Christmas Decorating Challenged
Am I the only one? Why is it impossible for the Lyon’s to put on a good Christmas display? As an example, here’s the tree:
Yes, I am aware it does not look like a tree-it’s one third of a pre-lighted tree. Here is the yearly drill: Stuff the tree through the tiny little munchkin door of the attic-it’s kind of like giving birth. Plug in the pre-lighted tree to see how many lights have gone out since last year. Load it into the car to have the store fix the lights. Pick up the tree and begin decorating. All of this performed in the midst of a Marital High-yeah.
Funny thing is, we bought the pre-lighted tree because stringing the lights on the regular tree was such a grind-we thought we were improving our chances of success…
On to the rest of the house: 
I had a Great Idea last year. DH does not like to decorate so I thought I would simplify things. I carefully took photos of what we did last year. That way we could just follow the photos-Great Idea, huh? So we started by each taking a few pages and working from there. 
I have a very simplistic view of decorating for Christmas-I call it the Plopper Theory. Instead of messing with all those individual components of a display ( like lights, strands of stuff, little things) I thought I would just buy completed units, like the decoration above, a “plopper”, and just plop those down-done! A large room needs like 8 ploppers and a bathroom needs one. Got it? 
If that was a Plopper, this is a Plopper Grouping-got the whole picture now?
Well, all was going well, until I began to search for a particular Plopper and it was nowhere to be found!? I went searching for it and found that DH had put it in another location-what? An “Illegal Plopping” had occurred and messed up the whole plan. It was all downhill from there…
We fared no better outdoors. We struggle there too, so this year we decided to pay our kind neighbor to put up our lights-pathetic, I know. It was truly a joy to see those perfectly placed cheerful lights outlining our home-for just a night or two. Then, Of Course, a string went out, but it wasn’t immediately obvious what the problem was. Many hours later, we just unplugged the offending string and went with what was left.
See what I mean? Surely you don’t have this much trouble with your Christmas decorating, do you? DH is running errands alllll day, he never does that. I wonder why? Maybe I need to make a really good dinner…
Hardy ever decorate ’cause anniversary is on the 15th and we usually spend Christmas out with friends or family so all the stuff stays in the attic! We do have a Santa we hang up on the wall & greeting cards on the mantle. Does that count? Maybe next year we’ll go all out.
You’ve done enough-relax and enjoy!
This is so funny. We do decorate every year even the years its just for us and the bears. It’s just so dismal and sad if we don’t. But… as I am OCD ONLY about my sewing, the decorating goes in stages. We have our tree up now – but nothing on it. I’m sure in another day or so I’ll get the lights on. Maybe a day later we’ll get the decorations on.
Thanks for this glimpse into your plopper life.
I like your pace, something every day or two! We have pondered whether we’ll decorate if no boy comes home. I say yes, he says no.
Never knew about ploppers and plopper groupings before…I guess I never decorate that much anymore! At least you don’t have to tramp out into the woods (at the tree farm!) and find and slay a tree…usually on the coldest day of the season…or in the rain…or right after an ice storm…or in 2 feet of snow…dragging a tree down from the attic sounds like heaven to me!
How could you live without the plopper concept?? You’re right-we’re spoiled in Cali! One year in New Jersey we put up electric luminarias-froze right to the ground-impossible to get up until March!