Decoration Day...

Different meanings.  When I was a kid, Memorial Day was called Decoration Day by my Mother.  It was a day of remembrance, when you put flowers on the grave of a service person in your family who had passed.

Today was Christmas decoration day.  We usually decorate on December 2nd - our anniversary.  But, the Lighted Golf Cart Parade is tonight.  No, we don't have a golf cart... it just makes things look more festive.  Seems like there are way fewer homes decorated around here this year.  Or maybe it is the fact that Thanksgiving was later?  I did see some other people decorating today, though.

We brought several boxes of decorations out of our storage area.  First order of business: see what works...

We went through 2 large bins of lights - most of these saw duty on Wild Blue for the Lighted Boat Parade.  It seems that the weather is always blustery (they canceled the parade last year due to ugly conditions), so any lights on the boat get hammered with salt spray on the crossing between Port Isabel and South Padre Island.  When all was said and done, we decided to toss a bunch of light and go to Wally World to pick up some more.

I hung lights while Joan worked on which-bulb-is-the-culprit on the star that is going to be the centerpiece on the deck.  The Chinese obviously take great joy in frustrating all the Clark Griswolds of the world with their one-light-takes-out-half-of-the-strand.  So, you wind up with 18 strands with varying percentages of lights that don't work.  One of the next boxes of lights had a portion not working right out of the box!!  Bah - humbug!!

Joan got all the lights on the star lit, just as I was finishing up the icicle lights...

We tested two strands of lighted star lights - everything worked... until I hung them, then about 25% decided to take the season off.  Joan plugged in the rest of the lights...

Yes, we had the sunscreens down - it was about 80º on the deck.  Joan asked about putting "something" on the dock.  We have the inflatable lighthouse that we have used on the boat, but it is SO loud (noise from the fan).  I suggested our "Santa Crossing" sign.  I pulled it out of the box... it hadn't aged well; everything that was originally white on it was now yellow...

You might have to look close, but... the background of the triangle - yep, it's yellow.  The "Santa Crossing" lettering - yep, the background is yellow.  And that stuff around the base of the sign... that is supposed to be snow - yep, now it is yellow snow.  Ewwww!  The sign looked pathetic all by itself, so Joan suggested we put some red and green candy canes on the railings.  Yes, those were also on the boat at one time: red on the port side, green on the starboard side, of course.  ;-)

So, it isn't extensive, but we are decorated on the outside.  We'll do the inside tomorrow.  Maybe.

I carted 3 boxes and one large garbage bag of semi-functional lights to the garbage.  Dang - I worked up a sweat today.  ;-)

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After dark...