I'm learning Christmas decorating is big deal. It's no, lets throw the
tree and lights up real quick and move on with life. To do any kind of
job it's, lets spend at least a day and go to Target and go to Costco
and pick out all kinds of fun new stuff, then go home and work our
asses off putting up all the shit we just bought. Getting into the
Christmas spirit in the Cooley household this year first involved a
number of purchases. My first ever plastic tree, as well as a smaller
version of said plastic tree, 50 feet of lighted garland, 800 extra
outdoor lights, a wooden Santa Claus train, 10 different candles and
multiple ornaments. Thankfully I passed on the triple set of lighted
snowmen.
Get passed spending the money and the
store is the easy part. The first thing we did when we got home was put
together the trees. Should have been easy, but before I knew it I was
laying on my back with the tree falling on me. Those plastic trees are
really heaver than expected and it was no surprise to either Christy or
I that something was going wrong. After the tree was erect came the
highlight of my day. When you buy a plastic tree you get a remote
control for changing the lights or turning them off comes in the box.
With curious excitement about how long it would take her to figure out
I was messing with her, I sat on the couch and changed the light
channels on the tree. I turned them on and off, flashed and changed
their colors and then on and off over and over, all the while Christy
assured me something was completely wrong with our new tree. It was
mean, but it was just one of those simple things that made me so happy.


Once
we got the trees all together and hung the ornaments I became Clark
Grizzwald. I had the ladder out of the garage and lights all over the
place. I was hammering nails and stringing wires all over the place. I
know I'm not going to win any awards, but looking out the outside of my
house tonight I am beaming with pride over my accomplishments.
Christmas is always a good time of the year for me an my family. I
don't know what it is that makes me so happy about looking at all the
decorations, but I'm sure love em. I mean, probably enough to keep
everything up until at least mid January, either that or my laziness
will put off taking them down.