Ho, Ho, Ho ...

Ordinarily, I refrain from putting up the outside Christmas lights until about mid-December.

I like the holiday okay, but there is something irritating about watching my neighbors hanging Christmas lights while I am carving my Hallowe'en jack 'o lantern. Christmas for me is two, maybe three days before the 25th. My personal ritual is pretty much sitting up late Christmas Even and watching the movie about Ralphie and his lust for a Daisy Red Ryder air rifle. That's what Christmas felt like when I was a kid, albeit Ralphie's was a few years before my memories kick in. They bought their tree on Christmas Eve, set it up, and went to bed early.

This year, being as how it's getting dark at four o'clock in the evening, and given that -- according to the weatherman, we are about to get snow, followed by leftover cyclones, and possibly hurricane force winds in the valley, and we also shouldn't be surprised to see an ark full of animals floating past our house -- I decided to go ahead and string the lights. Earliest I've ever done it.

We don't do Peacock Lane here at Steve's house. No lawn Santa or animatronic reindeer or giant balloon elves kept inflated by power fans. Just a couple of strings of colored lights around the eaves to help keep the dark winter at bay, and some of those are already burned out ...

Ho, ho, ho ...