Well, I started, anyways, though after only an hour of putting lights up on the garage I’ve clearly still got a long ways to go!

And yes, that makes me a bit of a hypocrite … thanks. 😛

So far my neighbors are really showing me up because a surprising number of them did follow my humor column-based decree and had their full displays up immediately after Thanksgiving. I really think that’s the way to go because once you get into December, there’s just so much Christmas goings on that finding half a day or more to drape lights around the outside of your house is slim pickins at best.

Granted, it doesn’t help that I hate going up on our roof to the embarrassing extent that in recent years I’ve actually employed my wife to temporarily be the man of the house and shimmy up there while I stand safely on the ground offering up sound leadership advice like, “Yeah – hang that one there!” and “I mean this in the most loving way, but please don’t fall on me, dear…”

They actually have companies out here in suburbia that will come to decorate your house for you, but that sounds even less manly than asking your wife to climb up on the roof for you. Maybe if they had a service I could hire not to put the lights up themselves, but simply to show up at my house around the end of November and gently motivate me to get to decorating – that’s a service I could really use!

Only about 35 more strands to go, and yet I’m already so, so tired… 🙁