Is it REALLY already the Friday after Thanksgiving?!? While other women in the neighborhood are fighting the crowds of Black Friday (I refuse!!!), Rowen, Grandma, PopPop, and I are putting up the Christmas decorations! The tree is up and trimmed (thank goodness for articial pre-lit trees), and all the normal decor has been replaced with our holiday festives! But...one last daunting task still remains....PUTTING UP THE LIGHTS!!
I am dreading it AGAIN this year....and let me give you a flashback as to why...Christmas 2007...
It was FREEZING the day I tackled the lights. I spent an hour at Target inspecting all the different hanging apparatuses, and even bought my first ladder. Rowen went down for a nap, and I set off to tackle the roof. After a few failed attempts to get the lights hanging perfectly straight, my first string was up, and I was cruising! I must say, I was pretty darn pleased with myself...it was a proud single mom moment, hanging my own lights. The last clip went up and I joyfully skipped into the house to wake up Rowen and show off my work. Just as I went through the garage, Rowen went out the front door. And....immediately took a curious three-year old interest in the electrical cord hanging down by the front door. One tug and......... Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop could be heard in a domino-like effect from the left side of the house, all the way to the right! Rowen exuberantly exclaimed "MOM! That was sooooo COOL! Let's do 'dat again!!"
And I thought....
"All I want for Christmas is for JOLLY JIMINY to be real, so that I can ask him to come sprink;e some magical elf dust on the 100 foot strand of Christmas lights, and 300 broken bulbs that Rowen just pulled off the roof. The photo tells it all. I only took it cuz some day I will laugh at this, just not today...Just not today, when the memory of 4 hours, in the rain, freezing cold and fingers numb, hanging lights is still so fresh in my mind. Rowen panicked and asked, "How is Santa gonna see my house?" Right now little boy, I don't think that matters. YOU are soooo BUSTED" (as journaled Sunday 12/9/2007)
