Can’t beat putting up Christmas lights in a t-shirt.

When I took down the Christmas lights last year, I knew there was some change a-comin’.

But then I forgot until I took out the lights this year.

Well, I didn’t totally forget. One of the lights - a projector that shoots light onto the house to make it look like it’s snowing - broke last year and I thought about it often in the intervening year but didn’t do anything about it.

Then, on Wednesday, when the temperature was pushing 60 degrees and I figured I could put the Christmas lights up without my fingers freezing even though it was before Thanksgiving, I remembered, after taking them out of the garage, that another string of lights was broken. Whey I didn’t just throw them out last year is a mystery, but I threw them out now.

So that was the part of the display that dominated the right side of the house. I knew I needed to do something different.

But I had a plan.

I bought an inflatable snowman last year - I had thought he might look good on the right side of the house rather than the left.

I was right.

I had toyed with the idea of putting candy canes to his right and left, but the rest of the family shot that idea down - they like the candy canes where they’ve always been.

I was happy to see the icicles I put on the left side of the house were still in great working condition.

And then I figured I could make the middle part of the house a little better if I draped the lit garland a little higher over the front door rather than directly over the door like I’ve done for a bunch of years.

And voila. Below you see the finished product.

As you can see above, I did take out a ladder to get the garland higher.

I don’t often take out the ladder for the Christmas lights.

I’m really pleased with how this turned out. The snowman can be a bit of a pain because the stakes and the rope tied to them can get blown around in the wind, especially since he inflates and deflates and things jostle around.

But I’m hoping because it was warm the day I put him out and the ground wasn’t frozen and I really got the stakes in there that maybe he’ll be less of a problem this year. (Although I might not get those stakes out of the ground until May.)

I also like the fact that it’s done before the rest of Thanksgiving weekend here, and now I can sit back and enjoy the lights without having to put them up on Friday or Saturday as I have in years past.

Nice work, John.