There are FOUR lights!

Every year right about this time we drag our tired turkey-laden butts out into the yard. We painstakingly plug in each strand of lights, discovering X amount of the bulbs are blown. We search through our junk drawers, vainly looking for the replacement bulbs that we so very carefully put in a place we'd be able to easily find them for the next year. Bulb by burnt-out bulb we replace and test, making sure each strand is at 100%, before finally pasting every square inch of tree and shrub with so many lights that God himself must be envious.

What does it get us? A month of illuminated yard that someone MAY drive by and say "Oh, look." before forgetting it was ever there to begin with as a new luminous feast feeds their eyes.

I'm tired of the pageantry and the show of it all.

This is the first Christmas I'll be spending away from my family in a long time and it's become very clear how little the lights mean to me. It used to be a fun tradition. Now it's a reminder what's not here.

Whatever holiday you celebrate, in whatever way you celebrate it, spend it with someone you care about. Take the time to let them know you actually think about them from time to time. And don't just do it this one lonely month of the year. Make it a daily affair.

ETA: The thread topic was just a reference to a Star Trek TNG episode, in case anyone didn't know. Happy Holidays.

a reply to: AM10101

You don't know what you got till it's gone....

a reply to: AM10101

a reply to: AM10101



Are you the tipsy redhead who's had one too many cocktails?

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: AM10101

Are you the tipsy redhead who's had one too many cocktails?

Is your house on fire Clark?

a reply to: ketsuko

Holiday RooOOOoooooooooOOOad! Holiday RooOOOooooooOOooad!

a reply to: AM10101

Just marathoned that whole season a couple of days ago!

If you use the right displays, all of the neighbors will applaud your non participation in future years:

A few days before Xmas, we get in the SUV and drive around the neighborhood eyeballing the Christmas lights.
Its a nice tradition, that I hope my kids continue to enjoy.

Sorry your away this year.
That sucks.
I always save vacation time for the end of the year so i can take December till mid January off.

a reply to: AM10101

What lights?

The kids are out of the house, I gather? So what, enjoy the glow with your spouse/better half then. I enjoy the lights walks with my husband with and without the kids, it's not that hard to do.

We don't decorate the house's exterior, though. We have a lack of exterior plugs and I'm not wild about an outdoor extension cord to the plugs in the garage (set way back from the street) being used like that. In lieu of outdoor decorating, we slapped 500 lights on our 6 foot tree inside, it lights up the window just fine. And of course, put lights along the fireplace mantle, and on the sofa table along the wall.

I think ships on Lake Michigan can see our living room's glow & mistake it for a lighthouse beacon.