Sean C. Morgan
“It stated with a Grinch,” said Gina Riley.
Her Northside Drive home is surrounded bya Santas, snowmen, a Nativity scene and lights everywhere, and it is the winner’s of this year’s Christmas light contest. The credit doesn’t go to Gina and her husband, Tim. It goes to her grandson, Colby Montigue, 12.
“Tim and I were at a garage sale,” Gina said. “We had just watched the Grinch on TV.”
At age 3, Colby was with them, and he wanted a Grinch at the garage sale. His grandparents couldn’t tell him no. Since then, they added piece after piece.
“This year, he said he wanted to change things,” Gina said, and he did everything except the icicle lights around the eaves of the house.
“The reason why I like to do it, when I was little, I always loved Christmas,” Colby said. “Every year we’ve gotten more and more stuff. I just like doing it. I like giving it to the people who come by.”
Each year, Colby helped a little, but Grandpa did most of it, Colby said. This year, Grandpa wanted a break because he was busy with a lot of different activities.
“We’re to the point now we have other things to put out, but we’re blowing circuits,” Gina said, so she and Tim are planning to put another electrical box out to handle it.
“We don’t even have all our stuff out yet,” said Colby’s brother, Mason, 6.
When Colby put out the last candy cane and got it working, the lights went out, he said, and the family had to run a new circuit.
“His vision is to put in a gravel road, so people can drive through,” Gina said.
Mason said that was his idea.
“I like building stuff,” Mason said turning to his brother. “Told you I would come in handy, Colby.”
He would also like to plant Christmas trees and decorate them too. After they mature, he would like to sell them – all in an effort to create a new Strawberry Heights or Epps Lane, both of which no longer have large organized decorations.
Neighbors are jumping in now too, Gina said, and she’s hoping it’ll become a new Epps Lane.
Epps Lane was part of Colby’s inspiration too. He used to call it “Twirling Road” because of the way the road twists down from North River Drive.
“We gripe about the electrical bill every year, but it’s a blast,” Gina said. “What’s really fun is it’s not just Tim and I doing it anymore.”
“Over the summer next year, we’re planning on building a lot of wooden stuff, like a North Pole sign and greetings from us.”
The boys’ work lights up the night at the corner of Northside and Pleasant Valley roads.