Watertown, MA. December, 2011

I love the town I live in. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. I can walk to Harvard Square, bike to Boston. I live two blocks from a wonderful assortment of Middle Eastern stores. The library and (most of) its staff are terrific. And Watertown has the best Christmas lights I’ve ever seen. Perhaps not the most gaudy or spectacular, but certainly the most beautiful and sophisticated. Located smack dab in the center of Watertown Square, they are a dazzling surprise each time I take the bridge across the Charles River and (inevitably) have to wait at the traffic lights nearby. I never mind waiting (at least in December at night) because I can look up and see these remarkable twinklers, somehow strung in the trees to allow the lights to define the lines of the branches themselves. No draping here, no colorful distractions, these minimal decorations are amazingly elegant and take my breath away each time I see them.