I have been anticipating hanging Christmas lights since last Christmas!! Slugger and I drove around one evening last year to determine what style/color we liked the best. And then the day after Christmas, we bought a bunch of icicle lights (and a new bigger Christmas tree) :) When I decided to do this 40 new things thing, hanging Christmas lights was one of the first things on my list!! And I've been so excited to do it since!!
I patiently waited until after Thanksgiving to do any Christmas decorating, though I was SOO tempted to start early!! I have only started to develop Christmas spirit in the last few years so all this excitement has me even more excited :) In addition to the lights, I bought a Nativity this year which was supposed to come in the mail yesterday (it came this morning).
I woke up Friday morning, did a little shopping, and began the decorating process!! I had planned it all out so part of my shopping was buying gutter hanger clip things and a timer. I had actually put the tree up, though not decorated on Thanksgiving night.
I am so glad I had the clip things!! It was SOO much easier than I had thought it'd be. Over the garage they're attached to the shingles. When I rounded the corner to the gutters above the walkway, I hit a snag. My fancy new gutters have fancy screens over them to keep the leaves out. And the gutter clips out, I learned! But they easily attached to the eave under the gutter and it looks okay like that so yay! I was tempted to unscrew the screens, but seeing as how it's leaf season, I really didn't think that'd be a good idea.
Then I started on the A frame, high part of the front over the big windows. My 6' ladder only got me about 2/3 of the way up. Uh... the neighbor wasn't home. I got up what I could on both sides and let the middle dangle. I was attempting to make sure I could get the whole front done with one strand because that's all I had left from my purchase last year. It looked very redneck to me. I meant to take a picture but I forgot. Turns out I also hung them backwards so the plug was on the wrong side of the house. Oops.
The only "issue" with the lights right now is that they don't look very icicle-y yet. They were all bound very tightly in the packaging and haven't quite loosened up or "fallen" yet. They're better than they were yesterday so I'm hopeful!
My neighbor finally came out today but he didn't have his ladders here - they're at his land in East Texas. So I hit up my good friend Lisa who had already offered her 8' ladder. This evening, her husband Eugene came over with their extension ladder and held it for me while I climbed up. The older I get the more I don't like heights. But I did it!! I'm not sure I would've felt as safe without Eugene holding the ladder.
My next snag came in the fact that I only have one green outdoor extension cord. Bright orange just wasn't gonna work for me. I had a brainstorm though - other lights!! So, now the whole walkway and door frame are lit with the little white lights, being used as extension cords :) Not sure its safe to have them lying on the ground in the leaves, but maybe it'll make me stay on top of those pesky leaves that never go away!!!
But, now they're done!!! So pretty :) The candy canes aren't new. I really want a reindeer or something in the yard. So that'll be this year's after Christmas sale purchase!! I mean, I have to compete with my brother's amazing display every year!!
Enjoy the pretty pictures. My favorite is the one where you can see in the front door where Slugger is waiting for me.
The lights look good!
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