Christmas Traditions #2: Outside Decorating

If it were not for two small problems, my house would like it was decorated by Clark Griswold from Christmas Vacation (except I light colored lights, ole Griswold was pure white lights).

What are the two things that keep me from conquering Christmas by directly contributing to the hysteria of so-called "global warming"?  Money and the availability of electricity.   

Building up enough lights to have a collection similar to Mr. Griswold would require, in my estimation, somewhere between $500 and $1500.  CRAZY!  If I were to tell my wife that I wanted to go drop $500 on Christmas lights, she would laugh me out of the house.  But that is not to say that it cannot be done.  I just have to buy the lights a few strands a year, and hope that I don't lose too many to malfunction during that time.  This year I scored big as my dad gave me a large box of lights, so that was a big help.

As you may already know, the Enchanted Mansion is an older house and is absent some modern necessities.  Yes, we have indoor plumbing, A/C and heat, and some other essentials, but there are some things that are just plain annoying.  The house has about 5% of it's lighting overhead, mostly wall sconces and lamps, is not terribly efficient, everything creaks, and most of all random and sparse placement of electrical outlets.  Most modern houses seem to have electrical outlets every 2 feet on the wall, in this house, there is generally one or two outlets per room. Yet, we have two outlets in our mantle above the fireplace...because that just makes sense.  All this to say, there are no outlets outside the front of the house, and only one around back.  So what is an aspiring Griswold to do?  I run a few extension cords out of the balcony door and plug everything into those, from the same outlet.  I only blew the circuit once this year.  So until I can find more sources for power, or just pay an electrician to run a new line, I have hit my ceiling.  

But this time next year, you will see even more.  I love putting up Christmas lights, and the family seems to enjoy it.  Also, I have new neighbors (with whom we are friends) that have thrown down the gauntlet and established some sort of annual competition.  Pretty soon, we will have youth groups and families coming to see my house.  When that happens, I will know that it is well done.

P.S.  Check out this amazing video of Smalls and his cousin dancing!