"It Reminds Me of the Fourth of July!"

Last week, I alluded to the fact that our house has been dubbed the Winter Wonderland of our block. I thought it might have been a little premature, and that the rest of the block would catch up with our outdoor light display a little closer to Christmas, but here we are on December 5th, and it seems Eric's coveted title of "most-decorated home on the street" is, indeed, ours. 

We began our journey weeks ago at Home Depot, where we picked up a few strands of lights and some special characters from beloved Christmas classics "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown" and, my personal favorite, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

After that initial purchase, Eric found a festive ribbon-and-bells display at a thrift store that would fit nicely above our picture window out front. And I picked up some blue-and-white snowflakes to hang from the gabled awning at our front door.

And, because it is the holidays, we though we'd reintroduce an old friend of the neighborhood.

That's right, good old Mr. Bear promised "I'd be Home for Christmas," and was moved from the backyard to be the center of our Christmas light display out front, complete with a festive hat and all (We've already gotten pleased comments about his triumphant return).

We finished things up with some net lights to throw on the bushes that line our walkway. And, just because we didn't think we'd quite hit our stride in obnoxiousness, we lined both sides of the yards will some crazy blinking candy canes.

Eric worried that what we'd purchased, even though we'd already dropped hundreds of dollars on Christmas stuff already (that is not an overestimation, people), would not be enough. But, alas, the season had arrived, and we still had gifts to buy. Besides, this is our first Christmas of decorating outside - we'd build upon our display in the years to come.

So, here it is. Every evening at 5 o'clock, our home lights up and fills our otherwise cheerless (or, maybe slightly less tacky?) neighborhood. 

You can see our house from a couple blocks away.

 Why yes, we did bring our old fake tree outside to add just a little more light and cheer. And yes, we are fully aware of the irony of having a real tree inside while taking our fake tree outside.

And, of course, what kind of "A Christmas Story" superfans would we be if we didn't have a leg lamp displayed in our front window, providing the neighbors with the "soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window."

 "It reminds me of the Fourth of July!"

Now, honestly, I don't think we have an overabundance of lights outside our house. I grew up being best friends with the girl who lived in the most-decorated home in the entire county, which I always loved. Our house doesn't have the size acreage to compare to their true, beautiful winter wonderland, but we're working with what we've got. Eric is still scheming for ways to add to the display. One day, we'd like to somehow decorate those two large pines out front with oversized Christmas tree bulb ornaments and, of course, encircle the trunks with more lights. 

But as for now, we're happy with the display we've got. There certainly is no question who are the biggest Christmas enthusiasts on our block.