Monday, December 15, 2008

Christmas Tour - Techincal Difficulties and All

I'm having issues with lights this year so I wasn’t going to participate in BooMama’s tour of homes. But then it occurred to me that surely someone who stops by will have the answer to my pre-lit tree dilemma.

It was only about or 4 years ago I gave into buying an artificial tree. My primary reasons were that I could have it up longer and put it by the fireplace, where I had always wanted to place the tree. This year, AFTER the tree was decorated, the lights started going out. One. Strand. At . A. Time. The first strand, I simply bought some more lights and put them in place. Then the second strand went out. When I got home from the store with that replacement strand and plugged in the tree, there was a THIRD strand of lights out. Have you ever tried to put lights on a tree that is already decorated? I’m sure that I share this quandary with others, so if you have a solution, I’m all ears. Here’s the tree:

How about this needlepoint nativity set my Mom made??!! I love it. (She loves Christmas decorations but likes to collect them for ME! How convenient is that?) No lights involved here. I like that.

And this one is just waiting for little hands to play with it when I have grandchildren one day.

I love the North Pole Village that my mom collected for me over the years. It’s not all out and it’s in 2 places!

I have lighting issues on my front porch too this year… I’ll spare you the details.

I was asked to provide food (a recipe!) for your visit but I've been too busy going back and forth to the store buying lights to cook. If you go tour some other homes, I'm sure you'll be full when you're finished!

From my less-than perfect home that is filled with love, I wish you a Merry Christmas!

7 comments:

pcb said...

Don't even get me started on light issues! Merry Christmas, anyway!

My ADHD Me said...

Merry Christmas To You!

I really enjoyed your post. I can relate completely to the tree and light dilemma. Those lights can be SO frustrating!!!! Also, I switched to artificial trees years ago. I really, REALLY hated to but...
A. We heat with a wood stove and it
would dry out the tree way too fast.

B. The place where I want the tree is next to the fireplace.

C. At the Fire Academy, they showed us a film where the lights on the trees started a fire and the entire room was engulfed in flames in 12 seconds!

Your tree really is beautiful.
As for the nativity. What talent! I still hem pants with duct tape!

Greg C said...

We still have a real tree and we also heat with a wood stove. We put the tree in the dining room and cut off the heat from that room this time of year. That keeps it a bit cool in there but the tree loves it. We open the room up at Christmas and let it warm up. The light issue may be fuses. Many of these new lights have fuses built into the plugs to prevent fires.

Leslie said...

rigging up the lights!! urg! Everything looks pretty!! Merry Christmas.

Edie said...

Hey Beverly, you can get a light tester at Walmart to see if the problem is just a light or fuse like Greg said. Anyway it will test the strand for you and it's not expensive. Just not sure what it's called. :)

Your tree really is beautiful and I love your mom's nativity! That is so cool.

Shelly Wildman said...

Hi Beverly! Thanks for posting those pictures--beautiful! I love your North Pole village.

Keetha Broyles said...

First of all, I'm SO glad you posted pictures - - - even with light issues. Actually, in the photos I can't even tell.

We have a pre-lit tree too. The pre-lit part was AWESOME for the first couple of years - - - then we had the exact problem you are describing.

Hubby purchased a light tester - - - still couldn't solve the problem. Finally he started buying strings of lights and "slipping" them onto the tree somehow - - - even though it wal already decorated. I wasn't home when he did this, or I'm afraid I'd be in Heaven now having died of heart failure.

Now he doesn't even TRY the prelit lights any more - - - just puts on his own strands of lights BEFORE I decorate.

That's probably not the news you wanted to hear - - - but that's how we solved our lights dilemma.

I enjoyed your tour. Thanks for inviting me - - -and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!