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Being new homeowners has really put us into the Christmas spirit and Christmas threw up on our house this weekend, in a good way! I’ll have a slew of posts up this week to illustrate.

First up, putting up the Christmas lights! Luckily, technology advancements have fixed the “one goes out, they all go out” frustration! Aaron and I were determined to do this and make it look as professional as possible and guess what, WE DID IT! And I am here to show you how.

It’s best to go into this with a plan:

1. We investigated our competition around the neighborhood and decided what we did and didn’t like.

2. We surveyed our own house to see what our options were and made a rough plan on what we wanted to do. Then Aaron eyeballed the amount of feet we needed to buy (maybe not the best approach but he actually got it exactly right.

3. Then we headed out to Wal-Mart where we heard the best prices for lights were. The craze this year are LED lights which are about $9 more a box at 14ft vs. regular lights $6 a box at 25ft. Since this was our first year to do this we thought we may want to change it up next year so we opted for the more financially viable option.

Shopping list:
11 boxes of clear lights
4 boxes of red LED light strings (for our front porch columns)
3 boxes of light clips
1 50 ft. extension cord (make sure the cord you buy are for outdoor use)
2 40 ft. extension cord
1 20 ft. extension cord
1 12 ft. extension cord
1 Package of replacement bulbs (just get them, trust me you will break a few)
Duct tape

4. Decide on a system. I am accident prone so Aaron made the executive decision that he should be the one to get on the roof. Look at him waving – he’s happy cause I have both feet planted safely on the ground.

While he was up there, I sat in the driveway attaching the clips to the lights

We got these handy dandy all in one clips. We couldn’t aattach them to our gutters because we have gutter guards so we used the option in the top right hand corner of attaching the lights to our shingles. Worked like a charm. My fingers were sore after attaching 275 freaking clips to the lights. Make sure you buy extra, I broke about 5 or 6!

Here was the mess I was making down in the driveway.

I also wrapped our two front pillars with red lights. To attach them I used 3M Command hooks. I have used these a bunch with our decorating so we don’t put holes in walls, doors, etc. They are a life saver.

I put a hook at the top and a hook at the bottom. Like so!

5. After you get all of your lights up, take a deep breath cause you’re not done. Next, if you have some places where you didn’t really want lights but had to have them there to keep the flow going then you can take those light bulbs out so they won’t light up. But, you need to cover the empty hole with duct tape so it doesn’t get water in it and short out.

6. Then it’s time to connect the extension cords. This will vary depending on your house and how you put your lights up. Ours worked out that we ran all the cord over the roof to a plug in the back yard. So, we didn’t have any cords to try and hide, which is nice!

Plug them in and make sure they all work and check for any bulbs not lighting up, they are probably just not screwed in tight enough.

And there you have it – you are done. It was tough to wait until it got dark so we could enjoy it in all its glory. Luckily you don’t have to wait. Here it is, with a tree sneak peek. (sorry about the quality of pics, we are in the process of replacing a camera, thank goodness for iPhones)

The wreath on our front door didn’t have lights on it, but Wal-Mart had battery packed LED lights. BONUS!

Merry Christmas