I am so ready to start decorating my house and a tree for Christmas. I have the Christmas spirit big time this year! We need to buy a new tree though, the artificial one we’ve been using is looking pretty raggedy. I think I might have Chris convinced to let me pick out a real tree this year; we haven’t had one in years. I just love the way they smell.

We need new strings of lights too, and I’m looking into upgrading our old incandescent lights to the new LED mini lights. They are more expensive, but they are 80 percent more efficient than standard lights, and last up to 50,000 hours as opposed to 2,000 for incandescents. While I was looking online for more info on mini LED lights, I found HolidayLEDs.com, who has the funniest thing on their site-the “Ugly Christmas Lights” page. People take photos of houses with the gaudiest or most pathetic light displays, and then the photos get posted on the site. Some of them are just jaw-dropping.

Oh, and LED lights are made of indestructible plastic as opposed to glass, so they are safer to have around. It’s bad enough that I always drop at least one of my favorite glass ornaments every year. I could use LED lights in the kids’ room to decorate around their windows without worrying about them bumping into one and getting cut or something. I can’t wait to start decorating!