Bartholomew roared into the house and loudly proclaimed, "Arianna, my love, come and see what I did." He tugged at his wife's right arm and smiled widely like a child opening the first Christmas gift of the year.

Arianna rolled her eyes and sighed. "What now? Have you finally moved the snow blower to the front of the garage?"

"No," he said briefly deflated. "Better than that."

She stumbled and caught her footing as he yanked her toward the porch and then out the door into the frozen night air. They stood at the edge of the driveway; Bartholomew with his hands proudly on his waist and chest out Arianna staring blankly at him. "Well?"

Bartholomew plugged together the two ends of the extension cord. The exterior of the house exploded in a capacious array of lights bordering the roof, the living room picture window, the doorways, and even on the landscaped bushes at the foot of the building.

"Ta-Da!" He waited for it to sink in. Arianna stood in solemn amazement while Bartholomew nodded in smug appreciation. "Yes, yes. I know it's beautiful," he said as he waved for the imaginary silent applause.
"Very nice Bart," his wife said finally as she prepared to maneuver her way back into the warm house.

Bartholomew continued, "There we have a veritable montage of reds, greens, yellows, whites, and oranges."

"And blue," Arianna noted.

"No, just red, green, yellow, white and orange."

"No check it out," she said pointing to a spot above the bathroom window, "there's a blue one up there."

And so there was. Bartholomew blinked and saw a single blue Christmas light flickering alone among the hundreds of other lights. The black sheep. The ugly duckling. "That store hires nothing but cretins did you know that?"

"What are you going on about now?" she asked.

"It must be a defective pack," Bartholomew whined. "Oh, and I thought it was going to be perfect." He started looking for the stepladder that he stuffed back into the front of the garage where the snow blower was supposed to be.

"It's fine as it is," she said. "If you're so obsessed about it why don't you check the package for the spares?"

Bartholomew reviewed the situation and decided to wait until the next day to deal with it. The bathroom widow was on the side of the house so few would see that stain on his artistic masterpiece. He heard the door slam and realized that Arianna had already gone back inside to her eggnog.

The next afternoon Bartholomew ferreted through the package seeking the right colored bulb as light snow flurries began to flutter down from the sky. He could not remember exactly which bulb was the faulty one so he turned on the lights again. He shrugged because it wasn't as spectacular a sight in twilight.

Still, something was amiss. The night before there had been but one blue imposter on the string. Today it seemed like there were more. In fact blue lights replaced all of the green lights. Someone was playing a trick on him and he was ready to give the store a piece of his mind.

Before he could flip open his cell phone he saw all of the red lights blink out and then re-illuminate in blue. "Arianna," he cried nervous. "What is going on here?"

Next thing he knew a whispery voice seemed to emulate from thin air. "I live within the blue light of the sky," a tiny winged figured no larger than a pencil said. I am a Light Sprite."

"A light sprite?"

"I am here to spread the joyous color of the sky for all to enjoy. I cast the glorious vision of blue with a wisp of my breath." At that moment the entire string of lights turned blue casting off a vibrant effect.

"I don't want blue lights," Bartholomew grumbled.

"Blue is your wife's favorite color," it replied.

"True enough."

"All year you have desired to please her and failed," it said. "Maybe this will be a way to start on your new path to an improved relationship next year. Your New Year's resolution."

Bartholomew thought about that for a moment. Maybe he had been thinking too much of himself rather than Arianna. Maybe this would be just the thing to show her he loved her, something he had resolved to do often but never found the right way to make it happen. He said the words a lot but never really showed her.

He had to admit as the day darkened into evening that blue lights at the holidays emit an electrifying aura that highlight ones uniqueness, like the appealing uniqueness of Arianna, something that should be recognized throughout all of next year and beyond.

As the flurries turned to the first snowfall of the season, he moved the snow blower to the front of the garage and went inside to invite his wife out for another look.

The light sprite spun in a circle trailed by a mist of blue sparkling lights and disappeared into the open snow speckled sky.