winter wonderland

I've had a lot of picture-heavy posts lately. I think I'm going to have to have some picture-free posts to even it out soon. I don't want anyone getting too used to all these pictures, cause when my supply dries up I don't want any complaints. Anyway, on to the post.

We put up our Christmas lights this weekend! Yes, I did a lot of work too, but the only picture of me working is from a very unflattering angle and since I'm in charge here, I decide when to post unflattering pictures of myself, and today is not one of those days. There's a total of almost 900 feet of lights up outside right now, and we have another 50 foot strand we could put up. We ran out of daylight and just haven't decided where it will go.

We also did a bit of cleanup yard work. Alfred cut down a bunch of dead palm fronds, I blew off the roof, and Alfred cleaned up branches from the yard. It looks a lot nicer now, plus it's less flammable. We plan on having a few bonfires while my family is down here for Christmas, and thought it might be helpful if the yard wasn't full of dry branches. Palm fronds burn really fast, too. I discovered that while we were working on our house a few years ago. We started a fire in a metal trash can to keep warm (it was some night in November) and when everyone else was in the house I threw some palm fronds on top. The fire was taller than the roof of the house within seconds. I was so afraid someone would look out the window and see this towering inferno and I'd be so busted. I almost shat my pants. Luckily palm fronds burn out pretty fast, too.

We ran into a bit of wildlife around the yard as well. Alfred unearthed what he first thought was a snake, but turned out to be a skink. He was hiding in a palm tree that Alfred was destroying, I mean trimming. Poor little guy lost his home. He eventually fell from the second story roof, but I couldn't find his body so he either vaporized on impact or ran away to safety.

Then when I was blowing off the porch (cause I made a mess from blowing off the roof) this gigantic thing was on the picnic table. I don't know if it was dead or what, but it didn't respond when I gently blew on it with the leaf blower. So I turned the blower on it full blast. That sucker's long gone.

And last, but not least, a dead opossum. At least, that's what I'm guessing it is, judging by its pointy little teeth (at the left of the picture) and its tail (at the right of the picture). I know it's not a bird!

But enough dead animals. Back to the decorations. I put up some garland inside the house, but haven't really gotten much else done inside.

The lights outside took up most of our time. We worked so diligently, then happened to notice that the ones we had lined the walkway with looked a little... suggestive.


It was totally by accident, I swear. Anyway, we adjusted them a bit, and got a couple more strands up, and voila! A winter wonderland!


And next weekend, we get our tree!