CHRISTMAS TIP #1First of all, picture in your minds a darling picture of me, hair and makeup perfect, Christmas apron on, kneeling in front of the tree, lights from hell to breakfast, half the tree webbed in lights, suddenly gone dark for no apparent reason and a GIANT scowl on my face. This is the picture I wouldn't let my mom take because somewhere in the mess of those lights I'd lost my sense of humor.
I hopped up, made a batch of rolls and found my Christmas spirit again and set to work fixing all the lights by changing fuses... and then I thought "I SHOULD SHARE THIS KNOWLEDGE WITH THE WORLD!" So here it goes:
I'm guessing I'm not the only one who battles with the lights. Here is what you do: You know that little plastic bag attatched to the string of lights that is annoying? It has two little fuses in it and a light bulb or two. Save those fuses. On the green plug is a little arrow that says Open or something like that. It slides open so the "door" is right next to the prongs you stick in the outlet... sometimes you have to use the tip of a knife to get it to open, but it is worth the effort. Tip it over and dump out the old fuses. Drop the 2 new fuses in. (You might be able to only replace 1 fuse, I think you can tell if it is blown...) Then slide it closed and plug them in again. It almost always works for me! HOORAY! :) This is much easier than undecorating the tree or living with a "dark spot" till January.
CHRISTMAS TIP #2
You know how your mom always told you Satan works hardest on Sunday mornings and times when you are about to make a really great big choice in your life? (Baptism, marriage, going to the temple... getting family pictures taken! lol ok, maybe not that last one, but it sure feels like it) Anyway, I think the same goes for Christmas. At the rate the adversary is working in my life, this Christmas must have the potential to be AMAZING. I feel distracted, annoyed, quick to frustration and so amazingly overwhelmed. I don't really have the "Tip" part of this figured out, but at least I recognized the problem! I am listening to good music, seeking out minutes to read scriptures and uplifting Christmas stories, praying a whole lot and trying to find time for the important things... I bet You all have it figured out. Please feel free to impart your wisdom in a comment. :)
4 comments:
Here is my wisdom. Christmas is coming, and kids have a gift list a mile long, which means they are pillier than usual and whiney... I don't like it.
My other tip. I had three strands of lights that were out. Changed the fuses in all of them, went through all the bulbs. NOTHING.... I dumped them and went out and bought more lights.
I feel your Christmas frustration my friends, and I don't have it all figured out, but a clean house seems to help. :-)
Jeralee, i love your wisdom. After my continued fight with our Christmas tree (still undecorated!) I think I'm ready to throw in the towel and buy a few more sets of lights.
About the clean house thing-- so true! And so hard to accomplish with 2 year old DESTRUCTO BOY! He undoes faster than I can do, which is part of my frustration. He has broken. disassembled and lost some of my favorite decorations already :( Good thing he is so cute and charming.
You have a disructo boy too??!! Did you read my blog post a few weeks back? Let's make a deal, if one of us figures out that frustration we'll tell the other ASAP. :) A clean house does feel good. It makes me feel better. But with a little one that's getting into things, a distructo boy, and a fiesty ornery little girl who likes to ruffle my feathers, I haven't figured that one out either. ~Sigh~
I say if you're able, buy the new lights. The 10 bucks it'll cost for a few more strands is way worth the relief of stress.
We're going caroling tomorrow. I wish you could come. Surely you wouldn't spend a minute worried about anything while you were singing.
Love from Texas!
uhm, no wisdom here. I will say that frustration can be procrastinated. We're putting up our tree this weekend. By the time we finish decorating it, we'll have to take it back down.
I'm in Christmas denial. MEANING-- I'm listening to the music, letting the kids decorate the house and waiting until I'm good and ready to start wrapping presents.
Maybe I should add reading the Ensign to the list. That and the scriptures.
As for family pictures- the best part of doing them is having them over with! And why does it look like I have hippie hair? It didn't look like that when I looked in the mirror. Oh well.
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