Putting Up the Christmas Lights

This is our second Christmas that we'll spend living here in this house. Ah, good ol' Indiana Street. The thing is, Christopher and I have lived in a lot of places (apartments and duplexes, never a house of our own, not yet at least). So not only is this our second Christmas spent in this house (duplex, whatever), but its the first time we've ever lived somewhere long enough to repeat a holiday there. We're very proud of this accomplishment- we love this house.


I've been bothering Christopher to get up on the roof and put up our Christmas lights since before Thanksgiving. The weather here has actually been bone chilling cold (22 yesterday, and I still ran 3 miles), so I don't blame him for not jumping up immediately and getting his hands tangled up in cords and broken light bulbs, but it gets to a point where either you're going to put them up, or you're not, ya know? Finally I spoke up in my mean wife voice, and demanded that Christmas be carried from the inside of our house (its so pretty in here, we have garland going up the staircase, purple and silver bows on everything, stockings hung by the window with care-), out onto the pillars for the world to see.

Put up the lights already!


So he called up a friend and had him come over to help, finally. Yes, he could have done it all by himself, but for lack of an anxiety attack on my end (y'all have heard me call Christopher Sasquatch before, right? Well I don't want him Sasquatchin' himself right off of the roof, so... the buddy system is mandatory in activities such as this), I asked him to please have some help when stringing them up.


Oh, and ok, he had had a little helper too. At one point, Eleanore was standing directly under him as he was trying to un knot a clump of bulbs, and Christopher dropped the entire pile of lights right down onto her head, triggering ear shattering cries. The rope got stuck in her hair, those tiny bulbs are like spikes, but with my quick reflexes, she was freed from the terrors of the holiday lights in no time.


"Its ok Daddy, I forgive you", she said, and then right back to being a little helper she went.


After a good amount of light placement failures and accomplishments, followed by a dud strand that was fixed simply by un plugging and then re plugging- our little spot here on Indiana St was once again lit up for all to see...


Its nothing fancy, we like to keep it simple. All of our strands match, leaving the look to be summed up as "classic", if I had to put a label on it. You won't find any over-the-top seizure inducing flashing bulbs, no dangling icicle lights, no random color strands placed here or there, and of course, no moving reindeer or ho ho ho'ing plastic Santas (really, I wouldn't be able to stand it). We have our wreath hanging peacefully on the front door, pretty colored lights lining the inside of both the living room window and our bedroom window (that top window, but they weren't hung up when the picture was taken), and its just perfect for us.

If I haven't said it yet, and you know I'll say it at least 5 more times before the actual holiday gets here- Merry Christmas friends!