Jroot, what a hoot! I love it and you are not alone. Santa will leave you some special garden gifts. Here is a link that might be useful: Christmas Lights

We have been bone dry for months. But, we got a hard heavy rain for about 10 minutes this week that dumped .4 on us. I'll take it. It also came with enough hail to make the ground white. Amarillo, ground white in December, its usually not hail! But, fwiw, it did a fine job of harvesting the rest of my pecan crop. ha ha.

Christmas will be sooooooooooooooooooo different here this year as well.I always go overboard with decorating and gifts.But a few years ago all my friends and i agreed to not give each other gifts anymore as we all had what we needed and wanted and our families were growing with grands and great grand,and like we said we didn't need gifts to prove our friendshps.It was hard getting used to it but we did. My grands have all moved away and i still send pkgs to them,they will be smaller this year,but the kids are young still all under 4,and they like anything. Since i'm battleing this BC this year,i can't get out to do a lot of shopping either,and i'll have my 4th chemo the day before christmas,so i know i won't feel up to doing all that decorating,and my DH has never helped with the decorating either.He's one of the Bah Humbug guys when it comes to xmas. I'll still enjoy mu xmas movies and my tv shows though.It'll be different,i'll survive it though. Kathi

I love the Christmas season and all the decorations. Last year I made a big deal about Christmas because my sister had just been diagnosed with lung cancer and wanted to make it special for her so I went all out to make it extra special. We talked that day and she was going to call for a ride then she ended not showing up. I was a little upset to say the least and disappointed. She was not feeling ill at this time, she just decided she was going to stay home and not tell me or answer her phone. I had guests over and held off dinner for as long as I could until another family member contacted her and she said she was just going to stay home without letting me know. So this year, my sister is at my house, missed everything last year and this year now that she is here I can't do anything. No room to do any decorating so I can't make it special for her this year. I am so busy with her and her needs I won't have time to cook a special meal nor do I want to because I am just so exhausted haha and I certainly don't want to do a sink full of dishes and pots and pans from making a turkey dinner. She doesn't have the appetite anyway. And I am still a little peeved about last year. This may be her last Christmas, hopefully not but I just can't be bothered what with all that is going on right now. Here is a picture of how my living room is usually decorated and now which is full to the brim with hospital bed, oxygen tanks and all her medical equipment.