So life is completely crazy right now BUT I was bound and determined to have Christmas lights up this year (last year I traded my father-in-law putting up my Christmas lights for a hunting day with matt...I think that's called killing 2 birds with one stone...no quail pun intended :) ANYWAY last year when my FIL hung them, the curse of the Christmas lights continued from the previous year...they worked for a few minutes and then quit working...I even had bought this groovy timer!!! So...yesterday, I walked away from the mounds of work in my office...found a scarf...put a beanie on Mac...told Laina to change out of her swimsuit :) (she opted for just slipping on a jacket over it) and we headed outside. I gave the kids jobs and believe it or not...it actually worked!! Laina helped! She handed me all the little plastic shingle clips that let you just stick the lights on with the end of a pole, and Indy was a great light carrier, (and no dad you cannot recruit them for your own lights) So we get going and I realized we're missing something....CHRISTMAS MUSIC! (remember the dad with the 500 cds?) so we round the front of the house and we blast our XM from the car (the kids dismantled our only cd player :) for just a few minutes everything was pure bliss...I'm thinking "this is what Christmas is all about" Mac started dancing (yes mom...he was walking in a circle dancing around) Laina and Indy were dancing...joy joy joy...then-it startins to get dark and really cold...and our entire string of lights go out....I think hmm...the cord must've come unplugged...no biggie we'll fix it later...got to keep hangin', losing daylight. So I finish the house (took me 45 minutes...I timed it :) and went around to the beginning. The extension cord is still plugged in and the outlet works...hmm...maybe a fuse? so I unplug the first string to get the spare fuse out...and it drops...into the rocks...I have Indy go and get a flashlight (because of course by now its pitch black outside...and freezing) and try to find my needle in a haystack. Then I figure I'll just go to the next connection and get the fuse out of that one...so I drag the chair over...disconnect that strand...and drop the fuse again...in the rocks...okay...I finally get a spare fuse and plug it in and....they work!!!!! for 12 seconds and then out again. By this time the noise level from McLaren has risen to almost unbearable and he's just following me around begging to be picked up...he's bleeding from a major wipe out earlier (ok just a spot on his nose) so I finally cave....defeated we trudge inside to eat dinner (should've served dinty moore, then we would at least have ended on a positive note). My YW president calls and we get to talking and she says that you have to load the lights from different sockets...duh! I thought my house is so small that surely we could do it all from one outlet...I mean I just wanted some lights around the roof!! how the heck do people run all those lines with all those crazy lights!!! ...so tomorrow (I just couldn't bring myself to do it today...and perhaps not even tomorrow) I'll go and restring the other half of the house...because we WILL have Christmas lights this year...oh yes...we WILL.
(p.s. I was so distraught over my hanging that I didn't even get to discuss my reasons for hanging them in the first place. Honestly I think its just because its so dark around here...we have no street lights and this is the best excuse for lights at nighttime...I'm thinking of leaving them up until February
p.s.s. I come from a family where the christmas light production is so scary that everyone tries to run and hide...but you can't hide from Wade...who's biggest achievement to date was being featured on the front page of the Thanksgiving weekend Yuma Daily Sun with his lawn of ginormous Christmas trees made completely out of lights
p.s.s.s.s.s. don't have a picture to post 'cause the lights don't work.)
Oh, and I just couldn't resist trying out my new beanie on her little guy...love the face and love the color!!
