a pre-Christmas adventure

[purplewaves1]

decorating the tree went well (mainly 'cause my mom allowed me to do it myself and she just sat there and wrapped presents while i decorated). the outside lights were another adventure altogether. we did them on Sat. afternoon. in order to preface this story correctly, let me just say that i had never had to help with the outdoor Christmas light before. it is a task that usually falls to my brothers and/or my father. the girls do the inside, the boys the exterior. well this year my mom wanted to get everything set up before it got too cold and as the boys are away at school and my dad is suffering for a horrific cold and was therefore taking a nap on Sat. afternoon, the job fell to my mother and i. also, keep in mind that our immediate next door neighbors just got their lights professionally done for the first year, so no matter what we did light-wise, it was going to look pretty paltry in comparison to the hartmann's. in my head, i also remembered our bushes being much smaller (which they were...10 years ago...which i think was the last time i really remember noticing our outdoor light display). needless to say our two evergreen trees that flank our front door are much taller than i remembered (now they are slightly taller than me). the other issue is that there is a crabapple tree right next to one of them which makes going around it to hang up lights kind of a trick. right...so my job was to untangle the lights and hand the next strand to my mother as needed. she is on the backside of the evergreen (the one next to the crabapple) and i am on the other untangling lights. so she says "you have to come here and follow me." i politely respond "just a minute" since i am in the midst of untangling. i finish that strand, put it down and then duck down to walk under the crabapple tree and around to the other side. the crabapple steals my hat with one of it's branches so i arrive on the other side a little breathless and hatless, but triumphant for having made it to the other side. "Here i am!" i declare. she looks me up and down. "Where are the lights?" she says. "On the other side of the tree." i counter. "But here i am." she shakes her head. "No, no. go pick up the lights and follow me!" she says with some scorn. "Well you never said to bring the lights!" i said.
the rest of the of the setting up was pretty much like that. clearly we were not meant to work on outdoor projects together. and next year i'm totally investing in these net lights...which, as the name indicates is a net with lights on it. basically you just throw it over the bushes and volia! lights are done! maybe that's just me.