A new fixture to the front?

I hate when Thanksgiving becomes the "forgotten" holiday. It goes against my principles (ok, principles might be a strong word) to put up Christmas decor before Turkey Day. It bugs the heck out of me to be shopping for Halloween candy and listening to "Deck the Halls" blasting from the speakers at Pat Catan's. (True story.)

But, this is also Cleveland -- and I am a realist. It doesn't take a complete genius to conclude that it makes much more sense to put up outside lights on Monday -- when it's Greg's day off and the outside temperature is predicted to be low 60's and sunny, rather than on Friday - -the day after Thanksgiving -- when weather men and women are calling for a chance of snow. I mean c'mon....we don't want to repeat the year when the kids were little and we put up outside lights exactly one week before Christmas, now do we?

And so, principles were tossed aside with the wind of last night and today...and we set to work. Can you say, Family Home Evening? (And no, hopefully, I'm not always so quick to toss aside my principles.)

Some of our after-Christmas purchases from last year were the first (and last) to go up this year. I don't know the height of our roof...but it's up there. And Greg is tall. But despite that, it still took a huge ladder --on the highest rung -- with the screw gun in hand -- to drill in the plastic pieces that were to hold the rope lights. Hmmm...worked well...until some of them broke and I had to climb the ladder in order to re-deliver the screw gun so Greg could try again.

Have I mentioned I don't love heights? Or at the very least...climbing a ladder...at night...when it's windy?

We only got the job half-finished last night. So, this morning (when the temperature had dropped about 15 degrees), we were back at it. Only this time, Greg had to rig up a contraption to keep himself from sliding off the pitch of the roof.  Notice in the bottom two pictures. Now, imagine me sprawled out on the red ladder -- with it braced against the house -- holding up the silver ladder which Greg was balancing on all the while drilling screws into the woodwork and weaving the rope lights through.

For obvious reasons, there is no picture of both of us at the same time.

While I cautiously braced my hand on his ladder, trying to wiggle my fingers to keep them from freezing to the rungs (ok,  it wasn't THAT cold), I had a flashback. Perhaps it was a dizzy spell of sorts. They always say not to look down. So I tried looking up. The clouds moving across the sky didn't help me feel more secure, so I just stared straight ahead and remembered Christmas the year I was pregnant with Addysen.
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I'm always a fan of decorating early in order to enjoy it for as long as possible. (Just not way before Thanksgiving). We lived in Southern Utah at the time so we had the luxury of paying $5 for a permit and cutting our own tree from the mountains.

Long story short:
We saw the "perfect" tree...from the bottom of the mountain. Young fools that we were...we started hiking up the mountain and through the snow trying to reach the tree. I'm pretty sure that we either weren't really looking at the same tree -- or we lost sight of it as we got closer. Either way, being very large with child (gave me much more appreciation for Mary riding a donkey while pregnant), I got a little panicky. Not only was I out of breath, but I was slipping and sliding all over the mountainside when the realization struck that I would also have to figure out how to get DOWN the mountain. I distinctly remember thinking that perhaps this was not the best activity for someone in my state.

So, I sat right down in the middle of the mountain and told Greg to go ahead and get the tree...while I waited. It wasn't too long after that I heard him yell, "Ok, I've got it." And it wasn't too much longer after that I heard, "Oh shoot." That exclamation was quickly followed by large tree slipping and sliding (branches snapping and breaking) down the mountain.

Thankfully, Greg wasn't attached to the tree.

I'm pretty sure we broke some rules of engagement among tree-cutting folks there in Southern Utah because we abandoned that "perfect" tree in search of another...this time, we thought we'd look for one a little closer to the road...a little closer to the truck.

By that point, we were out of time...so we had to go tree hunting another day. Finally, after getting stuck in the snow and pushing/digging/praying our way out of THAT mess, we found another "perfect" tree which we promptly cut down, took home, and decorated.

Hmmm...too bad I can't remember if that was the year Greg got pneumonia and spent the entire Christmas break asleep on the couch.
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Anyway...we finally got the lights up...and no one died or ended up maimed. Now, I'm just thinking that the lights might be up till next May....

Or maybe...it's more likely they'll be up forever.