Christmas Lights

I'm no Clark Griswald but I do have a few tips to share about Christmas lights.

1.  Wait until all the snow and ice is gone from your roof. It's better to have your neighbors laughing at you for still having your lights up than taking a trip to the ER.

2. Consider it a good year if you get them down by April 1. Made it this year!

3. Create a map of which light strand went where and then label each cord with a numbered piece of tape so you can follow it again next year. This way all the roof clips or gutter clips are facing the right way and you never have to guess where to put the extensions cords. This may stifle a little creativity and you will have to inevitably replace some broken clips and burned out bulbs, but it make the process go much smoother next year.

4. Use the "buddy system". Never work outside on the roof alone. Always have someone supervising:

We prefer the classic C9 white bulbs around the roof line but I realize this may be a little boring for some people. My BIL also like the white lights and the "lining" concept but he takes it a bit farther, lining every door, window, roof and corner with little white lights. My sister put the kabosh on his idea of lining every piece of siding and he knew he was already pressing his luck putting Petey the giant blowup penguin in the front yard. My sister was so embarrassed by Petey that she emailed her new neighbors to explain that she really didn't like the massive penguin, that is was more of a joke, and explaining how Wade's friends pooled their money in college to buy him and Wade brokered a deal that if he put in $5, he got to keep the penguin when they all moved out of the dorms. (What they did with a 7' penguin in the dorms is something I've purposely never asked about.) Unfortunately, the massive amount of snow and storms this winter busted most of their lights and caused Petey to meet a swift and untimely end. Our C9's, however, held up nicely and most still work!

After seeing some cool Hawkeye logos on a house in RR, I'm temped to try to create the Twins' logo on our rooftop. I bet I could convince Wade to do it...but only if they don't come out with "roof" Fatheads by next Christmas.