Christmas Decor

With Thanksgiving behind us, and several sub-freezing nights ahead of us, lots of folks around town have taken advantage of the mild temperatures and put up their holiday lights. A few rigs in the parks have donned Christmas decor, and we're following suit.

At least we're trying.

After years of knowing exactly where every decoration belonged and precisely how to hang every hanging thing, we're in new territory this holiday season. It hit me last night. Suddenly, I had an urge to hang lights. As had been our custom, a few days after Thanksgiving, I would string clear lights along the railing of our balcony overlooking the bay. That easy task marked the start of our holiday season. But last night there were no clear lights, no railing and no balcony. And, I missed it. Of course, it didn't help that we were watching the Hallmark Hall of Fame, complete with those Kleenex-robbing commercials I love. I've never been that much of a Christmas decorator, so I was surprised that missing this simple little tradition made me a bit weepy.

Today we were determined to launch a new tradition and outfit our rolling home in some holiday finery. We have a just a few Christmas things in storage, and we'll pick those up later this week. So, we headed out to but some of the essentials we were missing. We scored a two-foot tree and some battery-operated LED lights. A string of hanging snowflake lights looked like just the thing we needed to bring some sparkle to our imax windshield, so we brought those home, too. Not exactly sure how we'd hang these new-found lights, we picked up two packages of those nifty hooks that stick on and have a magic tab that you pull to remove without a trace.

Back home I happily went to work on hanging the snowflakes. I popped the magical hooks on a below the cabinets above the windshield. A quick look at the directions revealed the nifty hooks required an hour to "cure". (So much for making this a quick task!) After dinner, as I went about hanging the lights, half the hooks took a tumble. (Arggh!) Another look at the directions revealed that these hooks can't work their magic on vinyl. And, of course, I was trying to stick them on vinyl! Plan B became sticking the hooks on the metal curtain rail, and waiting another hour for those hooks to cure. As we headed for bed, the rehung lights had floored just two hooks. So, I'm giving two new hooks a chance to set overnight. We'll see how things look in the morning. Like I said, we're trying.

Here's to better luck decorating our two-foot tree!