Holiday decorating

As soon as I returned from the stores Sat afternoon we got to work on the exterior decorating.

I bought 15 foot variegated pine garlands to drape/swag across the windows and deep red velvet bows to anchor the corners. With a step ladder and Spouse as my tools, I attached the bows to the garland and hung the garland from the crown molding above the windows. Since our house sits on a corner we decided to decorate both the front and the side of the house, both of which face the street. We decorated the 6 windows on the 1st floor of the house.

Next we opened the box of lights and stretched them out before winding them around the columns that frame the porch entrance to the front and side doors, as well as lining the entire length of the wrap around porch railing. I connected the end of the light string to an extension cord and plugged it into the exterior electric socket to make sure everything was lit. Success!

On Sun we did some house cleaning, then borrowed our neighbor's ladder to I could get onto the porch roof. I am not afraid of heights, but I am very uncomfortable about being near the edge of high places. I can look out the window of the 3rd floor with no ill feelings, but scooting myself along the edge of the 1st floor porch roof made my heart race.

I leaned over to attach plastic clips to the edge of the shingles, then clipped the light strings into the plastic clips. I repeated this every 3-4 feet along the length of the front and side of the wrap around porch roof; 100 feet in total. It was not difficult work, but it was difficult because of my discomfort being near the edge of the roof. I connected the end of the light string to the same extension cord, and added a timer so the lights would turn themselves on and off.

When the porch roof lights were finished I brought the rest of the pine garlands and velvet bows onto the porch roof and decorated the 6 windows on the 2nd story of the house. Adding together the time spent on Sat & Sun I estimate it took about 5 hours to complete this.

It was almost dark and I was tired so I decided to call it a day. I have yet to fish the wreaths out of the attic and hang them on the front and side doors, and attach the removable hook to the house (inside the porch) for the largest wreath. That will complete the exterior decoration of the 1st and 2nd stories. I'll take and post photos soon.

I'm toying with the idea of placing electric candles in the 2 dormer windows of the 3rd story. I think they look really charming and would definitely match the Victorian style of our house, but I'm a little hesitant because those candles seem to be so 'overdone' here in DE. It is very common to see electric candles in the windows of homes all year round here. 'Candles in the windows aren't just for Christmas anymore' seems to be the motto of my fellow Delawareans. So I will probably leave them out.

I hate to decorate in ways that are too common. Remember when everyone and their brother decided to paint their dining room deep red or burgundy? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I tend to shy away from expected things like that.

Spouse suggested that perhaps we might pull out the artificial Christmas tree this week and start putting it together a few evenings after dinner. That way when we return from VA on Sun afternoon the tree will be set up and we can put the lights on and decorate it. Decorating our tree is quite a project, as we usually have well over 200 ornaments to hang, but I really enjoy it. I like to put on Christmas music and sing along as we open box after box of ornaments and distribute them as equally as possible around the tree. As cliche as it might sound, to me there is something magical about a lit Christmas tree.

This is our 1st Christmas in this house and I believe its going to be a beautiful one.

Drag Queen name of the day: Barb Dwyer