Christmas decorating

I had a whole day to myself - nothing on my calendar so I determined to get some Christmas decorating out of the way yesterday before it started to rain.  Actually the day was warm and I often took my sweatshirt off!  But the rain did come and I wasn't too bothered by it because I was listening to Andrea Boccelli on my IPAD.

I left this tub on the sidewalk and see the raindrops??

I really did get bothered by the strings of miniature lights that half the string works and the other half doesn't.  @@!!###$$!!  I'm certain they all worked when I put them away last year.  

So I headed to Shopko to buy some new lights and what a dilemma it became there.  Traditional miniature lights or the more expensive, yet more efficient and long lasting LED lights.  I could get 100 minis for about $6.00, 100 LED Berry lights were on sale for $9.99, regular price $29.99.  I knew I did not want to replace all my lights this year, but I thought I'd buy one string and see if I liked the LED.  

I really like the LED lights, the minis have a yellow cast to them and I'm sure the Christmas-light police out there tell us not to mix them.  Oh well!  The berry lights will still be on sale on Wednesday and I can get a Senior Citizen discount of 15% on all my purchases, so should I buy them  for next year?  

I found a new home for the half-burned out string of lights - in the midst of my winter pots!

My friend, Marcia, shared this gorgeous holly from her tree!

I'm so happy the outside of my home is decorated, but when I flipped the surge protector on this morning....nothing!  What the???  It rained all night, do you suppose it affected the outlet?  I looked in the panel box and couldn't tell if one breaker was flipped off.  Now what????

Call John O'Shaughnessy

He talked about how drops of rain could wreck havoc with all the lights and extension cords.  I told him it didn't look like any breakers had switched off and all lights worked everywhere in my house.  But then he said sometimes the GFI will switch off  and then gratefully, he said, "we'll be over after church today."  In the meantime I took a shower and tried to use my hairdryer and it wouldn't work until I reset the GFI.  That little switch was the culprit and I was able to fix it myself.  Yippee!!

Tonight everything works even the burning bush idea from Better Homes & Gardens!  

And it's not raining...