Well this is fun news to share! The Virgin Islands Lottery just held a holiday lights competition, and we won! Merry Christmas to us!
I’m the mother of a six-year-old child, which is prime Christmas time. He loves everything about Christmas, including holiday lights and snow. I decorated the house for Christmas last year, but, in his opinion, I didn’t do a good enough job, so I promised to go all out this year.
I flew up to Connecticut in early November to ship out all of the Trunk Bay puzzle preorders. While I was there, I popped into Lowes and walked out with more than $500 worth of holiday lights and garland. I packed it into three huge duffel bags and dragged it all the way back down to the island. Luckily I was traveling with a friend who helped me schlep it through the airports. 🙂
When I got home, Mike and I went all out for Dalton. We put garland along our white picket fence and stood precariously on the top of ladders so we could toss green lights on top of our palm trees. (Fun fact: One of the palm trees in our yard grew out of a coconut that fell at Maho during Hurricane Irma. It’s the little things in life that make me smile.) We got eaten alive by the no see ums as we did it, bit that didn’t matter because we could see the sheer joy on Dalton’s face while we were doing it.
About a week or so after the lights were up, I came across a flyer on Facebook advertising a holiday lights content. The Virgin Islands Lottery was giving away three prizes per island for the best holiday lights. I immediately applied!
Shakima, St. John’s amazing Administrator, called me Friday night while we were watching the Pan Dragons perform at Mongoose Junction to get directions to my house. “Oh my gosh, this is real!” I thought with complete excitement. I gave her directions and crossed my fingers.
I received a call this afternoon from the Virgin Islands Lottery informing us that we not only won, we took first place. How exciting is that! Thanks to Dalton, we won $3,000!
Thank you so much Virgin Islands Lottery! This is such a great gift!
If you are on island, head over to Fish Bay and check them out! We have friends staying at our house while we visit family this week, but they’re keeping the lights on for us. Please go out and enjoy them! Take the main road into Fish Bay and you will eventually stumble on them. Merry Christmas everyone!