On Thursday night when the Dallas Cowboys faced the Tennessee Titans, cheering wasn’t heard only in North Texas — but also from 3,500 miles away from AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Noelo Street, outside of Honolulu.
The Ahias are known for being die-hard Cowboys fans. In 2021 their blue and silver Christmas home decorations went viral and this year Waldo and Shelley Ahia, both native Hawaiians, decided to up their game and went all out with the Cowboy-mania.
For Christmas 2022, the couple had a custom inflatable Dallas Cowboys football helmet made to add to their driveway, and Waldo spent all summer working on life-size cutouts of players to place in their yard.
"It's been crazier than ever," Shelley Ahia told WFAA."We had a lot of new visitors this year."
The couple received visits from tourists from all over the world who came to take pictures of the holiday decorations. And for good reason. In addition to thousands of Christmas lights and photo ops within their yard, the Ahias hosted a band show at some point during the holidays for visitors to enjoy and even a successful toy drive.
According to WFAA, Waldo has been a hardcore Cowboys fan since he was in third grade and his enthusiasm rubbed on his wife Shelly in the ‘80s when they started dating. In 2020, once their kids lost interest in holiday decorations, the Ahias found that they didn’t have to create Disney displays anymore and had the yard all for themselves — and the Cowboys, of course.
And so, a new tradition was born.
Now the home will keep its holiday decorations until January the 2nd, the limit established by their homeowner association.
"We had to buy this big mobile storage unit," Shelley said with a laugh. "It's almost like a house!"
In case you missed it, here's Local Profile's roadmap through Deerfield's holiday lights.
