M - Christmas lights inside and out

I absolutely enjoy Christmas every year and getting ready for it is one of the best parts.

We really like our Christmas tree and Dana has worked out a great system for keeping the lights on it while in storage and using ziplocs and post-it notes to label all the plugs according to where they go on the tree.

Part of our tradition is watching Miracle on 34th Street while we put up the tree. Mind you, this is the VHS version. However, we received the DVD this year as a gift so we're really hot stuff now.

We also put up Christmas lights on the house each year. I remember our first year in this house (1998) and I had MAJOR plans to decorate the outside. The only lights I had were almost all at least 10 years old that I'd hauled from my home in Ardmore. To make a long story short, I sat out in the dark in the freezing cold checking hundreds of light bulbs and finally got so mad I threw every strand of light in a box and gave up.

We've advanced since then and have a pretty good thing going now. We have an alternating light pattern between green, red, and clear and put light strands on all the front eaves and ridges of the house. We also have some candy cane lights we put out.

It seems like this year was the first time in a while it wasn't absolutely FREEZING. We still start way too late in the day and end up finishing in the dark.

MammaBoz was not a big fan of Katie's assistance on the roof this year. In fact, she literally couldn't look up at us and the neighbor had to take our picture!

This year we should be able to keep all our shingle tabs on the light bulbs themselves so it will be much easier next year to put everything back up. I've also drawn a map that shows where each strand goes so the light patterns will end up in the right place. Don't look too hard but this year we have a couple of colors out of order where the strands meet.

This is not easy for two Type A OCD peeps like us but we...managed. :-)

It's not much but it'll do for our special domicile.