2021 Life Logs, Day 338: The Lighting of the Falmouth Green

2021 Life Logs, Day 338: The Lighting of the Falmouth Green
Date: Saturday, December 4, 2021
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 41, Low Temp 33 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Today didn’t go quite as planned. Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Ollie were supposed to run the in the Jingle Jog this afternoon, but Jonah had a fever and that meant the Jingle Jog went by the wayside while Heather and Jed figured out their situation. The good news was that Jonah’s Covid test was negative. The bad news was that he was sick, so everyone decided to chuck the plans for the rest of the afternoon and evening and just stay home with Jonah and decorate their Christmas tree. But I decided to go ahead and go to the lighting of the Falmouth Green by myself.

The lighting of the Green is an annual event, except for last year due to Covid. The lighting of the Green happened, but you could only see it on Falmouth Community Television. When I arrived downtown this evening, cars were literally parked on every space available in town. It is always hard to find a parking spot, but it seemed especially so this evening. Then when I arrived at the Green, I was overwhelmed by the number of people. Again, maybe because I haven’t been in a large group of people since before Covid I am just imagining that it was more people than usual. Or maybe more people just decided to come out. I watched as the lights came on and the band started playing Christmas carols. It was an emotional moment for me. I felt so alone. I have never been to the lighting without Sam, Jonah, and Ollie and I really missed them. Then memories of this event in 2015 started filling my head. That year, Heather was in Paris for the Climate Conference and Jed flew out that afternoon for a work meeting in London. Mark and I had the boys, and in my memories, I could see Mark carrying Ollie on his shoulders all around the Green so that Ollie could see all the lights. He was such a little guy in 2015, only three years old. Then I saw the boys running down the Green to pose for a photo in front of Santa and his reindeer.

They wanted me to take a picture of them waving to mommy and daddy in Paris and London. I had to shake those memories out of my head and come back to the present to enjoy the singing. It was such a special ‘community’ moment.