Lighting up my Holiday

Everyone has their own approach to Christmas. I'm one of those people who puts up the lights the day after Thanksgiving. We wait a bit on the tree but those stockings and the lights are where I spend my time on Black Friday. Somehow that is far more important to me than any deal anyone one could possibly offer at a box store. Plus I hate crowds...so shoppers, I respect your stamina, but you won't see me out and about.

It may be that when I was a child my folks always put the tree up on Christmas Eve. There were six kid to contend with and maybe it was easier to save all the chaos for one night, but I do spread it out. That's one thing we all do I think; take what we liked about growing up and toss what we don't when we have our own families. Make new traditions.

Well the wee house here in Galway doesn't even have room for company much less a tree. Still, I couldn't resist buying a couple of strings of lights when I saw them downtown. Get this, they are solar powered. Somehow when you live in more mist than sunshine that seems unlikely to work, but they do. They collect just enough power when I'm at school to come on for three hours in the evening and that's fine for me.

I tried putting a few nails in the wee house to hang them around the windows. I'm not sure what the wee house is made of but it's sturdy. I bent like four nails before I gave up and put them in the tree next to my wee kitchen door.

The people who live in the big house across the yard from me haven't said much. I realize they look like Charlie Brown lights, but they make me feel much more like the holidays. So far, these are the only lights I've seen up in the entire neighborhood.  But that's okay, they are lighting up my holiday here just fine.