I'm Dreaming of a Hillbilly Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving I set up the outdoor Christmas decorations. Previous years, I've had Christmas lights, starting soon after we'd moved in with strings of incandescant lights. I bought a few strings, and later found some true vintage ones that came with the house. In the last 5 or 6 years, I replaced those with LED lights. The last couple of years, I hadn't been able to find them, since the firstborn moved into the basement and moved a lot of stuff around. Last year I picked up a laser pattern projector for a very reasonable price. It's a great little device, easy to set up and makes a good look.

Right before Thanksgiving, one of my co-workers had their Christmas tree set up in the background in one of our video meetings. It got a little attention, and got me to thinking... I've got my workspace set up in the corner, one of the best seats in the house, with windows to my left and behind me. I could do some decoraton behind myself, some lights or garland or possibly a wreath, but there's no way I could set up a Christmas tree. Or is there??? The wheels began to turn...

We have aluminum awinings over the windows, and we have a fairly campy and hideous pink artifical tree. A few years back, we replaced pinky with a white one to work with the color wheel that was also in the basement that came with the house. It's fairly lightweight. I took some bailing wire and wrapped it around the upper part of the tree, and suspended it from the awining, just over my left shoulder while I'm working. The second picture, you can see some of the laser projections on the house.

I also bought another string of lights, solar powered LED with a remote, that I used on the tree, as well as about half of the awning along the front. I set the solar panel up on a board under the air conditiong unit for now. I may just keep the lights on the awinings permanent, and if I do, I'll make up a better mount. I'm not sure if I will, the remote doesn't work very well.

When we have our morninig huddle, it's still dark out, so I can turn the lights on for it. It shows up nice in the afternoons on the video, too. My co-workers have voiced their approvoal, and I'm pleased with the way it came out. From the outside of the house, though, I have a feeling it may look more than a little bizzare to passerby!!!