Brassdad wrote:No rain or snow today in northern Virginia...so my house lights come down today.
Saturday the tree comes down.
Now that's something I never understood. In our house, the tree and lights come down after twelfth night (Jan 6). Some years we'll leave them up a few days extra out of respect for our Eastern Rite friends.
Doesn't make sense to spend all of that time getting ready for Christmas, then just turning it all off during Christmastide.
Since the Pacific Northwest can be pretty dreary during December and January, there are those who leave their outside lights up throughout January to add a little brightness.
schlepporello wrote:I wasn't gonna kill him "all dead".
Just "mostly dead" which is still "Partly alive" (as referenced in "The Princess Bride" by Miracle Max).
True love is the most noble thing of all, except for a nice MLT (Mutton Lettuce and Tomato) when the lettus is crisp and the tomato is sliced real thin.....
Interesting - I saw an interview with Mandy Pantakin. This guy has won all of the major awards - he has a Tony and a Grammy and has been nominated for an Oscar.
He has an impressive body of work - including a bunch of pharmaceutical commercials.
He says that no matter where he goes, people will come up to him and ask for THE LINE:
"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
except for the man with six fingers on his left hand!
New Breed, Old Breed! It doesn't matter so long as it's the Marine Breed!
We put our tree up sometime around the 4th Sunday of Advent and take it down on Twelfth Night--one benefit is that a freshly cut tree will easily last that time without dropping many needles or becoming a fire hazard.
tofu wrote:
When my folks were kids in the twenties and thirties the tree didn't go up until Christmas Eve or was brought by Santa and appeared Christmas morning.
When I was a kid in the sixties I remember most people not putting up their lights/trees until after the 15th of December here in the Chicago area.
This year there were some who had their lights up and on before Halloween and a bunch before Thanksgiving. In fact I would say that 70% of the lights were up and on by the weekend after Thanksgiving.
More comercialization of the Holiday. The store put out the decoration earlier, so people put them up sooner. I agree, I'm ready for it to be gone.The tree and other decorations take up so muvch space, an I don't have enough to begin with.
The wife put everything up the weekend after Thanksgiving. It give you a plave to store the wrapped gifts while waiting for the big day.
I'd much rather put it up around Christmas eve, and keep it there a week or 2, during the holiday.
We have a small remembrance on each of the twelve days of Christmas (Christmas day until Epiphany) and leave the lights along the 3/8 mile driveway on every night. On Christmas Eve they guide the reindeer as landing lights, after Christmas they guide the Magi. We have always made a big deal about the twelve days of Christmas from when my wife and I were dating (almost) and I mailed her a different cut-out everyday from a different postal code in an unmarked envelope. I never did mail #12... perhaps next year on our 20th anniversary.
The artificial tree went up and came down before Christmas.
....
....
Male dog (see avatar) with strong instincts.
At least the artificial tree can be hosed off.
SplatterTone wrote:The artificial tree went up and came down before Christmas.
....
....
Male dog (see avatar) with strong instincts.
At least the artificial tree can be hosed off.
Oooo, oooo, do you have an aluminum christmas tree with color wheel?
SplatterTone wrote:The artificial tree went up and came down before Christmas.
....
....
Male dog (see avatar) with strong instincts.
At least the artificial tree can be hosed off.
Oooo, oooo, do you have an aluminum christmas tree with color wheel?
Brings to mind a song entitled, "A plastic angel for your aluminum tree"-probably written by someone in an plywood trailer.
Give the dog a gold star (maybe the one off the tree). Yes, he can be good for something other than convincing you that you really didn't need a tree in the house.
The locale of the house here is such that we get critters: squirrels, opossums, raccoons, moles, mice, etc. One such critter, a rat, took up residence in the house. I quickly discovered that rats are not as stupid as mice, hence not easily dispatched with your basic Victor trap -- which, by the way, when baited with a slice of almond, is still the best trap available for mice. And I was so looking forward to hearing the satisfying WHACK of that big Victor rat trap.
So ... what to do. Was this going to be one of those battles of man against rat -- the subject of cartoons and slapstick movies?
I didn't want to use poison because of the dogs plus not wanting something as large as a rat to die in what would no doubt be the most inconvenient place possible so as to maximize the stench of a rotting dead rat.
Junior saved the day by snagging and killing said rat a little bit ago. Not bad when a 90 lb. Chesapeake Bay Retriever has the agility to grab a scurrying rat in the house. After a generous number of "Good boy"s and a jumbo Milk Bone treat, the rat was relocated to the trash bin.
Bloke knows how to deal with animals. My misguided kindnesses come back to bite me.
Today, I have to climb out on an aluminum bracket on the stern of my house boat to service the engines. That bracket is covered with slippery duck poop because I was an idiot and fed dog food to the ducks.
I might be able to loan you Junior for a while. He'll fix your duck problem. I doubt he'll poop on anything, but most likely will "mark" the boat as his.
One house near here leaves his icycle lights all 'round the edge of his roof up allll year long but only plugs them in at Christmas time. That way he only had to do the ladder work once.
Many folks put up plastic or balloon-inflated figures in their yards but haven't a clue how to tie them up and stake them off.
It's been quite windy this last month or so and the houses with the light weight Santas,elves and reindeer most days look like a really Christmasy drive-by shooting just went down.
