I love
living in a small town by a big city.
You get the best of both worlds—you get the Mayberry flavor of bumping
into friends wherever you go, yet you have access to Sacramento’s theatres,
museums, and downtown events. And it
doesn’t hurt to be an hour and half away from San Francisco.
Rocklin is
jam-packed with great schools, shopping, and restaurants, all just minutes from
my front door. They have tons of local
festivals and traditions, but my favorite is this one:
Yep, Santa
Claus takes time out of his busy schedule and rides through our neighborhoods
on the top of a decorated fire truck!
Happy kids, squealing and jumping, come pouring out of their homes as
elves distribute candy, and the whole thing feels like a sudden “Come as You
Are” party where neighbors hug and laugh, every one of us caught up in the
magic of Christmas together. It’s as if
the Candy Bomber swung over our houses and dumped a barrel of sweets into our arms.
Rocklin
also has several pockets where the neighbors have all agreed to decorate to the
hilt, as looky loos creep by in their cars, holiday music blaring. Here are some I photographed, not far from me:
I even
planted a dwarf Blue Spruce in my Rocklin front yard, just so I could string it
with big, old-fashioned lights, and have a living Christmas tree out there
every year.
When it
was smaller I festooned it with giant ornament balls, but I gave that up when
it grew too big, sort of the way those pot-bellied pigs get bigger than you
think they will. Every year I have to
add another strand. This year, even with
a ladder, we couldn’t reach the top and had to fling the wires like a
lasso. No problem. If I get stuck in the branches I’ll just call
the fire department. Maybe it’ll be
Santa who comes to the rescue.
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