What Lights Him Up!

“For better or worse, in sickness and in health…” Our marriage vows.  So much said and not said in these few words.  One of the fun things about marriage is learning more about your husband or wife as the years go on.  Things they like and don’t like and all their little fun facts and quirks. Things that maybe seemed like small interests at one point that gradually develop into…well, more than you thought!

I guess I should have seen it coming.  I can identify first signs all the way back to before we were even engaged. Heck. We weren’t even dating at the time.  Then over the years this interest of his just got bigger and bigger, more and more.  It’s funny because it’s really only noticeable for about eight weeks out of the year.  The other 10 months it’s like our little secret…boxes stacked in the garage and in closets…tubs in the attic and slid under our bed.  A little secret that is no secret the day he flips the switch.

Yes, my husband is addicted to Christmas lights!

I really should have known something was up when he offered to decorate mine and my sister’s little rent house back before we were dating. I remember, he was standing outside our little house, looked up, and was like, “Man, look at that peak over the front door.  I would love to see this thing lit up!” His eyes were glowing, there was a smile on his face…it was almost like the look of Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite as he envisions how they would’ve “taken state” had the coach put him in.

You should have seen him.  Struggling with those white mini lights, the shaky ladder, the bulky staple gun, and the overgrown shrubs.  It was the shrubs that got him.  There was this ivy stuff that was growing up the side of our little house that he was apparently allergic to.  That seemed pretty evident when he slid down that ladder, red splotchy face, hands around his throat, and as he got down he finally gasped for air.  Once he regained his regular breathing, he looked up at that peak, and began again!  It was insane!

Over the years, this addiction, I mean hobby, continued to evolve.  When we bought our first home, there he stood, looking up, saying, “Man, look at those peaks!”  He was a teacher then and I think he spent every dime of his Saturday School and After-School Detention money to buy lights for that house.  He and my brother spent hours upon hours stringing lights on anything that would stand still.  Those lights were so straight and so perfect, that if there was the slightest change in position, people would literally stop and knock on our door letting us know there was a bulb out of alignment.  Minutes later I could here the rattling of the ladder outside as he climbed up to fix it!

Several years later we bought our first two-story home.  There he stood in the yard, looking up, the lights not even hung yet but already twinkling in his eyes.  He looked at me and said, “Just look at those peaks!  I’ll hold the ladder!”  See, my sweet husband loves the lights, he envisions every peak, eave, window, straight line and corner being lit up.  The only problem, he is afraid of heights…or afraid of falling…or whatever.  At any rate, he will not get on a two-story roof.  So that winter, I was the one on the roof of that two-story house, dangling from the ladder, leaning over eaves, struggling with that bulky staple gun. We closed on that house the first week of December and it was lit up like an airport runway less than two weeks later.

Here we are, nearly 20 years after he first hung those white mini lights on my little rent house. We have C9s for the roof, C7s for the windows, and minis for the bushes and trees.  There are stakes for the lights on the driveway, stakes for the lights in front of the bushes, brick clips for the bricks, gutter clips for the gutters, and special order shingle clips for the shingles.  There are suction cups for the wreaths and black out caps when the light count doesn’t work out perfectly.  There is no Mickey Mouse wooden cut out, no giant Santa reading a list of who’s been naughty or nice, no blow up snowman.  There are only white lights.  Very straight, very bright white lights on every peak, every eave, every window, every straight line, and every corner. I fear the neighbors are ready to cover their windows in aluminum foil because who could really sleep when outside your window it’s lit up brighter than a football field on a Friday night?!?  

Over the years I have watched my husband draw diagrams and label every light and every cord.  I have watched him jump out of bed the day after Christmas to go store to store buying up every white light that’s on sale.  I have seen first hand what happens when you plug in too many light strands together.  I have seen sparks fly out of outlets and entire power strips crackle, pop, smoke, and stop working.  I have gone the entire month of December not using certain appliances when the lights are on in fear of tripping a breaker.  

I have also enjoyed the compliments from friends and neighbors.  I have enjoyed seeing the families in cars that drive by slowly.  I have enjoyed the hours upon hours he and our oldest son spend together outside the entire month of November (thankfully it’s not me on the roof anymore!).  I have enjoyed the look on his face as we all stand out in the street to admire his handiwork the first time the lights are flipped on—-if you are imagining National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, you’re right on track!

The truth is, I really do love this about him.  The truth is, holiday illumination is the one hobby that really lights him up!  

Why share this with you in November?  Because we are already two weeks into his decorating season.  This year he is adding on wrapping the back yard trees…I guess so the deer that sometimes roam the small patch of woods behind our house can enjoy the lights too!