Who says a Mom can't hang the Christmas lights?

So growing up, my mom and dad would always do Christmas lights shortly after Thanksgiving. The CANDY CANE POLES were my FAVORITE! I loved them. Even though they were just PVC pipe cut with red electrical tape wrapped around them, they were fun! Something my brother always looked forward to doing every single year. There was always a hilarious occurrence that went with it too. Like hammering the poles down with the caps on it. HAHA It is nearly impossible to get the caps off to put the lights on the pole.(even for our dad) Or having your brother hold the pole while your hammering and then accidentally hammering his hand. Yeah. There was always something.

Anyways! So I wanted to do these poles for Christmas this year! It was a lot more work than I remembered! First you have to go buy the pipe (and hope it fits in your car) WHICH IT DIDN'T. Thank GOD I live less than a mile from Home Depot. So there I was with my 10 ft PVC pipes hanging out of the land rover with the top door in the back bungeed to the tailgate door and the kids sitting in their carseats with the PVC pipes in between them. Like I said, glad I only live .75 miles away from Home Depot.

I had to wait until Hayden went down for her nap because there was no way I could watch 2 kids and work on Christmas lights!

First

You have to cut the pipes. Since my husband was out of town that meant I had to cut them. I was very reluctant to use anything electric. So I cut them with the good ole' hand saw! With only 2 minor nicks and 1 major one on my left hand, the Job was done! haha

Second

Now to cut the slits on the top where the lights will sit in. That was hard. The pipes are only 1 inch in diameter so to make to slits on the top that you can then pull the cut pieces out with pliers is tricky without cutting your thumb off.

Third

NOW I have to wrap them with the electrical tape. EASY PEASY Done in 15 minutes. The trick to wrapping them evenly is to let the pipe do the work. Simply hold the tape at an angle and twist the pole.


Fourth

Getting them in the ground in December. In Virginia. HAHA

Eventually I got them all in the ground. Strung the lights on them. Put the caps on top. Took a pic.
(don't mind the bad quality of the photos, my digital camera was broken while we were at the petting zoo at the Texas State Fair. lol therefore, I have been using my phone camera until I get a new one.)

and Hayden is now awake...

Next, I HAD to get up the lights on the roof. Like I said, John was out of town, so I opted to climb up and down a ladder 100x instead of getting on the roof. My luck, Jensen would have pushed the ladder over and I would be S.O.L. with a 2 year old running around the yard and a 1 year old stuck in her highchair....FOR HOURS.

All in All, it came out pretty well.

Besides the small section of burnt out lights right on the front of the house! haha I swear I checked all of the strands before I hung them up, so somewhere in between that one section got messed up.

Thanks for stopping by!

C