Holiday Illumination...Very Serious

For those of you who tune in to see pictures of our beautiful son, and have been feeling a little let down lately, here's a little teaser....my apologies, we've been away. More tomorrow.
Today on my way home from Toronto, at the conclusion of our Ottawa Trip (more on that tomorrow) I couldn't help but notice all the deviants who had some form of Holiday Illumination happening already! What happened to the December 1st rule? I take this mostly seriously, and often have to restrain myself from busting out the decorations before this time. This year a few have managed to escape the boxes early, but they're more "wintry" than "christmasy!!"

There are 2 camps of people who have their christmas lights up this early. There are those who stand about 10 feet from the largest tree on their property, and throw strings of lights at it randomly, then rush to run an extention cord (or 12 of them chained together because that's all they have handy) from the tree to the house, plugging them in just so they can be the first person on the block with their lights on. Willy Nilly lights on the lower 4 feet of a 40 foot tree doesn't count. Putz.

Then there are the people who take christmas decor Very Seriously. Notice how I capitalized Very Seriously..this is serious stuff. They start planning their holiday displays sometime back in April, and are the first person at Canadian Tire on November 1st, impatiently hovering while the staff clear out the last of the halloween merchandise to make way for the myriad of holiday illumination choices. And with the advent of the LED lights, their lives have gotten that much richer in the past few years, because LEDs use less electricity, and you know what that means, don't you? That's right, they can put up 5 TIMES AS MANY LIGHTS!!

I passed two of these houses on the way home...ironically very close to one another. The first house had a snow man party happening on the front lawn. Like a very large party of Mommy Snowman (or Snowwoman...I'm surprised they haven't de-gentrified the snowman yet) Daddy Snowman, Baby Snowman and drunk uncle Joe Snowman, and all the Aunt Snowmen and Uncle Snowmen and Cousin Snowmen milling about all over the lawn. Complete with perfectly decorated trees and a straighter than ruler line of lights on the eaves, this is a home that takes it's Holiday Illumination Very Seriously.

Just down the street there was a similar home, this with an entire herd of little tiny lightup reindeer all over the front lawn. Not the customary 1 or 2 reindeer you see, enough to pull Santa and Mrs Claus and all the Elves. I'd be watching my step on that lawn come spring. I wonder if lightbulb reindeers shit little tiny lightbulb poops all over the lawn? That would be a good return on your investment...spare lightbulbs for life. Never the less, another Very Serious Holiday Illumination Family.

We fall somewhere inbetween the Willy Nillys and the National Lampoons of the world. Our lights have been up since we put them there last December. I just plugged them in. They all work. I'll turn them on next week, not before the 1st of December. Done and done.