The Van Zante Family: Christmas Star

For the first few years that Josh lived here, Josh had a tradition of lighting a giant 10-foot (or so) star that was positioned atop our 80-foot silo every year at Christmas. Thanksgiving night was traditionally the evening it was turned on and it would stay lit every night until a few days after Christmas. We continued to do it after we were married, too. Until one year the existing Christmas lights that were strung around the star had grown too brittle and old to light anymore. We missed a couple of years due to the lights being gone, but this year the star is back up and will be running in four days! All this thanks to a terrific deal I got on an after Christmas sale at KMart last year: several boxes of outdoor, commercial size lights for not even the price of one box full price. ( I love sales!)

And this is the story in pictures of our beloved star and the renewing of the tradition:

The Mission: To replace the hundreds of Christmas lights on the star atop our silo.

How to do it: Send your husband up the silo with a rope tied around his waist to let the star back down with once he gets up there. (By the way, this is quite the workout!)

Almost halfway there!

This is what the view is from right beneath the ladder on the side of the silo. For the first several yards, the climber climbs on the rod rings around the silo. The rings then turn into a ladder with a cage around it. The cage only helps if the climber decides falling backwards is a good idea... its not much use if falling straight down is the climber's thrill of choice. But as Josh says, it helps mentally knowing that something is around you "just in case".

He made it! Can you see him? Now to wiggle the star free to let it down far enough to tie the rope around the top point and then let the big guy down.

Its getting loose!

Remember that this is eighty feet in the air. Doesn't sound bad, but when you get up right next to the silo and look up, it looks like forever. Josh says there's no butterflies in his tummy when he's up there. I know there would be some...many!.... in mine!

Meanwhile....
....the kids are getting bored waiting for the action to start with the lowering of the star. They've seen Daddy up the silo many times, so that is no longer thrilling. To make time go faster, they make up games playing in the cement feed bunks being stored by the barn.

Sarah Rose had no problem stepping over the end wall of the end bunk into the bunk to run back and forth....

....but she couldn't step back over to the ground. So she'd get stuck being in the bunk until someone came to rescue her.

Back to the star...
.... if you look at the very top of the picture at the top of the silo, you can see Josh there. About half way down the silo, you can see the star being lowered to the ground. This is the picture that was featured on WHO Channel 13's Photolink for the weather.

Just about the time we got the star on the ground, Papa Loren showed up with coffee time. It was rather windy on the day we were "working", so we opted to have coffee between the bags of corn stover, with the bags blocking most of the wind from hitting us.

Nothing can make my kids sit somewhat still like coffeetime. Of course, it only takes a minute to gobble down a doughnut....

...make sure every last bit of glaze within a tongue's reach is licked off....

...before they're up and playing again. Papa's idea for a game was to see who could throw the empty doughnut box over the AgBag. This was a challenge because of the wind, but Caleb would throw over and over again until he finally managed to get the box over the bag. After a couple of trips around the long bags to get the box himself....

...he finally wised up and sent his little sister while he leaned back and took it easy!

It was all fun and games until the doughnut box got stuck on top of the bag, even out of the reach of us old folks.

Enter Caleb to save the day. He was pretty thrilled with the adventure of being lifted up to walk on top of the bag. If you think about it, that's pretty tall for a little kid! Maybe not equivalent to Josh on the silo, but pretty close!

All the above took place on one day. On another day, we actually strung the lights:

Kinda hard to see against the background, but there it is. We put it on top of another bunk to get it off the ground for the stringing.

How many strings of lights does it take to confuse a Dutchman?
(Its a joke!)

Caleb's job was to manage the quick ties. He held them and handed them to Josh as needed.

Sarah Rose held the lights.

And Josh secured them to the star. With all the help, we were done in no time! Which was good, because it was windy and kind of cold on top of the hill!