We pulled the plug(s) on the 2025-26 holiday season after breakfast this morning.
Herself boxed up all the small stuff — Bicycling Santa, Fat Cowboy Santa, Cat Santa, etc. — and then we disassembled and bagged the fake Christmas tree before dragging the unwieldy sonofabitch out to its corner of the garage, where the bicycles jeer at it.
“Ha ha, ha haaah, ha, you only get out once a year!”
Then I set about pulling down all the lights out front. I got a little carried away this year, adding a strand here and a strand there, until PNM sent us a thank-you card for using more power than the Coronado Center.
As a consequence, dismantling my creation took longer than I had expected, and by the time I started dragging all the bits and pieces back into the house the clouds were right behind me and splish, splash, my bike ride got rained out.
And yes, those are skulls you see in the pile there. Leftovers from Halloween that I decided to leave up for a while.
Far as I’m concerned, it’s still Halloween. It ain’t over until the last ghoul’s been staked and baked. And the White House is still possessed by devils.
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I gave up on hanging lights a few years ago. I went with a couple of laser projectors that put a little red and green pattern onto the house. All I need do is drag them out, aim them at the house and plug them in. So much easier and it doesn’t involve ladders. I managed to ride on down a number of years ago and that cured me of any desire to use one (i was fine, just a case of PTSD with respect to ladders).
Happily, we have a low-slung wisteria and piñon, plus a crossbeam and posts, all of them easily accessible from one of those little two-step deals.
As a youngster I nearly croaked myself botching a free rappel in the Garden of the Gods, and did a little time working at the topside of a long-ass extension ladder with a small platform attached, replacing screens on barracks at Fort Carson.
After that I stuck to getting high on drugs. Coming down was usually a lot easier on the body, if not the mind.
My kids spent three hours in a barn playing with feral cats. No screens, no distractions. Three hours of getting dirty without complaining about it.
Hope the rest of the year goes as well
No decorations to take down here save a sock monkey with a Santa hat in the entry hallway.
An MRI of chump’s head would look like a bucket full of buzzworms.
Talk about your sock monkeys. I wish someone would take down the one in the White House.
Our lights and decorations came down yesterday as well. Luckily, in this 15 degree weather, these were all *inside* the house and did not cause any winter gear to leave the closet. It was probably the last season for the 30 year old ugly and tired chrome mini tree. It had done its best to stay current, but couldn’t hold our attention any longer, so out it goes. Don’t know if a replacement will be in order. The sting of white LED lights did add a bit of charm around the fireplace area, but Lolli the cat (looks just like yours) kept looking at them wondering what they would taste like if he was able to get close enough to try. There were bits of the chrome tree on the floor below it, so maybe Lolli? Tearing stuff down and replacing with maybe nothing just might be the way 2026 follows 2025. But I sure hope not.
It’s gonna be an interesting year whether we like it or not, for sure.