Jim's Decorating Attitude Changes!

After many years of seeing Jim get extremely agitated over the simple task of putting a Christmas tree in a stand, I came to the conclusion that the kids and I needed to decorate the tree when he was out of the house. From that point on we waited until Jim was MIA to put up our tree and Christmas became more enjoyable. Problem solved. The “Christmas tree stress” no longer existed, the kids and I had fun, and Jim was happy as a clam to come home and find the task completed without his involvement.

The first year we moved to our current house, our neighbor decorated her entire yard with Christmas lights and decorations. Other than a tree I had never put up any decorations and decided that I was going to string lights on my fence and decorate my yard the next year. My neighbor was more than willing to help and she gave me a garland for my gate and helped me wrap lights around the columns on my porch. I was so elated to finally have outside decorations and absolutely loved my yard. Every year after that one, I put up more lights and got a little more creative with my decorations. Through the years I’ve had a friend and neighbors help me out at different times with my decorations. Other than asking Jim to hold the ladder for me and tell me if my lights were evenly spaced on the columns, I’ve left him alone, knowing he has zero tolerance when it comes to decorating.

When I found out that Chance was coming home for Christmas, I wanted to put up a sign with red, white and blue lights around it, some American flags and some yellow ribbons around the oak trees. When I got ready to put the sign on the fence, I ask Jim if he would give me just a few minutes of his time. Much to my surprise he said he would, and even helped with the rest of the decorations, staying with me until everything was perfect. This happens to be the one and only time I can remember that he willingly helped out with a decoration involving Christmas lights! I think he was so caught up in the excitement of Chance coming home that he would have done just about anything at that point, with no complaining! Here’s the end result -

That night when we were waiting to pick Chance up from the airport, we were surprised when my niece walked up. She was there waiting on a friend's flight. I gave her my camera and asked if she would take a couple of pictures for us. I'm so glad she was there and captured a couple of priceless moments for me. Can you tell I didn't want to let go when I saw Chance?
There were lots of tears and smiles that night - and still are!