Who Needs Lights?

I went into this Holiday season determined to make it GREAT!  Attitude is everything, right?

To help achieve that goal we dug out our (pre-lit) Christmas tree a little on the early side.  I figured this would give us a little extra time to set it up, fix any lights that would certainly need fixing, fluff it up, etc...  THEN we could decorate it over Thanksgiving weekend as planned.  That seems to have become a tradition for us.  However, one tradition that I needed to get rid of was the crankiness that came with it. 

Our plan was going to work perfectly and we'd have the picture perfect experience!  LOL  Okay, so I didn't really think we'd achieve "picture perfect" but if we could achieve "happy" and maybe even "memorable" that would be great.

Yeah, that was great and all until our tree decided to not work with us.  I'm sure the tree can decide to be stubborn, right?  There were soooo many sections of lights that weren't working.  Normally there's some but not that many and normally our little amazing light fixer tool solves all our troubles.  So we start working on the lights, with our little problem solvers, and while we were being fairly patient (yet disappointed) the tree just was not cooperating... at all.  Ultimately we get enough of the lights working, place the non-working sections strategically near the back.  Oh, and Carie found a small strand of lights that she strategically added to the tree to help fill in a section.  Whatever works, right?  We decided we had to forge ahead.  What will be, will be.

So it's all (or enough) lit up and all decorated.  We proceed with decorating our mantle with lighted garland, our stockings, etc...  Our outside lights have been up for a couple of weeks (due to weather) and now turned on.

Then suddenly lights started going out... in nearly every decoration. 

First a section of lights went out on the roof.  We waited for a day of decent enough weather to check them out to see if there was anyway we could easily fix them.  Carie hauled the ladder out and got it all setup.  She turned on the lights and to her surprise they all worked!  She called me to see if I had fixed the lights.  Nope!  They just started working on their own.  Which of course means that they'll also stop working on their own.  Sure enough not long after that section went out again.  Again we waited for a decent weather day, hauled out the ladder, turned them on and they worked!  Lesson here, turn them on before hauling out the ladder!?!?  But this time we decided to see if we could make them go out, and we did.  We found the culprit, marked the section and hopefully fixed it.  So far, so good.  Time will tell.

Then the entire very top section of our tree went out.  While it's a really small section, it looks silly to have the top completely out.  Hmmm... maybe I'll stop and pick up some more small strands of lights and we'll just add our own!  Boy oh boy this is starting to feel like a red neck decorating job.

Then a few days later (exactly) half of the lights in the garland on our mantle went out.  The entire right section closest to the tree is dark.  I wonder if they are communicating?  Maybe I'll just pray that those come back on?

There are exactly 2 areas that haven't gone out... yet.  I'm not going to tempt fate any further and I'll leave it at that.

It felt like every step we tried to take forward would land us a few steps back.  How in the world are parts of so many things not working?  Someone is testing me!

Thank goodness we went a little light on our decorating efforts this year.  We probably put up about as much as we have in years past but not compared to last year.  Last year we got just a little more than crazy.  I guess that's what happens when you put things up and they work... you tempt fate.  Maybe this year it's all about karma?

As we take down our decorations this year I think we'll have to decide what to keep and what to replace.  It would be a shame to have to replace our tree since we really like it... when it's working. 

Another factor... the puppy.  He's a sly one.  Maybe I should go ahead and let Mason have at it!  Then we would most certainly need to replace it.  Hmmmm...

We did manage to get our gingerbread house project done, another Thanksgiving tradition of ours.  A little change in the tradition this year... I decided to make our own houses rather than buying the kits.  It only took me ruining one solid batch to figure out the basics of what I was doing.  They turned out well enough.  Well enough that this will be a new step to our tradition.  I would like to fiddle with it a little next year and see what I can come up with.  (I'll have to add pictures later.  I don't seem to have them on this computer.)

Ultimately I think it would be fun to have a ginger bread house decorating party!  In lieu of that, this year we are hosting a slumber party for the girls.  We'll decorate cookies, gingerbread people, do a couple craft projects, watch movies, etc...  Perhaps I've just lost my mind?  We'll know soon enough!