Countdown to Christmas: Day 4

Outdoor Christmas lights - one of my favorites in my Christmas Countdown.  Every year my husband spends a couple of days hanging and setting up our outdoor Christmas lights and decorations.  We live in the part of the county that we never know what type of weather we will be getting - case in point: the first day of setting up decorations was pretty mild, fairly cold but no winds, rain or snow.  The lights went up on the eves of the house and lights were strung along the driveway making their way out to the the lighted deer and "spiral" tree.  The lights on the house all lit up, but as typical (although they were tested ahead of time) the driveway lights, deer & tree didn't light.  My husband took it all in stride, as it seems like we go through this every year, however it was too late in the day to get new parts (lights) and we live in the county so my husband decided that he'd get the replacement parts during the upcoming week.  All the while I continued to work on decorating the interior of the house.

The parts were bought and the week went by, finally Saturday rolled around.  Now, before I go any further let me preface this by saying that both my husband, myself and our girls all made comments at one time or another throughout the week that our house looked kind of lopsided - one side of the house seemed to be lacking in lights.  Since I am a self described semi-perfectionist (except for housework) I decided to get outside and help my husband (and coerce as needed) to get lights up on the side of the house that was lacking.  It was a perfect day for hanging lights - NOT!  The temperature was hovering just around freezing and we had wind and wind gusts blowing from the Northeast which made the wind chill about 15 degrees or so.  Stating that it was COLD was an understatement.  My fingers got numb, my backside got numb, my toes got numb and I think things got numb that I didn't know I had.  My husband fared no better, however I am the bigger whiner when it comes to being cold.  I was probably outside helping for just over an hour (it seemed like more) and my husband was outside for at least 3 hours.  We both came in the house cold, tired and hungry!  Hot chocolate with marshmallows was on the menu! 

Our House Christmas 2010 (I put the lights on the front porch railings
and the candy canes along the right side of the driveway)

All Lit Up, Christmas 2010.  The left side of the house was the
original dark side.  My husband added lights under the big front
windows and vertically along the edge of the building
(he also put the interior Green lights up in the window).

The house looks great (we think so anyway) so it was all worth it!  I have always been fascinated by Christmas lights - there is just something magical about them!  When my husband and I first started out he did not believe in putting up a bunch of lights - too commercial was the excuse that he used.  Over the years and with the addition of our children he has mellowed and now has an appreciation for Christmas that he didn't have in our early years (he used to put up lights just to appease me).  I love my husband and I am so thankful for him and all the work that he does to give "his girls" another piece of the Christmas magic - lights!

I bet you thought that was a wrap huh?  Not quite - our fun out in the cold wasn't over!  The lighted Christmas Parade was next on the family agenda and scheduled for that same evening.  Our experiences at the parade will have to wait for my next blog post as the family voted it as a Christmas favorite (this was our fist time attending)!