The Chicago weather cooperated much better this year for purposes of putting up Christmas lights outside. Last year, it started snowing the Sunday night after Thanksgiving and didn't stop until after Christmas, forcing those of us who aren't die hards to be Scrooges. In fact, last year, we didn't decorate anything for Christmas. This year, the snow waited until yesterday giving us plenty of time to work on the decor.
I had the whole master plan - new icicles that I purchased on sale last year, netted lights for the bushes, and our candy canes from Virginia. In fact, Dad and Mike finished everything the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it looked great. Everything was tested and approved. Then, night came, and timer clicked on....and no icicles. Figuring a poor connection, we waited until the next night to get out there and make a knot to hold the plugs together. The lights came on....and went out right after we had put away the ladder, replaced the bicycle that hangs in front of it, and pulled the van in the garage.
Now, it's Monday, and we're back out there, except that the first strand of icicles won't light at all. We try fumbling with replacing the fuses. It works...we pack up and head inside. Five minutes later, the lights are off.
By this time, I've decided it's time to google for a solution or throw everything away and give up until next year. But what kind of mother would I be if my kid's house is the only one on the block without more Christmas decorations?? Apparently, according to a site I found, you aren't supposed to hook more than 3 mini-lights together end to end and that appears somewhere in the fine print of the warning message stapled to the wire. We replaced the fuses one more time, and redid the extension cords, and since then....we've had brilliant beautiful icicle lights on the house. Just in time for the snow to start in earnest.
He got to see trains at the Arboretum, too, or "choo choos" as they are called around here.
The first snow of the year
