We Always Wanted One Of These...

 As we watched our annual Christmas programs this season, my wife noticed a particular Christmas decoration in one of the classics and she commented on it.

"It'd be cool to have one of those."

I agreed. 

The decoration in question...a wooden Christmas pyramid. If you don't know what that is, think of what Cousin Eddie destroyed as he chatted with Clark Griswold while drinking eggnog (yes, we consider National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation a classic...). The decoration is a simple machine powered by heat. Wooden blades move from the lit candles below and depending on the design, magic happens below. 

Ingenious.

Looking back, I don't think we ever had one of those in our house growing up. I don't think my wife did either. We thought it would be fun to have one. Low and behold, earlier this month we found ourselves in a quaint shop loaded with wooden triangle Christmas decorations. We thought, "Great! We'll get one." Then we saw the prices...not so great. We won't get one. They were amazing, but they cost hundreds of dollars. We don't have hundreds of dollars. Tucked in the corner of the displays, we found something more in our budget, a tiny spinner made of metal instead of wood, and it was powered by a single candle, not several. 

We bought it. We lit it. We watched it turn.

Beautiful.

So, we don't have the big model, or even the medium-sized one. But, we got one that seems to fit our house. Let the underwhelming Christmas displaying begin!