I Won't be Outdone by Big Sister!

Although the work began on Thanksgiving Day with Jim & I bringing all the boxes down from our pull-the-stairs-down attic (yes, I'm the one on the bottom 2nd or 3rd tread with arms up in the air to catch the boxes), I didn't actually start my decorating until the day after Thanksgiving. I have so much stuff that I decided it's not even worth putting up unless I do it early enough to be able to enjoy it for at least a month before the chore of packing it back up. And yes, I loathe packing up the everyday decor in order to make room for the festive! Every year I tell myself that I'll get rid of some of the older decorations to make up for the inevitable day-after-Christmas 1/2 price bargains but I don't want to hurt Jim's feelings by singling out the few decorations he brought into the marriage!

Speaking of Jim, he has taken it upon himself to be the outside decorator. So every year, "Sparky" stresses about the lights and how they're going to work. This year there were houses in our neighborhood that had their lights up the week before Thanksgiving and Jim was appalled! Are they crazy? The biggest question he had was how they put up all those lights without the problems he has with the fuses blowing or the bulbs going out or the whole strands not working. And how many strands do they connect together? He asked me these questions repeatedly until I told him to go ask one of the neighbors. His reply was, "I'm not going to ask them, I don't want to talk to them!"

As we were enjoying our Saturday morning coffee & tea, we were looking at the store ads in the newspaper when Jim saw a buy one get one 1/2 price ad at Walgreens for lights. I told him I didn't like buying anything before Christmas because I could get everything for 1/2 price after Christmas and besides that, he told me not to buy any lights last year after Christmas because we had plenty. He said, "but the ad says they're HEAVY DUTY and you can CONNECT SIX STRANDS!" I figured it would be easier on him to buy them. So we went to Walgreens and while I was looking for a few things on my list, Jim found his lights. Now, I like it when everything matches or is coordinated. I looked at the lights Jim had in the cart and there were 2 boxes of multi-colored, 2 boxes of blue, 1 box of red and 1 box of clear. When I asked why he got all different types, he said he likes to "mix it up & be different". Whatever...it's not worth fighting over because I've learned that in certain things, I will not get my way.

We came home, I continued decorating inside and Jim got to work outside. Everything went well, I finished up the inside and for once all the lights outside worked perfectly! I have to admit they look good even if they're not what I would've chosen. For Jim's sake, I hope they last!

I want a Christmas closet...