Let the festivities begin...

This evening, E and I set up our outdoor Christmas lights. I am using some traditional C9 bulbs as they are brand new, unopened, and use 7 watt a bulb. I bought them a few years ago and never took them out of the box. Well this year, I am putting them out. And I am not done yet. I opened up 3 boxes and I still have 3 more boxes to add to the outdoor decor. I also have these clips to put on the gutter so I will try that tomorrow as the weather will be warmer. After that, I will run the lights along the gutter. And it doesn't end there.

I have these blow up penguins that I picked up at an after-Christmas sale in a moment of weakness as they just looked so cute in the store. This was also a few years ago. I haven't been able to bring myself to put them out, until now. Partly for environmental reasons, but mostly because I was too cool to be so tacky. That was then. Now I have goal: to be the tackiest Christmas house on the street. Oh the plans I have! As I was wrapping my banister in fake tree garland and lights, I could feel myself channeling Clark Griswald.

E is so excited, she helped me set out the lights in the front garden that are made to look like presents. The me that I was before E would not have considered them to be as cute as I do now. All this stuff is fun, fun, fun. Santa will have no trouble at all finding our house. ;)

Seriously though, each of the 3 strings I have strung outside is made up of 25 bulbs. So 75 bulbs at 7 watts each equals 525 watts. Once I add the other 3 strings, I will be pushing past the kilowatt mark. As much as I love the nostalgia of using a bulb that I remember from my childhood, the environmentalist in me cannot shake that I could be using lights that use 1/7 of the power than my C9 indulgence. So this is likely the one and only Christmas with these traditional bulbs. My lights won't be on every night and when on, it won't be all night. So there is small comfort in knowing that my consumption will equal what it would be if I were to run a couple of small appliances. So the yang is in finding the appliances to sacrifice for my fun but heavily eco-printed yin.