I thought that I would decorate the outside of my house today with garland and lights. Well, the garland went on fine, but the problem was the lights. Ughs!

First, let me say that I don’t decorate like the Griswald Family does! I don’t do the animate displays, the lights on the roof, the blaring music, nor the live nativity scene. I’m not a “Scrooge” or a “Grinch”, but I just don’t want my neighbors to be angry at me for keeping them up due to blinding lights or loud music.

Well, I got the garland up without incident and then I got the string of lights out (without the bulbs screwed in). It was a huge ball of wire…not unlike a Christmas Tumbleweed. It took me an hour outside in the cold to finally untangle the string of lights before I could start to hang the lights on my porch.

As I was hanging the string of lights, it started to tangle again! It was twisting and snagging and getting all tangled up. I had to stop every few minutes to untangle the mess. There must be a simpler way to do this.

The end result looks nice. I screwed the multi-colored bulbs in and then I wove ribbon in and out the garland so it looks good during the day. I’m no “Martha Stewart”, but it’s no “White Trash” job. I do it for my parents who did it many times for me when I was growing up. They will be visiting me here in a few weeks and I just want things to be really special for them.

Hope that your decorating is going well. Keep and eye out for an upcoming poll. I enjoy viewing the results.

Your Nashville Friend,

Thom