DECK THE HALLS

Well, we're not actually decking any halls but the eaves around the outside of the house anyway.  Honeybuns has the ladder out and miles and miles of lights to untangle.   Every November about this time he lights up our roof.  The bulbs are clear and big, and once the switch is flipped I'm sure we are noticed by planes overhead. (We've discussed the possibility of various colored lights, but I overuled!)  After today, every evening now through early January, about 5:30,  the timer will do it's job and there will be a white glow coming from the gutters lining the house illuminating our entire yard.   It's  a min-version of Clark Grizwalds lightbulb plan!

Our neighborhood is great at dispelling the darkness during these last couple of months each year.  Most hire the work done and the displays are elaborate if not breathtaking. I'm sure the plans for some of these works of art were drawn up by professional agencies.  Men all suited up in coveralls and stocking hats will be climbing all over the rooftops in the area over the next few weeks.  Watching the very orchestrated preparation is often more fun than seeing the finished product. 

IF a household embraces the do-it-yourself philosophy of life, as we do, the work is done by the Dad.  Moms usually participate in the whole task about 15-20 minutes, giving instructions, pointing and  issuing warnings.  Then she loads up the car for the  drive to the  nearest mall to do the necessary Christmas Shopping.  Dad's are then left with the task of untangling, replacing bulbs, rattling around in the attic for extension cords and hauling out ladders that seem to reach to the moon.

I've decided to stick close today.  The wind is blowing a gale and we don't need Honeybuns laid up with broken bones because he was blown off a ladder and no one was around to come to his aid.  I'll go out and steady the ladder when he gets to the nosebleed section of roof.

AND I vividly recall the year I returned from shopping to see what seemed like hundreds of BRIGHT ORANGE INDUSTRIAL SIZED extension cords laced all over the yard.  ORANGE!

We made a quick trip to Walmart  that day and those awful ugly things were replaced  with green, discreet, easy to hide cords in about an hour! Honeybuns still wonders about that crisis and he and the neighborhood do-it -yourself- Dads just shake their heads in confusion as he repeats the story.

ORANGE!! 

He can't figure out why his choice of cords was so repulsive while the TACKY BLOW-UP Santa riding in TACKY BLOW-UP airplane is not only acceptable but revered.

I can't explain it to him.   I suppose some of us are just born with a sense of STYLE!

Don't you just love the holidays?  It's a perfect time for compromise, forgiveness and reconciliation!

 And a reminder to not take ourselves or our lighting display TOO seriously!