As far as interior and exterior decorating goes, we are at an odd seasonal time. Not quite winter, but getting colder, still not yet cold enough for the snow to have stuck around. It’s after Thanksgiving, but not yet December. I didn’t want to put away the autumn decorations. I love looking at them. I think they look warm in their deep, rich shades of brown, orange and gold. The cornucopia on the dining room table has that peaceful kind of harvest feel that I’m not ready to give up just yet.

But, living here in the Northeast, you gotta do what you gotta do when it comes to the yard. There are only a few weekends to get the outside Christmas lights set up. If a weekend comes along where the temperature hovers in the mid-40’s and it isn’t raining, you almost have to set up the outside Christmas decorations, if you do that sort of thing. The Sunday after Thanksgiving was that sort of day. It bothered me this year to be stringing the lights at the same time my neighbor was raking his leaves. While I was setting up the spotlight, my husband was cutting the grass. It just felt all wrong, but I did it anyway so now it’s done.

That evening, I drove through my neighborhood as I returned from the supermarket. Some of my neighbors spent the day as I did. Not all of them, maybe every fourth house had pumpkins and mums on their front stoop. I have to admit, they appeared more appropriate than the inflatable Santas puffed up on green lawns. A house or two even had a scarecrow hanging around or a creepy-something dangling from a tree, a leftover from Halloween, I presume. In the same yard, American flags are stuck in the ground from Veteran’s Day. Nice to see the flags, but as my sister-in-law says, these are the houses that “puke holidays”.

Getting back to the inflatable Santa, I must admit that I don’t like an inflatable anything for any holiday. They always look so depressing in the mornings the way they land in an exhausted heap. They seem to be hung-over from being up all night. But they’re all the rage in Christmas yard fashion in these parts. I often wonder if it’s just Pennsylvania or if all areas of the country get into the yard-decorating thing. It’s hard to imagine what they do in the southern states. Seems crazy to have a Santa or a snow-anything out in the front yard.

Everyone has their own decorating style, but sometimes I marvel at what people will do for Christmas. The gutters are strung with icicle style lighting, but first AND second floor gutters. They don’t stop there, they go up to the rooftop to put a Santa with a foot in the chimney or a set of reindeer and a sleigh right in the center of the rooftop. Some have lights of all colors and blinking rhythms around every bush. Some houses are a mix of Frosty, choir angels, Baby Jesus and toy soldiers. As my sister-in-law also says, these are the houses that are “puking Christmas”. No insult to the reason for the season intended, but mixing it up that way just looks like a big ol’ Christmas flea market!

So, I drive back to my house wondering if the timer worked for the exterior lights. And, hey, what do you know, it did! The lights were all on and the spot light worked. It shone right in my front window… at the Thanksgiving floral arrangement! Oh, brother.