DID YOU KNOW?
This museum resides in the original Pleasant Sands Lighthouse built in 1823. Decommissioned in 1921, it’s remained a town landmark ever since.
THE FOLLOWING JULY
It was hard to believe just last December this place was a Christmas store. The historical lighthouse may have been decommissioned long ago, but now it was restored to its original beauty. Gone were the heavy wooden displays filled with Christmas decorations that used to be Heart of Christmas, and the train that chugged along the ceiling entertaining the tiny tots while their parents shopped.
The only Christmas ornaments in the store now carried the new brand for Pleasant Sands—an eye-catching logo on a porcelain sand dollar or glass ball.
Where the Heart of Christmas sign once stood, now a sandblasted wooden sign read, PLEASANT SANDS VISITOR CENTER. A free tour through the original lighthouse, including climbing to the top of the harlequin-diamond-daymarked tower, was open to visitors four days a week. From the top one could see the original lighthouse lens and view the ocean and whole town. The tour also included a walk through the history of the town, with interactive displays and framed articles and pictures of Pleasant Sands a hundred years ago.
The only thing that remained from Heart of Christmas was the trivia Angela posted out front. Posting that was still her favorite part of each day.
Angela sat at her desk talking to the owner of Akaw! on the phone about the opportunities and tax breaks for new businesses coming into Pleasant Sands. She’d learned from him that “Akaw!” was something surfers yelled when they spotted the perfect wave. Fitting for a surfboard company, and they were looking for an East Coast location. Pleasant Sands seemed like a good fit.
“Yes sir. I look forward to talking to you next week. We have your reservation all set. See you then.” She hung up feeling satisfied with the progress her small team had already made in the past short six months.
Just as she hung up the phone, the new blue-and-white trolley dropped off a load of tourists in front of the lighthouse. Stephanie met them out front, greeting them and taking their tickets for the next tour.
The season was starting out great, and tomorrow there was the huge Fourth of July celebration. A parade, a new gourmet-burger cook-off and the best fireworks display they’d ever had in this town.
Pictures lined the bookshelf across from her desk. One was of her with the most important people in her life at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new visitor center: Marie, Brad and Chrissy, and, of course, Geoff. Beside that stood a picture of her with Momma Grace at the register in Heart of Christmas when she was seven.
She glanced down at the diamond ring on her finger. Everything had moved so fast, but she’d never been happier.
Marie walked in with a smile so bright Angela was almost afraid to ask what was going on. “What are you doing here in the middle of a workday?”
“I couldn’t wait.” She flailed a priority mailer in the air overhead. “The sample is here! It’s even prettier than I thought it would be.”
Angela jumped up from her desk. “You’re kidding. That was so fast. Let me see.”
Marie opened the envelope and slid out the invitation.
Each corner had been folded in, with laser-cut daisies around a poinsettia meeting in the middle, where a small silver bow held the invitation together.
“I love how the intricate cuts soften the square shape. You were right, Angela.”
Angela carefully pulled the silver bow and opened the invitation into an even larger square.
Inside, the message was simple.
Geoff Paisley
AND
Angela Carson
INVITE YOU to JOIN THEIR WEDDING CELEBRATION
DECEMBER 24TH ~ AT 5PM
AT THE TOWN SQUARE GAZEBO
PLEASANT SANDS, NC
Nuptials will be followed by the Annual Holiday Tree Lighting. Celebrate with cupcakes, punch and a holiday band with the happy couple as they begin their life as husband and wife in Pleasant Sands.
No RSVP Required.
In lieu of gifts, bring a canned good
for the food pantry.
“Do you love them?” Marie asked.
Angela looked again at the collage of special moments on the shelf. A picture of her standing between her sister and Emma on the last day of Heart of Christmas. The ribbon-cutting when she reopened the lighthouse. The first elementary school tour of the lighthouse. And the picture of Geoff on bended knee proposing to her on Valentine’s Day.
Angela smiled as a warm glow flowed through her.
“I do.”