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Special Holiday Edition 2016

BlueRibbonNews.com

About Blue Ribbon News

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ON THE COVER:

Santa makes a stop at the Rockwall Christmas Tree Lighting at The Center.
Photo by Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News. See more holiday photos on pages 8 and 9.

Read more at BlueRibbonNews.com

Blue Ribbon News, LLC

PO Box 967, Rockwall, TX 75087

info@blueribbonnews.com, 214-342-8000

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief:

Dawn Redig, dawnredig@blueribbonnews.com

Editor/Senior Reporter:

Austin Wells, Austin@blueribbonnews.com

Reporter/Staff Writer: Julie Anne White

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Contributing Writer: Patti Richter

Guest Columnists: Sheri Franza, Scott Gill

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As I sit here staring out the window,
thoughts of the upcoming Christmas
holiday filling my mind, a hot cup
of coffee burning my lips and filling
my nostrils with what can only be
described as the scent of happiness,
I feel inspired to tell something of
myself which probably not many people know –
I’m somewhat of a minimalist when it comes
to decoration.

Anyone who’s seen the inside of my apartment
wouldn’t be surprised by this confession. I literally
have maybe one decorative item on each wall, and
almost all of these items belong to my sister-in-
law. And there are some walls which have nothing
on them whatsoever. I’m also a little OCD when it
comes to clutter, as in I don’t like it and have hardly
anything left lying about on the floor. Needless to
say, there’s a very open feeling to my living space,
and I like that. Due to this obsession I seem to have
of keeping everything open and bare and avoiding
clutter at all costs, I’ve never been one to partake in
holiday decorating either, and if I do it’s usually the
bare minimum. It’s not that I’m a Scrooge and hate
holidays or anything; I just don’t like having a bunch
of stuff on the walls, the countertops,

tables, etc. Besides, normally I spend Christmas at my
parent’s house or some other family member’s house,
so I just never saw the need to give my apartment a
Christmas makeover.

Last year, however, a miracle happened: I finally broke
down and decided to spruce up the apartment for the
Christmas holidays. Nothing crazy, just a few simple
things here and there to give the place a Christmas
feel. I strung lights on the railing of my back porch,
and hung various ornaments (again courtesy my sister-
in-law, who’s a much better decorator than I could
ever hope to be) on the walls and of course on my
little Christmas tree. For reasons still unknown to me,
I chose a pale green and red for my two accent walls
when I first signed the lease, and come Christmastime
I always give myself a little pat on the back for that
accidental foresight.

This year, I had a lot of fun ideas come up in my head
about what all I could do to make my apartment look
like Christmas at the North Pole, and some of them
I managed to pull off. So I have this large mirror in
my bathroom, and I felt it was too perfect to run some
garland around it like a giant wreath. My Christmas
tree is bigger than any I’ve had since living on my
own (it’s a real tree, not artificial) and sits perfectly

in front of the window in the far corner of the living
room. Another exciting addition are Christmas-scented
candles which smell slightly like cinnamon (yum).

I seriously considered wrapping multicolored lights
around everything in the apartment, but the thought of
what that might do to my electric bill quickly pushed
the idea from my mind. Besides, the lights on my tree
and the bundle of string lights glowing within my
fireplace to resemble a fire (chalk that bit of genius up
to, yet again, my sister-in-law), coupled with the glow
from the Christmas candles, are more than enough for
me. It’s sure beginning to look a lot like Christmas in
here, and I couldn’t be happier about it!

Austin Wells

EDITOR’S NOTE