For the second year in a row, we're the only house on the block with no outside Christmas lights--at all.  Our neighbors always put us to shame with their dazzling outdoor displays; "Clark" gamely climbs that ladder to his roof every year to hang the twinkle lights.  Every year he says that it's the last year he's doing this, but the next year he's back on the ladder.

But with the high winds and freezing-cold weekend temperatures we've had this December, my husband hasn't had the opportunity to take care of our own exterior illumination.  ("Clark" got that job done on a day when we were out of town.)

Our indoor decorations will have to suffice this year.  I bought a nice evergreen wreath from the eighth-grade fundraiser, and that is on the front door.  But that's it.  Good thing our brightly-lit Christmas tree is visible from the big front window, or everyone in the neighborhood would start spelling our last name "S-C-R-O-O-G-E."

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