Not Exactly What I Was Going For

I'm in the middle of this very long post about my parents' visit and I was working along on it when I decided that I should take advantage of the (relatively) balmy weather to put up some Christmas lights. People in my neighborhood are already WAY ahead of me. (Of course, I'll get them back in July when I still haven't taken mine down.) I've noticed that, in general, people here in New York go ALL OUT on the holiday decorating. Christmas is going to be quite the spectacle--one of my neighbors already has this gorgeous tree made of lights in her front yard and another family has a huge decorated tree and even some lighted presents. As I drive around, I see snowmen and angels and sleighs and reindeer... it's all very festive.

Anyway, I'm trying to do like the Romans do so I thought I ought to get started. I walked outside and assessed the position of the outlets, etc. Back in Austin, I used to wrap our largest tree out front in miles and miles of lights. It was really beautiful, I thought. I was all set to do that to one of the trees or maybe even SEVERAL of the trees--a virtual lighted forest!-- out front when I noticed something.

There is only one outlet outside and if I run an extension cord to it, the extension cord will have to run right across the front walk way. Given that I am gimpy and clumsy AND half blind, this seems to be a recipe for disaster. So, I started to wrap this conical juniper --I have two of them, one on either side of the front door.

Only, um...

Well.

I have this sinking feeling that I've just created a giant...um...symbol that is decidedly NOT in the spirit of Christmas. (If giant...you know...symbols such as these are part of YOUR holiday celebrations, please don't tell me about it. Really. I don't want to know.) I won't know for sure until dark falls but, well, this is not QUITE the statement I was hoping for. I don't think this will further my efforts to fit in with the other PTA moms, if you know what I mean.


How many years of therapy do you think it'll take for my daughters to overcome the stigma associated with their mother having lit up a giant...um...symbol in the front yard?

Stuff like this happens to other people, too, right?