A Pain Turned Pretty

I absolutely love the excitement of the season. I have been thrown off a little bit this year with my decorating because of our trip out of town over the Thanksgiving holiday. Usually I would spend that weekend decorating the house, putting up the tree, and getting the lights put up outside. This year was different. I have had the house done on the inside but just today got the outside lights finished up. TW and I were going to do it this weekend, but the rain didn't allow for that. So, I was left to do it alone. I could have waited until this weekend for his help, but I wanted the lights up...I am already feeling behind. So, I spent almost three hours today working on the lights. Christmas lights can be so frustrating. I would take the strands and plug them in before putting them up to test them and they worked. Then after I put them on the tree and plugged them in...didn't work! I felt like Clark Griswald on Christmas Vacation. I could hear the background music playing in my head. So, I pulled that strand down and started over. Same thing happened again. Grrrrr! Needless to say I got very frustrated at some points wondering why I even bother with all of this. I don't know if it is more frustrating getting all of the lights placed just right and then dealing with lights that don't work, or trying to figure out how to get all of the extension cords to work together. You would think the Christmas Light manufacturers would have this figured out by now...can't they make it easier for them all to connect together???!!! I finally got it all working and even have them on timers. We will see if they go off tonight when they are supposed to and then come back on tomorrow evening. When we pulled back into the house tonight after a meeting I remembered why I spend all of the time putting up the lights. It looked so pretty. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder though. :) Maybe it looks so pretty to me because of the hard work I put into it. I am certain you can't appreciate the lights near as much unless you have some invested time in the decorating process.