It Takes a Village...to Put Up the Christmas Lights

This week I succombed to neighborhood peer pressure and put up outdoor Christmas lights. But it wasn't easy and it wasn't without some serious thought. I truly love Christmas lights and what better place to have them up than here in Arizona, where we can take an evening stroll and admire them without the pesky annoyances of frostbite and 27 layers of clothing? But I was hesitant. Our first forray into the world of outdoor Christmas lights, 5 years ago, ended with a warning from the City of Murrieta, CA promising us a $200 fine if we didn't remove the lights within 7 days. I couldn't believe it! We'd made it more than half-way to next Christmas (it was July) and I felt we should be able to keep them up to take advantage of our head start. It was also the year that I discovered my husband was afraid of being up on ladders, so it would be up to me to get the lights up from then on. The next year, I just put them on the front door and the garage -- places I could easily reach them and remove them. That worked well because it required less lights and I unfortunately purchased these cool big-bulb blue and green lights that would spontaneously explode if you did...um...nothing. So, I had to consolidate my strands of lights and they wouldn't have made it across the roofline again. So here I was again this year with the light dilemma looming. I really wanted lights. I really didn't want to put them up. And I really didn't own enough lights or a ladder. But that didn't stop me! I found a neighbor (neighbor #1, Wende) who I knew who knew another neighbor (neighbor #2, Bo) who had a ladder I could borrow. I bought new candycane colored icicle lights from Wal-mart, making a good guess as to how many I needed. I waited until the big kids got home to rescue me from the "Littles" and grabbed my staple gun so I could get to it. I started over the garage and things went just fine until I discovered the last foot of my second strand of lights didn't actually light up -- but I'd already stapled them to the eaves. Oh well. Then things got dicey as my roof line pitched up and my ladder became more and more wobbly in the grass below. It was during this process that I gathered my first CONCERNED nieghbor, neighbor #3, Marcee. She was walking her dog and expressed her surprise to see me up on a ladder with no one helping me, so she stood at the ladder and steadied it. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the roofline was going up higher than I could reach with the ladder, but I DID NOT WANT TO STOP (thinking I'd never get started again -- how often do I actually have windows without the "Littles" clinging to me like barnacles?) So I decided to climb on the lower part of the roof, hike up to the spot I left off and then lay on my stomach, just a teensy bit over the edge to staple the lights from above. I actually felt more stable on the roof than on the ladder, but Marcee just about lost it at this point. She kept hollering helpful suggestions like, "Should we call the men from church to help you?" and "I can call my Dad to come put them up!" As it got dark, I finished the last of a strand right at the beginning of the highest roof point. I decided to call it a night and actually make dinner, but the next day I was up there again, showing off for my DH, Ren, who didn't seem amused. It did get a bit precarious at the highest part because the roof line was straight but sloped downard from above (kind of like a barn), so I had to lay down and point my body downward and my head over the edge to try to get a good angle with my trusty staple gun. At this point I collected CONCERNED neighbor #2, (but we'll call him neighbor #4 so as not to be confusing, heh heh), John who yelled from across the street, "Do you want a ladder that's actually high enough?" "Yes!" I replied with the blood rushing to my head. He owned this James-Bond-gadget-y ladder which started out tiny and bent and twisted until it was towering over my head (with me trying to balance it before it fell over and smashed my hubby's car.) But it got me up to the top! I finished that part only to discover I didn't quite have enough lights -- I was 3 feet short. One trip to Wal-mart later, I pulled out the short, rickety ladder from /Bo, neighbor #2 and finished up the lights while my family started dinner without me. They look great, I think, (the unlit part is kind of hidden, so we won't talk about that part) and I'm so glad they're up early. Because, now I have a month to figure out...how am I going to get them down?!!! Time to get to know more of my neighbors.