Paging Mr. Griswald
Well, this is the year my family is coming to Abilene for Thanksgiving. At the same time, we will have our gift exchange since we will all be elsewhere for Christmas. Because of that, we needed to go ahead and decorate for Christmas.
The first thing with which I was confronted was probably a comentary on the entire season. There is a location on our porch with a nail whereupon a snowman decoration has hung for the past couple of years. However, one day while Kendra and I were teaching the second grade class at church we needed a cross in a hurry. I had a walking stick in my truck so I went out and got it, broke it, and tied it together with rustic twine to form a cross. It worked well for the lesson, but it also looked perfect on that nail on our front porch. As I picked up the snowman, I instantly realized that old Frosty would have to find a new home this year. I hope I can maintain that idea for the rest of this season in the face of selfishness and consumerism. I hope the cross keeps its prominent position in my life instead of just on my porch.
After that, I started with the Christmas lights. Pursuant to that, I spent Saturday on the roof.
I now have the roofline of the house outlined in clear lights Obviously, I went with the harder-to-find C7s. I like the understated classiness of the C7s. Besides, the C9s are for show-boaters. I also like the uniformity of the uni-color look with a 9.5 inch separation between lights. Honestly, I can't imagine what is going through the minds of people who go multi-color but do not adopt a pattern. They're just amateurs, I guess. I am a little upset about the fact that I have not been able to color-match the extension cords to the shingle color since we got our new roof. I'll get to that later.
The monkey grass in front has the twinkle lights and they are quite attractive, but the next step will be the crepe-myrtles. I will try to do them today, but with a 1,000 light minimum per unit, it will take some time. Besides, I am helping someone move today.
Although many miss this, the key to exterior holiday illumination is to maintain a classy look without being gaudy. To that end, I do not employ the use of anything like plastic characters or wooden cut-outs. It's just a personal choice that has served me well. Another important thing to remember is that if you cannot decorate a tree properly, you should not decorate the tree. To throw a string or two in the lower branches of a tree produces something that is just rather sad. Perhaps I will post a picture of the finished product, but I am hoping to wait until it snows.
I am thankful for so many things this week. I started to try to list them, but I realized that though it was a nice exercise, it was also sort of folly. I could never complete the list because I could keep thinking of ways I have been blessed in my life. Thank you God for blessing me in inumerable and incomprehensible ways. Forgive me for withholding anything but my everything from you. Pardon my shortcomings and restore your mercies.
The first thing with which I was confronted was probably a comentary on the entire season. There is a location on our porch with a nail whereupon a snowman decoration has hung for the past couple of years. However, one day while Kendra and I were teaching the second grade class at church we needed a cross in a hurry. I had a walking stick in my truck so I went out and got it, broke it, and tied it together with rustic twine to form a cross. It worked well for the lesson, but it also looked perfect on that nail on our front porch. As I picked up the snowman, I instantly realized that old Frosty would have to find a new home this year. I hope I can maintain that idea for the rest of this season in the face of selfishness and consumerism. I hope the cross keeps its prominent position in my life instead of just on my porch.
After that, I started with the Christmas lights. Pursuant to that, I spent Saturday on the roof.
I now have the roofline of the house outlined in clear lights Obviously, I went with the harder-to-find C7s. I like the understated classiness of the C7s. Besides, the C9s are for show-boaters. I also like the uniformity of the uni-color look with a 9.5 inch separation between lights. Honestly, I can't imagine what is going through the minds of people who go multi-color but do not adopt a pattern. They're just amateurs, I guess. I am a little upset about the fact that I have not been able to color-match the extension cords to the shingle color since we got our new roof. I'll get to that later.
The monkey grass in front has the twinkle lights and they are quite attractive, but the next step will be the crepe-myrtles. I will try to do them today, but with a 1,000 light minimum per unit, it will take some time. Besides, I am helping someone move today.
Although many miss this, the key to exterior holiday illumination is to maintain a classy look without being gaudy. To that end, I do not employ the use of anything like plastic characters or wooden cut-outs. It's just a personal choice that has served me well. Another important thing to remember is that if you cannot decorate a tree properly, you should not decorate the tree. To throw a string or two in the lower branches of a tree produces something that is just rather sad. Perhaps I will post a picture of the finished product, but I am hoping to wait until it snows.
I am thankful for so many things this week. I started to try to list them, but I realized that though it was a nice exercise, it was also sort of folly. I could never complete the list because I could keep thinking of ways I have been blessed in my life. Thank you God for blessing me in inumerable and incomprehensible ways. Forgive me for withholding anything but my everything from you. Pardon my shortcomings and restore your mercies.
4 Comments:
And God, forgive me for having multi-colored lights on my house in no particular pattern. I just always seem to offer thanks for the fact that they got up! How selfish of me to be so "indifferent". Val, you're too funny! see you soon
Neen- I feel like I am a horrible friend. Here you were suffering with this problem and I never knew. That's all in the past, though. I'm here for you buddy. We'll get through this. There may be some hard days ahead, but it will be for the best.
Val--
But...what about the squirrel trap? Isn't there a palce for that this holiday season? Oh--and you forgot to mention that you were thankful for me.
BST- The answer is "no." But to which question? Hmmm... Maybe in order it goes: No. No. No, I didn't forget.
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