Life in the Bristolwood

This is our “Christmas 2009″ garage wreath.  One needn’t squint too hard to see that we now have larger LED lightbulbs decorating the greenery.

We bought this big wreath in clearance at Lowe’s several years ago.  I believe it came with those pretty white miniature lights carefully and meticulously woven throughout the greenery.   The lights lasted one season, then came the frustrating job of removing the lights.  They had little dark green plastic ties to hold them in place, and while they worked fantastically,  there was no way I could rewire to the original specs.  So, we chose a colored set of lights and yours truly carefully wove the new (much prettier!) string into the wreath.

One year later,  the lights refused to work.  Bah humbug!  We store this wreath upstairs in our garage, hung on the wall where no one and nothing disturbs it.  A *bit* annoyed,  but really liking the look of the huge wreath on the front of the garage, I dutifully removed the old and strung in the new light set.  I think that set actually worked when we plugged it into the outlet the next year,  but as time progressed,  I found several of the tiny bulbs on the sidewalk beneath the wreath…

This year, true to form,  we plugged in the wreath and nada. Nothing.  Becoming more than frustrated, as I searched the aisles of stores for light sets,  I happened across the larger “C6″ LED set.  Thrilled at the notion I would “only” be wiring 80 lights into the wreath in lieu of 150,  I merrily bought the bigger set!  Fortunately for me, Michelle did the wiring this year!  Joy to the world!

Now, for those of you who have light sets that you have kept over the course of many years, HOW in the world did you keep them?  The last set I bought that lasted “almost” two seasons was from WalMart and I think I paid all of $1.88 for them! 

Anyone want to venture on how long these snazzy new LED’s will last?