And the lights came down...

As I decorated the inside of our house in December for Christmas, Steve went to work outside and put up big clear lights. Simple, pretty and festive.

On January 1, there were no mentions left of Christmas inside our house. That day, I asked Steve when he was going to take down the lights. He said, "Not yet."

When the second week of January arrived, and all of the residential lights on our street had disappeared except for our house and across the street, I asked Steve the question again. His response this time was, "Scott and I decided we aren't going to take our lights down until the Brookside Christmas tree comes down."

Our house and our neighbor's house were quickly turning from festive to gawdy Griswold. And I knew the guys would stay true to their words. So every night as I turned down our street, I glanced the other way down the street to check if the Brookside Christmas tree was still lit.

And every night it was still lit.

Finally on Thursday night the Brookside Christmas tree became a regular tree again! And, just like that, Steve immediately took down our lights. And then our neighbors took down their lights. And our neighborhood again likes us!