Lights and Cookies...the winners are...

Last night the neighborhood had a visit from Santa and one of his hardest working elves. It was a joy to meet him, especially given how busy he must be at this time of year.

Santa was the guest of honor at our annual neighborhood Cookies with Santa event. It was wonderful to see so many neighbors coming together and bringing their families and young ones to the clubhouse. The clubhouse felt so alive. I do feel though that the weather might have kept a few families away this year but hopefully we'll see you next year, with bells on.

At the event, which now also features a homemade cookie competition judging, we announce the winners of our holiday home lighting contest. We typically award Visa giftcard prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and each gets a yard sign. The "honorable mention" also gets a yard sign and a call out. This year, the judges agreed that there were special call outs too...

Therefore and without further ado, here are the homes, agreed on by the judges, that deserved this years prizes:

Special call outs and the judges comments: 3221 Player Drive - "loved the Christmas Tree mailbox"

9936 Nicklaus Drive - "beautiful nativity scene"

9836 Stephenson Drive - "really festive and covered their entire property" This home wins the judges Honorable Mention for 2023.

3rd Place ($25):

Here are the comments for our 3rd place winner

Palm Trees look awesome, there are so many lights! Love the penguins and snowflakes moving on the garage door and the welcoming Bluey!

3rd place goes to 9815 Nicklaus Drive

2nd Place ($50):

Love that the front and side of the house is all lit up and even the roof has lights. Really like the flashing lights, it can be seen all the way down the street. A lot of effort went into this and we love the different colors.

2nd place goes to 3810 Player Drive

And in 1st Place ($100):

OMG this is unbelievable!! The star on the roof is everything. There's also a sleigh on the roof. We love the Merry Christmas sign. There's like a million lights!! The WHOLE yard is covered and look he is still up in the tree putting up more lights!

This is definitely the winner!!

1st Place goes to 9915 Whitworth Court

Congratulations to all our winners, mentions and call outs. Thank you for making the neighborhood a brighter place. Hopefully see you all again next year. Or maybe some new addresses?

Onto the cookie contest.

There were three $25 prizes available. One for Best Kids Cookie, one for Most Creative Cookie and one for Best Overall Cookie. Well, it turned out to be a rout. One participant took home all three prizes in a very deserving display, having spilled his batch and having to redo everything at the last minute, barely getting in on time. Persistence and resilience paid off however and Micah Mangino went home $75 better off. Congratulations to Micah and thank you to all who attended, competed, brought and ate cookies.

I would be remiss if I did not thank the Social Committee and their volunteers: Nancy, Sherri, Jen, Kim and Kat, thank you for this event and all you do.

I also think that a huge debt of gratitude is owed to Bob and Wendy Cesarek, Dan Helphrey and others who gave their own time to decorate the entrance to our community (restoring Fairway Springs reindeer), beautified the pool fencing and made the clubhouse so appealing.

My final thanks is to John and Carol Kelly without whose tight connections with the North Pole and relationships with the big guy and all the elves in the workshop would mean that this event just be called Cookies With. It is they who bring Santa and his elf to Fairway Springs each year.

Congratulations, thanks and Happy Holiday's everyone.