Lights On

Well, US Thanksgiving is over, and it was a dry Sunday, so I figured it was time to put up the Christmas lights. This is an annual undertaking that I both love and loathe. On one hand, I know I'll end up falling off a ladder, cursing in front of the kids, destroying shrubbery, or electrocuting myself. On the other hand, I look forward to the look on the kids' faces when they see the house lit up for the holidays. It also marks the first step in the building excitement to Christmas.

I was very organized this year. I assembled my tools and got out the ladder before I started carting lights out of the crawl space.

Things got off to a bad start as I bonked my head in the crawlspace as I was digging out boxes of lights and decorations. Ugh. Anyway, I had neatly packed things away last year and as I pulled each string from storage, my plan of attack came together and I was eager to start. I was soon up the ladder ready to go. ARGH!!! What the heck? The gutters were full of leaves! Urgh! What a pain, having to stop to clean the gutters before I got started. Oh well, minor setback.

I set to work, meticulously lining up every single light with a clip so that they were perfectly aligned along the gutter. Believe me, squeezing every single light on a string into the plastic clips was getting hard on the fingers after awhile. I was making good progress until I reached the peak of the porch and realized my step ladder wasn't tall enough. Off to the garage to dig out a taller ladder.

It was about this time that the kids came outside and starting running around under the ladder (don't they know that's bad luck...especially with a 185 pound klutz clamouring above them?). I enjoyed the company until they started stealing my tools and supplies. For some reason it was funny to take my bag of gutter clips and chase around the yard while I was yelling obsenities from on high.
After I got my gutter clips back, I had to contend with the overgrown shrubbery to complete my gutter string. A few wobbles, a few close calls, but in the end no falls from the ladder and no blood drawn by the bushes from hell, although I nearly impaled myself on a branch. The hard part was over and the garland and lights around the doors were easy by comparison.
I was feeling proud of myself for getting everything done as I hung the wreathes and cleaned up. Empty boxes back to the crawlspace, tools to the closet, ladders to the garage. I did the grand lighting and everything looked great.

I love the OOO lips from the Garfield Christmas special. From Christmas lights to fireworks, nobody does better OOO lips. Anyway, it was only at this moment that I realized that one of the porch lights was out...AFTER I put the ladders away!!! ARGH!!! Back to the garage.

Not many new additions to the decor this year...so far! But, hey, it's not even December yet! There's lots of time to add new stuff.

I hope the kids appreciate the end result. Wow, that was a lot of work.