The Ever-Growing Christmas Light Obsession

My mother-in-law assures me that John's affinity for outdoor Christmas light displays has been developing since his early boyhood years.

Now that we are a.) not living in a foreign country and b.) not completely remodeling the entire house during the holiday season, John has taken this season of "normalcy" to further enhance our home's outdoor light display.

I grew up in a household that never put lights outside. (OK, I take that back. One year in Louisiana my mom, my sister and I got unusually ambitious and put lights out in the flower beds. A week later, in another unexpected turn of events, it froze. The begonias were melted into the earth and we ended up with a Christmas light display consisting of strands of lights piled on the ground in front of our house.)

It's just a good thing we never lived on a street that wanted everyone to participate in some type of Christmas light display unity. All the neighbors would probably have had to assume we were Jehovah's Witnesses.

So, after searching high and low for yet more blue C9 Christmas lights, taking a couple trips to gather Craig's List finds, visiting the Builder Supply Superstore for some wooden posts, spray painting aforementioned posts with green spray paint, and strategically wiring the multitude of lights now adorning our house and sidewalk, John has enhanced our outdoor display.

He claims the extra six or seven sets of lights all along the sidewalk, driveway, and fence add "that extra dimension to the display" that we were apparently missing all these years.

I just can't vacuum or use the hairdryer while the Christmas lights are doing their duty at night.

My husband is content. No, he is more than content; he's downright excited, so I, in turn, am ecstatic. The lights look awesome to me, and we all know I would never spend all that time putting them out, so more power to John!