Christmas Lights and Due Dates

Most of you know that I AM Clark Griswold when it comes to my Christmas lights. I have won the Christmas Yard Award for our nighborhood, three years straight. I am in no way humble about this-I am dang proud. So that is why it is just sooo funny that I am due on January 3rd. So the lights will suffer this year. I'm not sure how badly they will suffer but they will take a hit so I am posting a picture of my award-winning decor from last year so you might have a better idea of the full scale of my madness.

I start the day we get back from Thanksgiving and will not finish the bulk of it for a week. I will then continue to add things I find on my 30+ trips to Lowe's and Home Depot and WalMart and Target (and last year I even discovered a little gem in the Memphis ghetto called the Light Bulb Depot bc GE discontinued a type of bulb in a certain color that I use and I needed replacements,)right up until I take the picture for my Christmas cards and/or get the sign in my yard telling me I won, again. My husband will be the first to tell you that he DOES NOT PARTICIPATE in any way- it is all me. Well, there is one thing and I mean one thing that he does other than put up with no supper and no clean clothes and an absentee wife who is spends most of December in the front yard, he puts the BIG wreath up on the very tip-top peak of our house bc he will not let me get up on a 32foot extension ladder alone during the day when he isn't here. So I really have no choice- he threatened divorce after the mailman had to help me off the roof of our old house, (which is where I won the award for the first time- we only moved around the corner in the same neighborhood.) We live on a corner with our carport facing that side, it has a semi-flat roof so this is where my 8foot tall by 8foot wide Santa in a sleigh pulled by Rudolph inflatable, my skiing polar bear with snow, and my twinkling Frosty all reside. I go for classy in the front yard and trashy on the side yard. All of my lights and decor are on timers so the nighborhood doesn't miss out on a second of enjoyment while we are out of town. Then comes the crappy part. I spend about half of January taking it all down. Nothing gets lit up anymore after January 1st but it takes me a while to get it all down and organized and back up into the attic where it takes up about 1/3 of the available floored space up there.

So now here I am with a belly big enough to qualify as its own nighborhood- maybe i should just put lights on it and call it a day. I have been debating about what to do as far as the lights go- part of me wants to just skip out entirely this year bc-hey, I have a pretty good reason, and it's not like I haven't contributed in the past! And then part of me says I should let Percy do a little bit under my direction (this spells disaster to me), and some of my friends have even said they would come put them up and my mother-in-law said she would take them down when she comes up after the baby is born. But, I just don't think any of us are going to want to deal with a boat-load of Christmas lights and decor when there is a week old baby in the house! Oh, and I go all out inside as well- last year I took pictures of where my decorations go inside so I would remember for this year. We will have a tree to deal with bc Percy put his foot down about that.

Thank you so much to the friends and family who have offered to enable my addiction to Christmas, regardless of what I decide I really do appreciate it! But for now enjoy the picture of last year- that may be as good as it gets!!