The Halls Are Decked

There seems to be some sort of a requirement in the blogosphere that twenty-something females who blog must dedicate an entire post to featuring the Christmas decor in their home. And being a twenty-something female blogger, I feel I should grab a glass of eggnog and oblige.

The past couple of years we lived in a smaller house in a neighborhood that was big on inflatables in the front yard and low (is that the right word?) on Christmas lights on houses. This was great for my loving husband 1) because we do not believe in inflatables and 2) there was no need to find the perfect warm afternoon to scurry up onto the rooftop and hang a few strands of lights. But with the move to suburbia came the need to put lights up this year.

We went with the LED kind of lights to be, you know, environmentally friendly and because we only have one outlet outside of our house. (For those electronically challenged like myself, you can plug in like 85 stands of LED lights into one outlet and only 3 strands of the old school kind.) I remember growing up, I would have to go plug in SIX different outlets outside. And at each outlet there were 12 extension cords. I am pretty sure my dad added all of those outlets because he hung more than 10,000 lights. Ah, memories. He also rented a cherry picker (you know the kind electricians use to go up and work on power lines?) to get the lights all the way up our 30 foot birch trees we had in our front yard. Someone pop in the VHS of Christmas Vacation and cue Joy to the World.

So one warm afternoon BEFORE Thanksgiving, my loving husband said he was biting the bullet and going for it. I told him that was fine and dandy but those things would not be plugged into our one outlet until AFTER Thanksgiving. He rolled his eyes. But he agreed to wait.

I must tell you that our house is built on some sort of elevation. Our driveway is steep. Our sidewalk is steep and all the gables on our home are steep. We knew we were in trouble when the eight foot ladder wouldn't even get close enough to the roof for him to shimmy up there. We had to borrow my dad's 16 foot ladder. Why does my dad have a 16 foot ladder, you ask?? To hang Christmas lights, of course!

I am not going to lie, watching him do this made me a teensy, tinsy bit nervous. Not really concerned because of what would happen to him if he fell.....more nervous because I knew if he did fall, I would have to call his mother and explain why he would be in a full body cast for Christmas. And this was a phone call I did not want to be forced to make.

I am pleased to announce there were no injuries in the hanging of the lights. They look great! And we were so the first people on our street to turn them on the day after Thanksgiving.

To fulfill my blogging requirements, here are a couple of other pictures of decorations in our home. I am not really a "go all out for Christmas" kind of girl. I know, I know, let the judging commence. Really, I am more a baking and cooking and sipping festive spirits kind of girl. Speaking of which, my glass of eggnog is empty. Time to wrap this up.

You will notice the stockings are hung with care. I am SO excited to actually have a fireplace to display them. I will let you guess which one is my loving husband's stocking. Does it bother me they don't match? I will let you decide for yourself the answer to that question :)