2017 Flowers' Family Christmas Lights

It's Christmastime which means it's time to break out all the Christmas lights! Ever since we've bought this house, I've enjoyed putting on a bigger and bigger light display.

After getting back from Thanksgiving it was time to bring everything down from the attic. First task is spreading it across the driveway. 

Both Alli and Ian were helpful delivering lights while my brother and I strung them up. 

Ian's fearless on the ladder.

"Helping" his Uncle Jon put lights in the palm trees.

These palm trees keep getting bigger, but my ladder stays the same size. Every year I think the next year might be the last year for palm trees, but then I figure out that I'm barely able to reach up and get lights up there. My brother was a big help this year getting these tall palm trees done.

The garland was T's new addition last year. Ian helped me get the garland along the roofline this year and it went up much easier than before.

"Supervising"

One of the last things to go up was the homemade LED tree. The kids treat it as a playground, swinging around on the pole, and ducking in and out of the lights.

Pretty bright Alli?

If it was fun during the day, it's even more fun at night!

Looks pretty cool from the inside too!

My very last project for the year was to get real lights up into the massive backyard tree. In years past, I had lasers shining up into the tree, but was disappointed with how bright they were. I was determined to do something about it. The tree is massive, so getting lights into was going to be difficult. In the end, I used a 24 foot extending pole with a fork on the end, climbed up on the roof, stretched as high as I could, and placed the lights around the highest branch I could reach. I even got permission from the neighbors to climb onto their house to reach the whole tree.

T had the great idea of mixing green lights into both of the wreaths. They stand out a lot more against the background now.

I'd been wondering how to get lights over to the small tree between the street and the sidewalk. In past years I had used battery-driven lights.

This year, I ran an extension cord over to it, covering it with duct tape and using yard stakes on either side to hold it down. So far, it's held great!

The fences are great for putting lights on. And I make sure to put them on both the outside of the fence...

And on the inside. That way you see lights no matter which direction you're looking at it from.

In the first years, I used white lights on the entire palm tree. T made the excellent suggestion a few years ago that green LEDs would look better. I completely agree! I love how the palm trees turn out each year.

The three fruit trees got some colored lights as well. Everything is looking great.

The kids really love having all these lights. It takes about 3 days to get everything up and into place, but I think it's worth it.

And the reactions from the neighbors and others has been really positive. T and I have definitely noticed a lot more cars slowing down when they pass our house. If I'm outside, I'll give them a wave. A few even roll down their window and shout things like "Beautiful display" or "Nice job on the lights". It's always nice to hear they're appreciated.

So with all these lights, and finally covering the huge backyard tree, what's next? Well I can see one area that could use a few more lights...

The driveway is a prime candidate. The lasers here were just a test to see what it might look like.

Hope you enjoyed the lights! Merry Christmas!


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I've had many neighbors who have commented on how much they've enjoyed the lights. This year I even had a couple come knock on the door and bring some homemade Christmas cookies, saying they just loved looking at them when they go walking. Nice!