Nonetheless, today I will, for the First Time Ever (ta-da!) try to keep up with the crazy Norwegians across the street, the Marinez family, and put Christmas lights on my house! Judy relentlessly decorates her house every year, which sends my grand-children into a frenzy of ‘why can’t we do that?’

“Because I’m a writer. I work very long hours.”

“But Judy’s a nurse, and she has to be on call and sometimes she gets up in the middle of the night and goes back to work and . . . ”

“Okay, I get it.” She has lights and bunting on her eaves, a illuminated tree and yesterday she just HAD to add a reindeer. That moves.

“No, it’s only the wind, kids.”

“No, we saw it move, it moved! And all we have is that one angel light in the window.”

So I put a string of Santa Claus lights on the Jade plant and set it in the window.

“Grandma, that’s not funny.”

Okay, okay. I will put lights on the fence. Today. I have bought the lights. I have the zip ties. I have, uh . . . how long of an extension cord do I need again?

Rats.

Robin