Saturday morning Dave and I decorated the outside of our house for Christmas. In past years this consisted of sticking a wreath on the front door and calling it a day. It just didn’t seem worth taking the time to garnish our exterior with anything else.
This year my huge front porch with white spindled railing seemed to beg for greenery. So Friday afternoon on my way back from town, I stopped by the Corner Store and picked up two rolls of white pine roping to be ready to decorate first thing the next morning.
At first Dave wasn’t as enthused about the project as I was. I don’t think decorating the porch had been on his agenda for the day. Things went from tenuous to dicey when he attempted to unroll the first bundle. We both misunderstood how the thing came to be rolled up in the first place and spent a good half hour untangling the thing before we could be started with the actual “fun”. After watching Dave fumble with the knot for awhile, I decided that with my expertise in untangling yarn, that I was better suited for the task. Wrong. The tangle of wire and cording caught and twisted in the evergreen boughs was no match for me either. Finally we decided to make a cut and move on.
The tangle behind us, we debated artistic vision for a few minutes and then moved on to the actual winding the greenery around the porch rail. Eventually we achieved a rhythm and finished up in no time. I took a left over piece of roping and wrapped it around the light post while Dave added some clear twinkle lights to the greenery. He plugged in the lights and miracle of miracles; they worked!
Later that evening as we slowly backed out the drive on our way to the company Christmas party, we admired our handiwork. It was beautiful and oh so welcoming later that night when we returned.
I’m glad I decided to go the extra step this year, tangles and all….. on to the inside!