Ok, Griswold!

I (ok it was mostly Richie) TOTALLY put up some brightly colored Christmas lights outside our house. First time ever! And a little cutout snowman set with twinkling lights also went up outside, courtesy of my sister, who has the strangest assortment of things to give me each time I visit.

After the deed was done, Richie told me, while shaking his head and kinda smirking, "I never thought I'd have Christmas lights outside of my house." I feel him on that. I was the same way until last year, when I saw how much Lauren was digging on peoples' decorations. So this year, when Cara tried to destash some decorations on me, I was like why the hell not?

But as we drove around our neighborhood later, I was comparing our light display to some of our neighbors', and I felt kinda deficient. I asked Richie if we could get a few more things. His response - a very emphatic "Ok, Griswold!" (Ok, meaning, NO, of course :)

My dad was / probably still is / a big fan of Christmas Vacation and Chevy Chase in general. I think the reason I was hatin on Christmas lights until this point was the result of a few painful teenage years of the practically florescent chasing lights winding up and down the posts in front of our house at Christmas time. I swore my dad turned them on whenever he knew my friends were coming over. I was so hurt - they were incredibly garish. He thought they were great, and I knew it was National Lampoon's fault. I think Richie's family did the same thing to him.

So - we'll keep it marginally tasteful, and keep it delightful for Lauren. Once she starts to be embarassed by them, well we'll have to see then how much I have become like my Dad.