Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Decorating for Christmas

Our Christmas tree
Are you all decked out for Christmas yet? We went crazy this year. About a year ago, we bought a huge tub full of Christmas lights at a yard sale. Paying the whopping sum of $3. for the entire tub, we packed it away in our shed. This year we decided to get out the goodies and see how many of the strings worked. Happily only two of them were duds, so we unloaded the entire box and strung them up on our house. WOW! What a fun blaze of twinkling colors. If I get a really good picture of the sight, I'll add it here. It's hard to get the right lighting outdoors to take a picture. Anybody have a good hint as to time of day to take it or camera settings?
We have not put up outdoor decorations for years...probably since our kids were little. You see, we were in the floral/greenhouse business for twenty years in Michigan. One of the services we did was  put up outdoor decorations for folks and for businesses. Yes, my DH was not thrilled to do all those jobs  (remember the cold weather is always the coldest and windiest when putting up lights) then come home to decorate our house. 

This year he actually enjoyed putting up the lights and seeing the beautiful results. It was quite a different experience in Florida hanging strings of lights in 75 degree weather in the sunshine. Don't tell him, but I believe the lights twinkle brighter against a snowy background....shhhhh...But they are fun and festive.

What a special time of year. Wishing you all the peace, joy, hope, and love this season brings now and for the brand new year, 2013.

4 comments:

WS Gager said...

We are being Grinch's this year. We don't want to transport the decorations to the rental and back again so we have two small trees. One my daughter decorated and the other is bare waiting for my son to come home from college on Thursday to do it. Love your tree.
Wendy
W.S. Gager on Writing

J.Q. Rose said...

No, no grinches there. At least you have two trees! I understand not wanting to move everything till you get settled in your own house. It'll still be a merry Christmas when everyone is together.

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

We put lights along the railing out front and turn them on as soon as it gets dark. What happens is marvelous. The lights light up our front room so we can sit in the dark, but not really. Haha. Does that make sense? The ambiance is quite beautiful, and the Christmas Tree really stands out.

For night shots you need your aperture opened wide. You want to pull in all the light you can. Is there an Auto setting? That should work. If not set it as high as it goes.

If you have time, take a shot from every setting. One of them is sure to work.

J.Q. Rose said...

Sounds beautiful, Joylene. We sat in our darkened room with just the Christmas tree lights on listening to Christmas music on Pandora this evening. Nice to take time to soak it all in.

Do you think dusk is better light for a photo than waiting till it is really dark? Well, I guess I'll just have to experiment, won't I? Thanks!

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