It should come as no surprise that I’m not a huge Christmas fan. The stores bring stuff out way too early and Christmas music drives me a bit bonkers, probably because we now have to hear it starting around Labor Day.
However, I love Christmas decorations, especially lights. I love driving around neighborhoods just to see the creativity of people. My most favorite lawn decoration is Santa in a trailer. It is so wrong it is right. Alas, someone, whom shall remain nameless, won’t let me get one. But, I’ve not given up hope yet.
Since the weather was just right for a fall day today, I decided to finish putting up our outdoor lights. The plan was to use some clips I found to slide onto the shingles. A great thought, but an epic fail in practice. Our shingles don’t stick out far enough for the full effect. A little winter breeze and I could see the lights coming down domino style. Scratch that idea.
The next idea was to buy some hooks like we had at our Albuquerque house. Of course I had to run to the hardware store to get the hooks. When I got back, I started drilling the holes and hanging the hooks. As a side note, the hooks work well as I can use a little tool I have to hang the lights from the ground without needing to climb on the roof or up a ladder.
Everything was going along quite smoothly until I had to start putting hooks on the incline of the garage roof. The ladder, which I thought was so long, came up short. I could reach only high enough to put a couple of hooks. Because of where the gutters are, it became a challenge to try to get on the roof.
My husband volunteered to get on the roof to do those hooks. The ladder was long enough to provide a small spot to ease onto the roof. Unfortunately, the incline is so steep it was hard to get any traction for him to steady himself. It was too dangerous to go any further up, and lights aren’t worth a broken leg or worse.
So on to Plan C, which was to just outline the roofline of the garage just above the door. Once again I took down all of the lights as I had started up the incline, to try again. I started to hang them again and after hanging lights on a couple of hooks, I realized I could probably do the entire gutter along the side of the house.
After checking with the husband to make sure he was on board, down come the lights again and back to the clips. The clips work great on the gutter as they “lock” over the edges. Slowly, but surely, and after four hours of attempts, the lights went up for the fourth time, and the charm time.
We’ll get the hooks up for next year. I think we will rent one of those lift things to raise us up high enough to finish the hooks. It will just let us add a little more decorations/lights each year until we get it as we want (and maybe a Santa Trailer at some point).
The house may not be the most creative in the neighborhood, but it makes me happy when I see it in the dark. In the end that is all that matters.
P.S.—We added two trees this year. I know, I had a moment of weakness. The husband was kind enough to add old fashioned bulb ornaments to the one in the living room. For some reason, simplicity, and a harken back to olden days, was what I was craving for the tree by the fireplace. The tree hits the spot.
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 