Day 2 – Light ’em UP

Hey Dad,

Now, I’m not recommending the movie, Christmas Vacation (unless you can get an edited version – which is a lot shorter) but my favorite dad-scene in the edited version is the moment before Clark Griswold plugged in his outdoor Christmas display lights. He labored over the display for a couple of days and in true dad-fashion gathered the entire family out on the front lawn for the big lighting ceremony.

Of course it didn’t work, but I love the scene just seconds before he fliped the switch. Overwhelmed by the idea of a family tradition he bursts into a loud chorus of “JOY TO THE WORLD…”

Man, I feel that way during those moments where everyone else is dragging their Christmas feet, and I feel overwhelmed by the POWER of the family moment. Which leads me to…

Baby Step Two on our journey to Christmas – Hang some outdoor lights.

Now, don’t hear me wrong, you don’t have to have a lighting display worthy of Disneyland. Even a single strand of icicle lights works magic. We don’t do much at our house, but for the last eight years we’ve turned our flag pole into a Christmas tree ‘shape.’

Yesterday was that day. I should have been watching the weather and taken advantage of last week’s warm weather, but I didn’t and got stuck with yesterday’s 35 degree weather. Not one to shirk my responsibility just because it gets a little cold, I called Ike (13) and Abe (11), told them to gear up, and carted the box of lights out to the flag pole.

The whole display is made up of only eight strands of lights, but it still takes us about an hour and a half to untangle them, test them, and fix or replace any non-lighters. Then we connect the whole contraption to the flag rope and hoist the point up the pole. Three paces out from the pole we pound in a tent peg and connect one cord. A few steps over, and we repeat the process until we have a shape resembling a Christmas tree.

Then we wait for darkness…and JOY TO THE WORLD!!!!!

For the month of December we’ll leave it up for the whole world to see. Years from now when my kids have families of their own they’ll say things to their kids like, “Yeah, I know it’s cold out there but MY dad always made us string up outdoor lights…and so am I. So gear up!”

That’s not Christmas power, my fellow dad…that’s FatherPOWER!!!

You ‘da dad,

Todd

PS – LED lights are the way to go, but they’re expensive. Make a note on your iphone to get a few packages after Christmas when they slash the price by 50%-70%.

PPS – Tired of throwing away burned out strands? My brother-in-law has a tool called the Light Keeper Pro that not only tests the lights…but it actually fixes a blown out string by sending a surge of electricity…through…the…um…JUST GOOGLE IT TO FIND OUT! But it’s cool.