Monday, December 1, 2008

Every. Single. Year

Next November, would someone PLEASE remind me not to make a giant build up for Family Christmas Tree Decorating Night, until after I've gotten the trees out of storage?

A whole week's worth of shameless plugging, bribing, and reminding - - completely wasted last night, when we brought out the

(Ahhhhhh... [that's the choir singing]...hhhhhhhh)

Pyzam Glitter Text Maker




only to plug them in and find that YET AGAIN half of the lights aren't working. And since I am the only person at my house who thinks it's important for all the lights to be actually working, you know, before you put the decorations on there... (can't we just do that part later, mom?) Well let's just say it slowed down the decorating party. By about 3 hours.

It's only happened to me for the last 24 years in a row, but let's not call me a slow learner, ok? I prefer the term "stubbornly optimistic".

The Family Decorating Party will be continued with everyone who doesn't have work or singles ward fhe or swim practice tonight.

I'm pretty sure that means I'm doing it by myself.

29 comments:

Jan said...

That is so frustrating when the lights don't work. It's like a light destroyer enters the storage room and makes us go crazy for the next year. I would love to get my hands on him. And yes it is a him :)

Heather said...

Jeremy's dad has this amazing tool that you put on the lights and they start working. Not kidding. I think you need one.

Becky said...

Are they decent sized trees at least? We've had our trusty little three-footer for four years now. Sigh.

But the lights work! :)

LisAway said...

Yeah, I like the lights on and working first, too. Wow, we're so similar! (and in the words of Abraham Lincoln or whichever president it was, I just remember it was hanging up in my US History class, "common sense is not so common." You and I get that. Don't we?)

Miranda said...

at least you've thought about putting up your tree...I haven't...even though my Mom bought me one at an end of the year sale last year that already has the lights on it...let's hope they work...and what do you do if THOSE lights burn out?

talitha said...

Ugh. Why does it seem I hate decorating for Christmas more and more every year?

Experiences like the one you describe here, for starters.

Becky N. said...

Approximately the same thing happened to me last year. We string lights on our tree, but didn't check them out beforehand. I was majorly peeved about the whole situation. Since we haven't put up our tree yet, and I'm making a run to Target today, maybe I'll go ahead and be smart, and buy an extra string of lights ... just in case.

The Dillon 6 said...

first: You live in Colorado and you have a FAKE tree?!

Second: I have a fantasy where the family sings carols, remembers their special ornaments, and shares stories of Christmases past while we sip Christmas Milk (egg nog) and decorate the tree together...Reality: I string the lights alone and then bring in each child separate from the others (to avoid the wars) and generally feel disappointed when it's all over. I really need to lower my standards.

I wish you lots of canceled activities today so you can fulfill your own fantasy. ;)

Yvonne said...

I get so frustrated with the whole light thing!!!

I'm just sitting here pretty excited because all 4 of my trees are up and decorated--YIPPEE!!! (Sorry, it's just so nice to know IT'S DONE)

Maybe you and The Brain can JUST MAKE A NIGHT OF IT ; )

Stacey said...

I hate when the lights don't work! I haven't even decorated yet,which is strange for me. I just can't seem to find the motivation this year.

Amy Peterson said...

I kept bribing my kids to be great too! And then it took me 4 days to light the tree, cause ALL my lights didn't work and I had to do a super job of lighting it. Anyway, all the to say, I think I will decorating alone next year.

Melissa said...

We buy a real tree every year. So I check the lights and if they don't work, I chuck them and get a new strand out. If I could get a fake tree that isn't prelit, I would! But they don't exist (except for the $300 I saw the other day) and I don't want to mess with the EXACT problem you are describing... I hope you get your decorating finished!

Erin said...

I love HAVING a Christmas tree, but the decorating part sucks. It just takes too much time. Of course, my kids love it, so I have to humor them.

I'm sorry the lights didn't work.

Lara Neves said...

I really hate when the lights don't work. Which is every year for us, too. Thank you for reminding me I should probably go buy a few strands before we decorate tonight.

mormonhermitmom said...

Our fake tree has so many lights already on it, I don't think I'd notice a few bulbs missing. Not sure I like it, but can't say no to a hand me down tree looking for a home.

goddessdivine said...

Da** lights. Hate that. I always try to have a few extra strands handy in case I run into that.

I would totally come over and help you.....but you're too far away.

jjstringham said...

Ugh. We put our tree up this year and half the lights weren't working. So frustrating.

And as an added bonus, our family has now gotten to the stage of having 75% of the ornaments on the bottom two feet of the tree. It's cute in it's own sort of way, but I'm dying to redo it when the kids aren't looking.

Jen said...

Ha! That's frustrating! I wanted to put mine up tonight, but I'm feeling too sick, so I think we'll postpone it a week. So you are one step ahead of me!

Heidi said...

This is why I have had the same tree for 15 years. All the new ones come with lights on them and, from what I hear, they don't last too long. My head would explode if what happened to you happened to me. As it is, as I am testing hte strands of lights, I send the spouse off to the store to replace the ones I know have to be dead by now. It saves time but it is still frustrating. I'm sorry for your loss. ;)

Christine said...

Bummer. I love Christmas decorating night too. It seems the things I'm most excited about are the same things I always hold onto stubbornly and ruin in the process. I'm sorry you'll be decorating by yourself.

Heather of the EO said...

Ugh I KNOW. For some reason, ours turned on this year, all by themselves without prompting.

I'm talking about the lights, not my boys!

I wish everything about preparing for Christmas was super easy and smooooth.

Sue said...

My grandson's helped with ours. The three year old was so excited to find a "nutwhacker" and we all said WHAT? Then we saw it was a nutcracker. Actually my lovely daughters do the decorating duty every year since they've been old enough to be bossy (hmm, age 4 I think). I always buy extra lights after Christmas 1/2 price and our one tree is about 25 years old so not a pre-lit. But we are all fanatics about tons of lights and all working.
And yes, we live in Colorado and we have fake trees - think of them as like food storage - when maybe you can't afford a real tree. Also we actually used to go up and cut our tree down but the last time we did that I was 8 months pregnant with 4 little ones ages 5-1 and there was about a foot of snow and I realized We Are Not Having Fun! But we planted a blue spruce in our back yard...

Vern said...

Dang - we should have done this together. It would have been so much more fun that way!

elasticwaistbandlady said...

I have to freakin buy new lights every single year. This year was no exception.

The nice thing about having older kids is that I can now leave all Christmas decorating up to them. I just have to provide the stuff and they do the rest.

The Mom said...

Next year I am splurging and buying LED lights for my tree. We bought them for the outside of the house...the big C9 ones, and you can string 87 strands together on 1 outlet, and they have a 21,000 hour life on the bulbs!

Tori :) said...

Oooh. That bugs!! BAD

Nancy Face said...

We made so many Wal-Mart light buying trips this year, it's ridiculous...and that was just for decorating the YARD! :S

Later, stupid me tested the Christmas tree lights and of course we had to go back to Wal-Mart for more of those! :S

But what REALLY drives me nuts is when you test them and they work...but then they stop working after you've covered the entire tree with decorations! AAAGGGHHH!!!

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Been there done that. Oi.

KG said...

BWAHAHAHA.

So I tried to string lights in the garland on the banister. THREE ATTEMPTS LATER I was successful. THe first time? I was an idiot and just assumedt he lights worked and strung them. THe second time? They worked until I strung them, and then they suddenly stopped working. The third time I had to make a special trip to Target to get new lights.

BUT THOSE SUCKERS ARE LIT NOW!

Victory is MINE!!!