Christmas With the Whiteheads by J. Lajuana Miller
M y friends in the Altamonte Springs (FL) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated tried to prepare me for what I would find when I arrived at the home of our friend, Attorney Esther Whitehead, and husband, Judge Reginald K. Whitehead, Sr. Upon arrival, I noticed that the front of the house was elegantly decorated for Christmas, but it wasn’t overwhelming. Then I stepped into the house and was stopped in my tracks by “Christmas on steroids.” It felt like I had received a VIP backstage invitation to Santa’s workshop. It was AWESOME! All I could say was “Oh wow.” Everything was meticulously placed. A large Christmas tree was decorated with unique, expensive, and simply gorgeous glass and crystal ornaments. There was one for each year, along with presidential ornaments, Faberge egg ornaments, angels, snowflakes, icicles, miniature radios, cars, and motorcycles. Clearly, a lot of money and effort had been spent simply to decorate the tree, but from talking with Esther, it became evident that everything also had a high sentimental value. I turned clockwise, and there were decorations on the floor and on landings around and above the front door. Another turn revealed the dining room table, sideboard, and floor filled with collectible Christmas dolls of Santa and Ms. Claus, the wise men, angels, and nativity scenes. Each doll had real hair on their heads and beards. They were dressed in elaborate attire with real fur. The miniature lambs in the nativity scenes had real lamb’s wool. There were Christmas pianos, jukeboxes, radios, alligators, etc., that all played Christmas music. There was a mystical collection of angels on a ledge at the top of the wall, and none of the doll collections were inexpensive. Also in the dining room was a silver Christmas tree decorated in Ms. Whitehead’s sorority
colors - pink and green. There were decorations on the floor along the hallway leading into the kitchen/ family room. In the family room there was another Christmas tree, decorated in shades of red and white. I thought it was especially pretty (wink wink)! In every crevice, on every wall, on every piece of furniture, and above kitchen cabinets, there was Christmas. There were holiday pillows on the couch. Judge and Attorney Whitehead are proud parents of three young men, Reginald
Jr., Dennis-Leonard, and Jamaal, who make it their business not to arrive for the holidays until all of the decorations are in place. Ms. Whitehead admits to being overly infatuated with Christmas, having come from humble beginnings, and having watched every Hallmark Christmas movie. While we could not capture all that we saw, our photographer tried. We hope you can tell the majesty of it all from the photos. Hats off to Mrs. Whitehead; there can be no display anywhere in the world better than yours! Thank you for sharing.
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