and forgot to take my camera with me, so here's a link to their Facebook page, where you can look at lots of other people's (inferior) photos - http://www.facebook.com/christmastreelane

Maribel and I hope to take the guests there this week so that they can see it, so maybe I'll be able to take some pictures there.