Christmas in our family has always been a magical experience. Growing up on a farm and spending the holidays with my grandparents in the big city of Houston was like a dream come true. My grandparents  did their best to spoil us, stocking their house with what seemed like endless Dr. Pepper, Blue Bell ice cream and fresh donuts from the Shipleys store down the street.

Their cul-de-sac was transformed during the month of December as each house lined their yard with large strands of lights covered with red solo cups creating rows and rows of little red gum drops. At the entrance to each house’s sidewalk stood walk-under silver star wrapped in a strand of large red lights and sliver tinsel garland. This star was the gathering place for many family photos and yearly Christmas memories and just happens to be the inspiration for my last Christmas project of 2012.

I started with a small star made out of popsicle sticks and then moved on to the lights.

I found these bulb shaped ornaments at Hobby Lobby half off last week and I knew they would be perfect for this project.

I filled each one with a small amount of red craft paint. . .

. . .and swirled it around until they were all coated.

I then grabbed my trusty globe vase (which I commandeered from my grandparents house) and set to work filling the bottom with Epsom salt and intertwining the light bulbs with silver tinsel garland.

The star got a quick coat of silver spray paint and I called it good.

**Update**

I know a lot of you have been wondering about the original star on Martin Road so over the holidays I dug up a few old photos. Here are a few of our traditional star photo from 96 or 97, enjoy!