Winter Wonderland!

Ahh, the smell of sugar cookies in the air, the sound of sidewalk Santa's ringing their bell, the hustle bustle of the crowds at the store, and the wonderful moment of the season. You know it guys, it's Christmas time!!! I, Ryan, am more of a Christmas fanatic than my lovely wife is. This year is a first for me because we are living at Gloria's house which means we have a home to decorate rather than an apartment. We realized the reality of this when Des got all of our decorations out and realized that when you have "too many" decorations for an apartment, they barely fill a room in a home. So off to Khol's and Michaels for more goodies. Des did a great job decorating the inside, especially the mantle in the family room, but since I am writing this blog entry, we are gonna focus more on the man's part of the home, the outside! Over a 3 day period, multiple runs to the store, sore hands, 4 main extension cords, about 10 smaller extension cords, more near ladder falls than I enjoy, and a countless number of light bulbs, the outside is finished!

For those of you that enjoy decorating the outsides of your homes for the holidays, you might enjoy laughing at my troubles. First off you have to sit and plan how you want everything to look. From which color goes where, whether you want straight lines or curved up this post, how low to hang the icicles, and so forth. But once that is done, the fun really begins. It's then time to unravel every strand and test them all out. After that task has been completed you get to extend that ladder, hop on the roof and get to work.

In our front yard we have a very very large tree. My eyes are a lot bigger than my brain and at the planning stage of my adventure I planned to go pretty high in that tree and out almost every limb. Then I extended my little giant as far as it would go, got up in that tree and realized how stupid i was! Once the tree was completed it was off to work on the icicle lights for the house.

If you have ever read the warning label on the box that holds the lights, it tells you to not hook up more than 2 strands together. I don't know about you but I can't see how you can decorate a home by only putting 2 strands together. After the house was finished I started working on the candy canes and then the bushes and then the border. If you know me you know that I am no electrician. I had fuses blowing on me left and right! After a process of taking section of the home and dividing them up onto different plugs, everything was working the way it should be. Now you may be looking at this picture and be saying to yourself, "But Ryan, there are no deer and where is Santa and a Nativity?" Well my friends, there are many more Christmas's to come and you can only spend so much each year!

Des and I finally found enough time together now that school is over for the semester to get our tree and decorate it. I of course wanted the $160 Noble Fir that was perfectly shaped at all angles and was 12 feet tall, but we found a good looking one that was cheaper and actually fits in the house that sits at about 7 feet. The tree is decorated in ornaments that Des and I have gotten together along with a few from her childhood that her mother gave us and it looks great, she did a good job in putting it all together. While she was hanging everything up I was playing with the lights yet again. Once i got to the top of the tree, all the lights on the tree would go out. So I'd replace the fuse then continue working and they would go out again. Eventually it got to the point where the fuse in the house would blow and all the lights in that part of the house, the garage, and all my outside lights would shut off.

Everything works fine now, you just can't open the garage and have the washing machine going while the Christmas lights are on.

Well I hope you enjoy our pictures and wish everyone a great Christmas!!