Red Light District

It's that time of the year again.  The time where I schlep the Christmas tree down from the attic, haul down the lights & ornaments, pack up the Halloween and Thanksgiving hoopla and start decking the halls.  If the weather is decent, I will begin the task of hanging the outside lights.  Not a major endeavour, but it does take me about 3-4 hours to do it right.  Ever since we bought our first house in Dallas, I have always tried to decorate the outside of the house with lights just like my dad did back in Jersey.  I always loved the lights and had a dream to make a spectacular display.  In Dallas, I started one year with a couple of strings of multicolored lights with the big C9 bulbs.  I really liked houses with a single color theme (blue, green, red, white) and eventually decided to go all red.  I started buying strings of red only bulbs each year and replacement bulbs in red.  Funny that the red color would always sell out first before the rest of the sets.  Eventually, I built up a large stash of lights that could almost encircle the entire house.  Each year, I tried to buy a new set so to replace the older ones as they got worn out and replaced bulbs that broke or stopped working.  When we moved down to Houston 20+ years ago, I stuck with the them and kept putting up red lights each year.  I've considered going to a different system.  I even bought a few strands of the icicle lights but never could fit them in my plan.  A few years back, my son wanted me to put up multi-colored lights instead of all red.  I informed him that, while I appreciated his input and would welcome his help, when he gets his own house he can hang whatever lights he prefers.  

Some years they got up early (pre-Thanksgiving), other years it was halfway through December before they were up.  It really depended upon my mood and how busy we were.  Two years ago, right after after Shadow died, I didn't get them up until just before Christmas.  Honestly, my heart just wasn't in it at that time.

Weather was superb and I got most of the lights up today.  As with so many single bulb strands, there is always one or two finicky bulbs that have broken during the process and this year I have one dead socket.  Have strung the side bushes with small white lights as accents.  I want to string a few sets of lights on the palm trees out front but not sure if I will get them up this year.  I even got the two Sentries up with their spot lights.  Back when momma was in her craft era, she made up a lot of lawn decorations for various holidays.  For Christmas, she made two 6 foot tall soldiers (aka Nutcracker style) that I post every year.  Definitely not your store-bought decorations.  I station them out front with two spot lights to guard the house.  We have a few other freestanding yard decorations, but nothing as big as Curly & Mo.  11 months out of the year, they sit up in the attic awaiting their chance to shine. 

Not sure who is guarding whom

Let the festivities commence!