A Fight to the Finish

Just came in from wrestling the GD Christmas lights onto the GD tree in the front yard. 

Why do I store them in a tangle every year?  First I had to weave them all over the living/dining room floor to untangle them, then gingerly drag them outside and re-weave them all over the frozen lawn so they wouldn't re-tangle before I set up the little step ladder to string them.  Being a tad short, I did not string them into the higher branches before winding them around the trunk and plugging them into the extension cord.  Presto, they lit!  It was a fight to the finish, but I prevailed.  Another Christmas Miracle!

A few years ago I bought a pre-lit tree to avoid the nightmare of stringing four sets of GD lights.  I remember when I was a child, my father would spend an entire day frigging with the lights because in those far-off bygone days, if one bulb blew, the entire string died.  I remember my Aunt Betty -- she of the nicest house in the family -- following every trend every Christmas.  One year it was that gauzy angel hair stuff, actually made of glass shards which dug into our skin and itched until February.  What was she thinking? !

Tomorrow, being the First Sunday in Advent, is the Sunday I hang our Advent Wreath.  Feels good to be starting Christmas.