Exposure info: Canon 40D, 50mm 1.4 lens, 1/160th @ f2.5, ISO 100, Aperture priority

Maynard, MA – We always like to have a little downtime after Thanksgiving before breaking out all the Christmas decorations, it’s bad enough that Starbucks and many other stores had their Christmas stuff out soon after Halloween. It makes it that much harder not to Scroogify or Grinchiate as you trudge your way towards December 25th.

I’m grateful that this year, we waited a full 10 days before beginning to haul all the boxes and bins out of the attic. Plus, I surprised myself, and my wife, by putting up the old-school Christmas lights again this year.

Each year, our old strings were starting to make us increasingly nervous: they were ancient and surely a fire hazard but our local hardware store still carries the same style lights along with all the flashy, trashy ones it seems everyone else puts up.

It seemed fitting that it was snowing out as I looped the glowing bulbs over the little hooks under the eaves of our front porch.