All apologies to my scroogie blogger friends but....we like Christmas in our neck of the woods. I have decided to tone down my decor, this year, opting for an understated white and silver motif that would thrill Martha no end. The decorating in the house has always started at Halloween, morphs through Thanksgiving then goes to full-on, wrap the banisters and (as my friend Sandi at Cheaper than Therapy calls it) vomit Christmas all over the house. Unfortunately clutter, even Christmas clutter, makes me crazy these days so I think the toning down will make for a more relaxed holiday. We have brought out the Christmas music (sorry, Eko and all) and we have stacks of CDs....everything from Perry Como to the Backstreet Boys. We love to singalong with John Denver and the Muppets and, man, the girls LOVE the Al Green Christmas CD. We have pulled up the Christmas playlists on our iPods and bump the holidays wherever we go. Hope and I hit the craft fairs last weekend and Mark and I have been checking out lights in area neighborhoods. I am not done with my shopping and I'm sure some packages will barely make it to their intended recipients on time.
We put up outside lights but try to avoid making our house visible from space. We do just enough to be sure Santa finds us. This year, we switched over to LEDS so Mark has been working his little fingers to the bone with an idea he's been cooking up for the last ten years. He has installed the lights in PVC, cut to fit the roofline. Drilling holes for the bulbs and tucking the wire inside a slit run lengthwise.
He has hooks on the house and eyebolts in the pipe to hang it all up in one easy step. Understand that my spouse is short and my house is not -- so getting up on the ladder to hang lights two stories up is not one of his favorite activities. This will make it so easy, it will be tough for Andy Butch to beat him again, being the first in the neighborhood to hang lights. On our street, this is not a size competition but speed only. More importantly, taking them down after New Years will require only a small window of fair weather.
So, we shall deck our halls and shove a tree up Angie;s skirt. We will drink nog, make batches of cookies and maybe make our own cards to send to friends. We will also be terribly relieved when we make it to December 25th with our minds intact.
We put up outside lights but try to avoid making our house visible from space. We do just enough to be sure Santa finds us. This year, we switched over to LEDS so Mark has been working his little fingers to the bone with an idea he's been cooking up for the last ten years. He has installed the lights in PVC, cut to fit the roofline. Drilling holes for the bulbs and tucking the wire inside a slit run lengthwise.
He has hooks on the house and eyebolts in the pipe to hang it all up in one easy step. Understand that my spouse is short and my house is not -- so getting up on the ladder to hang lights two stories up is not one of his favorite activities. This will make it so easy, it will be tough for Andy Butch to beat him again, being the first in the neighborhood to hang lights. On our street, this is not a size competition but speed only. More importantly, taking them down after New Years will require only a small window of fair weather.So, we shall deck our halls and shove a tree up Angie;s skirt. We will drink nog, make batches of cookies and maybe make our own cards to send to friends. We will also be terribly relieved when we make it to December 25th with our minds intact.
11 comments:
Take those lights down, BC! They use energy. The more energy we use the more demand there is for oil and the price goes up.
Think how much energy we could save in this country if everybody forgoes those damned Christmas lights. Do your share for this country's energy independence and take those lights down NOW!
Fred, the package assures me we are using 80-90% less energy with the LEDs. Even if they embellish, I figure I'll ignore one or two loads of clothes over the holidays to make up for the power these lights will use.
*cough*Fred's the Grinch *cough*
So by the girls *loving* Al Green, you clearly mean we can't stand Al Green (I already stress out about impending holidays... and Mr. Green's voice doesn't help matters!).
Awesome picture of Dad working, BTW. :-)
I'm kind of looking forward to decorating my little 4' faux-tree for the Design Collective tonight. Despite Shane's pleas, I'm just not sure we're going to have a tree in our place this year, so I gotta get the decorating out of my system, somehow.
Being a broke/cluttered grown-up stinks. I'm going to go turn on my lighted poinsettia garland now. Take that, Fred!
Grrrr...
hahah- feel the love, Fred! :-D
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who loves the holidays. Yes, I engaged in the grinchly discussion over at Chocolate Covered Xanax, but that's because I'm having a bad year. It's not Christmas's fault!
I really wanted to put up a nice line of stately white lights around the outline of the house, but I have no one to help me. So I satisfy myself with little candelabras in the windows.
My tree (which went up the day after Thanksgiving)make my home seem, well, homey. Music, movies, etc. I love it all.
I was just thinking longingly of junior high when my friends and I went Christmas caroling all around the neighborhood.
The trouble for me is having no one to share it with. My son doesn't seem to notice. This is when it would be handy to have daughters...
If by us loving Al Green, you mean, we love to play frisbee with it, then yeah, we love it.
PS. I just shoved the stick up Angie's butt.
Freakin' dignified, if I do say so.
Looks great! We gave up on the outside decorations because the chickens kept pecking at the lights and it kept the roosters up. Crowing roosters at 1:30 AM is not a good thing.
I love you, Fred. Really, I do.
I'm discreet with the lights this year but next year, Fred, when I'm in Eureka, its gonna look like Disneyland. Yay, Beachcomber, we'll hang laundry out to dry to make up for our Christmas lights.
Not one stinkin' element of Christmas permeates my little abode. And I wouldn't have it any other way....Bah Humblog! Ladyfriend's house, on the other hand....
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