Lake Highlands neighbor Cindy Terrell gets a little busier from October to May.
Photography by Tanner Garza
The former Merriman Park Elementary librarian is hard-pressed to find a holiday she doesn’t enjoy decorating her home front to back for. Between Halloween, Easter and even Valentine’s Day, it’s difficult to imagine the storage space required to hold all of the plastic witches, pastel-colored rabbit sculptures and pink heart wreaths.
Growing up, she says she doesn’t remember many decorations around her house past a tree. She can’t exactly pinpoint when her love of decorating started, but certainly took to it in her teaching days.
“I always did my classroom cute and painted the walls because they let us back then. I don’t know if they do anymore. And then I became the librarian at my school,” Terrell says. “I made the whole library a jungle.”
Her home became a seasonal highlight of the Lake Highlands Square neighborhood after moving in 20 years ago. Around Halloween time each year, she flung all sorts of eerie creatures across the property.
These days, however, things have gotten a little more subdued.
“I have two big skeletons that were out(side), but one of the grandkids didn’t like those skeletons last year, so they’re just in storage for now,” she laughs.
Christmas is her favorite holiday and she isn’t shy about showing it. Santa statuettes, reindeer prints and mini villages adorn almost every corner of the home. Glass decorations have been phased out also to accommodate the grandsons. Trees, however, aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
A blue spruce goes on top of the stairs. There’s a travel tree sporting ornaments from Terrell’s travels. A pink one for a guest bedroom. A purple one for the office. And that’s not even including smaller decorative trees.
“It is hard to manage,” she concedes.
Photography by Tanner Garza
The two most notable trees, perhaps, symbolize the fractured collegiate alliances of her family. While Terrell attended Baylor and her husband graduated in Lubbock, her two sons went to Texas and Oklahoma — a sore spot for the family each October. She began decorating a UT-themed tree in her older son’s bedroom after he left for college, so it was only right to erect a Sooner tree when her youngest headed to Norman.
Photography by Tanner Garza
Last year, she replaced the contentious pair of plastic green trees with a pink one. Her sons? Not fans, apparently.
“The boys really missed that,” she says. “And even though they don’t live here, they have their own families. So I’m bringing back the Texas and the OU trees this year.”
When talking about her decorations, Terrell doesn’t focus much on the items themselves. Her appreciation, it seems, comes from the people around the decorations. Whether it’s Halloween-themed Bible groups for her sons, showing her grandchildren filled Christmas stockings or hosting friends for a pink-and-red-filled Galentine’s happy hour, they gain their meaning through togetherness.
“It just brings you joy to do all that. And it’s just memories that you hope your kids will remember, and your grandkids remember that it was fun to go over and see the decorations.”
Editor’s note: A previously published version of this article incorrectly stated Terrell lives in the Moss Haven Area. The copy has since been updated.
