We have a love/hate relationship with Christmas lights.  Although the kids and I look forward to setting up the various light displays, I dread checking the lights for problems.  Every year, after the season is over, I very carefully pack the working lights away and every year when we take them out, without fail, there seems to be some kind of problem.  I can’t figure it out.  How can they go from a working strand to half the stand working and the other half not all while sitting in a box in the attic?  I have tried buying strands where even if one bulb blows the others glow and still find some kind of trouble.  I replace fuses and check every bulb on the strand, changing blown ones.  This year we bought brand new lights to create a special tree display in our front yard.  They worked the first day and the second day half of one strand was out.  We changed the fuses, checked the bulbs, and shook the wire for all it was worth and nothing.  No wonder my husband bows out from helping set up the lights.  He used to help me line the entire length of our 200-foot plus driveway. He would get up on the porch roof of our two-story home to trim the outline of the house.  He would even graciously climb the 20-foot cedar tree in the front of our house to hang the lights for me. He did this until the frustration of non-working lights became too much and he resigned his commission as lighting engineer.  So now, if I want outside lights, it’s up to the kids and I.  Now, mind you, I don’t begrudge my husband one bit.  As a matter of fact, I have given great consideration to resigning myself, but it just doesn’t feel like Christmas around here with out the lights.  I love to be welcomed back home by the brilliant glow.  Over the years, there have been less lights illuminating our yard and now we mostly stick to the porch and the little patch in front, but the message is still clear that Christmas is visiting our home. (Sorry the picture is a bit blurry.  Tried for 3 nights to get it clear, but you get the idea. The tree in the center was made on our flag pole.)