Stringing up Christmas lights for Christmas, 2005

As long as I'm going to go through the effort of putting up our Christmas lights, I like to get them up by Thanksgiving, and I usually take them down New Year's Day, unless it's raining. So two days before Thanksgiving, I dragged the lights out of the shed, and tested them to make sure they worked ok. Sure as can be, there were sections that were "dead," and the blue string that I like to decorate the railing around the front porch with was nearly history. So I took a trip to a nearby hardware store and picked up a string of blue, ice-like lights that twinkle; a nice touch.

Left: Our neighborhood, decorated for Christmas on December 5, 2005. Right: The facade of our house, the faux Christmas tree and reindeer, and the real Christmas tree, inside our house.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005 dawned clear, and unseasonably warm for a late November day in Roseville, so it seemed like a perfect day to string up the lights, as I like to have them up for Thanksgiving. I absolutely refuse to hang the lights on the eves of the house, as the place is over 30 feet tall, and ladders and I don't get along very well. So I put the lights around the lower eves of the house, as I have little plastic light-hooks clipped to the rain gutters, and it makes stringing the lights up much easier. As simple as that sounds, it takes a 20-foot extension ladder extended nearly all of the way to hang the lights on the facade of our house above the front porch, and the ladder needs to be strapped down with keeper straps, so it won't slide to the side and take me with it. The lights above the garage are easier to hang, as it only requires a 6-foot step ladder.

On that Wednesday day, I spent around five hours hanging up the lights. To ensure the lights look perfect, I have them lit while I'm hanging them, as that will pinpoint dead spots, and it will give me a very good idea of how the display will look. I might add that since the weather was so mild, I wore short pants while stringing up the lights; a rarity on a late November day in Roseville. I connected the lights to an outdoor timer, which turns on at dusk, and allows the lights to remain lighted for eight hours. Yes, the lights were on for Thanksgiving.

Left: Next-door neighbor's place, Fran and Diane's is decorated for the Christmas season. Right: Chris and Tim's place, just to the north of us, is also lit up. Our court likes to celebrate the spirit of Christmas.

Saturday, December 3, 2005, I dragged the animated reindeer and the outdoor lighted "Christmas tree" out of the shed and set them up, in the flower bed, in front of the house. I connected them to another outdoor timer, timed to keep them lit until eight hours after dusk, in tandem with the lights strung up on the facade of our house. All of our lighting uses heavy-duty, outdoor 14-gauge extension cords, and is connected to G.F.C.I. outlets, to be on the safe side. We don't want an accident to destroy our wonderful Christmas!

Photo: Our home is decorated for the holiday, and the lights shine brightly outside, as well as from inside.

To show the world, via the world wide web that I don't have a life, I spent a pleasant half hour or so in the 35-degree cold taking photos of our house, and the decorated houses of some of our neighbors. I couldn't get digital photos to work, so I dragged out my old, trusty Canon AE-1, 35mm film camera that I've had since 1980, attached it to a tripod, and took a few 5-second photos, with an aperture of 5.6. I also had to dust off the cable release, as it is a good thing to have for long exposures.

Sometimes, the old is better than the new. Whatever the case, I wish you a "Merry Christmas."

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