Christmas is Officially Over at the Ballard House

Yep, if you haven't guessed already, I took down the outside Christmas lights yesterday. The stuff inside had been down since before New Years.

It's always sad to have to take it down, but once it's done, it's like a great weight lifted from my shoulders. I'm the one who does all the holiday decorating. It's not that everyone else refuses to help, they do by bringing in the boxes from the storage building, also known as the piggy building. Don't worry, there haven't been any pigs in it for years. Anyway, they do that and I do the decorating then they take the empty boxes out to the storage building until it's time to take all the stuff back down then they do it all over again.

That's why over the years I've cut down a lot, especially outside. This year the lights on the house consisted of lighted wreaths in the windows on the inside so that they could be turned off and on from the inside. I also had two of the swirl trees in front with the power cord plugged into the front porch light, so that they too could be turned off and on from the inside. The only lights not controlled from the inside were the ones strung from the flag pole to form a Christmas tree, but after something chewed through one of the strands (I bet whatever it was got a good jolt), I discontinued plugging those in. Next year I'll have to come up with a better plan, which I've already been thinking about. I also found a timer so I plugged the lights on the fence into that, so I wouldn't have to worry about stepping outside to unplug them, it gets downright cold here at night.

Yesterday in taking the outside stuff down, I think at the most, it took me an hour to take it down and pack it away for next year. Not bad, huh? But it officially puts an end to Christmas for another year, or less if you think about when they all go up again, which is usually the weekend after Thanksgiving. If you consider that, then it's another 10 and a half months, but whose rushing, right?