Lights!

I am totally a Christmas light snob. I like them a certain way but really I just like to see that a little effort went into the effect. I also dole out points for originality. That's why this year, our Christmas lights are really just God's reminder to me that bad lights happen to good people. I wish I could blame it on Slade, I seriously wish I could, but alas... he had nothing to do with it.

I went to get new lights and thought I wanted LED due to the energy saving benefits and they are brighter. In my haste I grabbed "cool white" as opposed to "warm white"...we get them all up and turn them on. Knox yells, "BLUE!" Well, he would be correct because it seems they are so "cool" the look blue. Awesome. So in an effort to debunk any rumors about us converting to Judaism, I added some greed LED lights to my garland on the bannister. That just looked ridiculous. Next, I added some colored lights...I am usually not a big fan of colored lights but I can't very well have two shades of white, now can I?

Needless to say, our lights this year are abysmal. They do not bring me the joy I sought when the process began. They do, however, cause Slade and I to laugh every time we pull in the driveway because they are just that bad. It looks like a colorblind toddler put them up. Oh well, there's always next year.

In what I can only say is the yin to my yang...my Dad and I decided to totally go "Griswald" on their lights this year because all the grand babies will be home for Christmas. It's not super hard when your main goal is to impress a three yr old and two 2 yr olds. Dad went balls to the wall and ordered 300 strands of lights and hired a crew to put them up. After three days of a bucket lift being in my parents front yard, they are complete. I would say I was more a co-designer on the project since I did none of the labor and paid for none of the lights. It didn't turn out exactly as we planned but this was our maiden voyage... so by the time the kids are say, ten, its going to rock your socks off. Dad wanted to do lots of blow up's etc. but in her true 4th quarter quarterback style (comes in at the last minute and thinks she's in charge) Mom nixed that. I tried to impress upon Dad that the true art of being over the top is to make it seem as though you don't realize it's too much. To be overtly tacky is just to easy...it takes more finesse and planning to make people question just what the heck you are doing.

A small fortune later, it looks amazing. Dad is a little bummed because he thinks it's too classy and not "Griswald" enough. Well hell, next year he can just have my "blue" and colored lights and shake things up a bit. He did decorate the kids playhouse in lights and it's really cute.

in process...

finished!