The Only Child Diaries Podcast
The Only Child Diaries Podcast
The Brochure on Holiday (Decoration) Blues
A holiday decorating contest turned into a masterclass in rolling with the weather. The atmospheric river drenched our front yard display, shorted the circuits, and left our ten-foot Yeti with gravity-defying soggy fur. We didn’t take home the win, but we did find something better: perspective, humor, and a reminder that the brightest moments often come after plans go sideways.
From the driveway, the season threw another curveball—a couple inches of water pooled on the driver’s side floor of a ten-year-old SUV. We talk about quick fixes, patience, and the reality of aging seals when the sky refuses to cooperate. While mapping out an early-morning plan to catch the stealth bomber fly over the Rose Parade route, we navigate recovery needs and choose accessible viewing spots that make the tradition doable without a hike. Along the way, we reflect on the artistry behind parade floats, the powerful glue that holds petals and bark in place, and what happens when rain threatens months of volunteer work.
Back at home, our rain-averse dog adds comic timing to the mud and maintenance, and we get honest about what communities save—or don’t—when stormwater rushes to the ocean. Sleep becomes our north star, fueling recovery and the small daily choices that add up to resilience. If you’re juggling holiday expectations, weather setbacks, and the hope for a dry New Year’s moment, you’ll find solidarity here and a few ideas to make next time gentler and more fun.
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Welcome to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life? That you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulthood while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. Today I'm going to talk about the holiday decorating contest. Well, no spoiler alert, I didn't win. That's right. We didn't win. But that's okay. I'm not upset because what did happen was that we had well they call it the atmospheric river. It was a lot of rain. It was a lot of rain. Yeah. And so really a lot of my Christmas decorations out on the front lawn were, well, I won't say destroyed, but everything got shut down. Yeah. The inflatables deflated because there was so much water, even though everything is outdoor friendly, all the the um the lights and the electrical things, everything is outdoor, right? Um the circuits just got overloaded with water, and so it shut down. And so all the inflatables had to deflate, everything went dark, everything got muddy, the um the bumble from the Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer movie, the 10-foot Yeti, if you will. He didn't get because there was also a lot of wind, but he kept standing, but his fur, his fur was all pointed downwards. And uh he did dry out. We had some we had a dry period, and he dried out, and then we got more rain. And what is the other incident that happened was that Christmas Eve I went to get in the car to go out and get some food, and there was like two inches of water on my driver's side floorboard, and my car's never leaked. Uh so that was a pleasant surprise. My car's, well, it's my car's starting to age. I have an SUV, and it I think it's coming up on well, it's 10 years old now. That's right. It's in pretty good shape, though, but I think there's a seal somewhere that is not as sealed as it used to be. And so there's a lot of water in in my car. Um and so I've been working on getting that out, and and it was starting to dry up a little bit, and then it rained again. And I was able to get some of the inflatables inflated again, and then it rained again. So uh now we're in a dry period, uh, which is nice. We have the sun, and it's it's it's chilly, uh uh especially at night. It's in the 40s. For us, now don't laugh, because for us that's that's pretty cold. But there's gonna be another wave of rain coming for New Year's. And what's upsetting about that is that it might rain on the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl here, and it never rains. It's I can't even remember a time when it rained on the rose parade. Um, so again, we're hoping for a New Year's miracle. Uh because even when it's threatened rain, it's stopped raining for the parade. And you know, all the floats that everybody works on, they're all covered with glue, which is pretty substantial glue. If you I I when I was in high school, I volunteered to work on one of the floats and I glued the flowers on to the float, and I got some of the glue in my hair, and I I, as I remember, I had to cut cut that part of my hair out because there's no way this glue is giving up. But um all the flowers and the seeds and the petals and the bark and the leaves, everything is glued to these floats. And so if it's raining, I'm not sure really what their plan is, but it's they're not gonna look that good. And it's too bad because they work so hard on all these floats year-round, and volunteers have been working on these floats for several weeks now already, putting the non-perishable items on, and they're in kind of the final push now. This year I'm gonna try to get my husband in a place. First of all, I'm gonna try to get him up early enough, which is like 7 a.m. And I'm gonna try to get him in a place where he can come with me to see the stealth bomber fly over. Because if you don't know, the stealth bomber flies over at the beginning of the parade route, and we're in a place where uh we can always hear it, but you have to either go up the hill and climb up the mountain a little bit, which is difficult. He's not in, you know, with with the herniated disc issue that he had a few months ago. He's still recovering, so he's not gonna be able to do that. But I kind of scoped out a couple places on the other side of the hill that we could drive to, and he could see the the the thing fly over, which is if you haven't seen it in person, it's a very cool uh experience. But if it's raining, it's really gonna be a little bit more of a drag. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. First again, first world problems, but uh it is something that's pretty cool. Um, and then we come back and go right back to sleep, but it's kind of early. Um, but it's overall Christmas was just wet, just cold, wet, rain, wind. The dog was unhappy. Um, she does not like to go out in the rain. I don't blame her, but I mean I'm used to going out in rain because we had the horse and I'd always have to go to the barn. Both of us would have to go to the barn to take care of him. So that's fine. I'm used to that. I mean, I don't miss that part of it, um, not having Dallas anymore, but every time she'd have to go out, I'd have to put the leash on her to make sure that she would go and either go under the tree or go out and get whatever. So anyway. So we're gonna be back at that. Um it's just muddy and it's uh so that's fine. And I, you know, and everybody says we need the rain. The thing is that we don't save the rain, all the rain pretty much runs into the gutters and the sewers, and it goes out to the ocean, and we don't save a lot of the rain. We don't save some of it goes into the to the um reservoirs, but we don't save a lot of the rain. So again, we need it, but do we save it? No, I don't think we do, but that's okay. Neither here nor there. Um and so many things here are weather dependent and they shut down with the inclimate weather. So that's whatever. So that's where we're at, but I have enjoyed some extra time off to sleep. Again, my mantra is get as much sleep as I can. Uh Bill is doing somewhat better. He keeps walking. We're gonna start his new physical therapy uh the first week of January. So that's something to look forward to. He'll get more exercises, I'm sure, and more input on what to do for his recovery. And that's wow, that's pretty much where we're at. So um just I can't believe it's gonna be 2026, but I'm gonna wish all of you a very happy new year. I'm hoping that the coming year is happy and healthy and prosperous for everyone of our listeners and for everybody who is in your family and everyone that you care about, that everyone has a safe holiday and a joyous new year. And next week, well, we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries Podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on. And consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page, Only Child Diaries, or Facebook, Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace, and these are the Only Child Diaries.
