Bubble Lights

One of my happiest memories when I was a kid growing up was the day we trimmed the tree. In my house, it was a family affair...we would fix hot chocolate and my parents, sister, and I would listen to Christmas music while hanging each ornament on the tree. I can vividly remember the excitement of waiting while my Mom and Dad put the lights on the tree. And the best moment of all was when my Mom would plug in our one string of "bubble" lights and we would wait those few minutes until they started bubbling. I loved those bubble lights...they were old and had been passed on to my parents by a family member. Nothing marked the start of the holidays like that moment when I would see that first simmer of a bubble in those glass tubes. I would squeal with delight when it happened, and my sister and I would giggle together excitedly. But like anything else, the years passed, I grew older, and one year the bubble lights were gone...they had stopped working and had been thrown away. At the time, it was barely noticed by me...I was no longer a kid and was too caught up in my young life to give it much thought.

A few years back, I stumbled upon this bubble night light while shopping, and bought it instantly as my heart flooded with the memories of our childhood tree. I plug it in every season now and it bubbles throughout the holidays as a tribute...to the light that is my family, of special moments spent together, of memories that will never die. This is my submission for Day 3 of the "12 Days of Textures" at Kim Klassen's blog. The texture we must use today is called "Cosmo" and it's beautiful! I used it in Vivid Light mode to make the words pop, and also tweaked it in RadLab.