Lights.

I refuse to acknowledge the existence of the Christmas Holiday season until after Thanksgiving has passed. I believe that as Americans we have a lot to be thankful for and that we should set aside time to think and reflect about how thankful we should be to be where we are today. So I’m big on making sure Thanksgiving gets its due.

On Friday we went to “Lights On The Lake” outside of Syracuse at Onondaga Lake Park. We have enjoyed “Lights On The Lake” for many years and this year was no different; Christmas music playing on the radio, holiday motifs and twinkling lights stirred up an excitement I haven’t felt for the holidays in a number of years.

I was so inspired that I put up all of our outdoor decorations on the house yesterday. I’m inspired to do more decorating outside, it’s just a matter of figuring out where to put the lights I have in the collection and how to get power to them. It’s amazing what one can do with these new LED lights; the directions on the box say you can hook up to 18 sets of 100 lights together. It was just a few years ago that you couldn’t hook up more than three sets of incandescent lights together without risking setting fire to something.

I have to admit that while I do love stringing lights all over the lawn and such, I have no interest in making them dance or blink in tune to music or compete in some sort of reality show called “Candelabra Showdown Sweepstakes” or something of that sort. Competitive holiday decorating is a symptom of everything that disappoints me about today’s modern society.

Despite enjoying modern technology and the ability to plug in 1,800 lights into one plug, I still like to keep it traditional.