Okay, they're down.

The Christmas lights are finally down from the porch, and the aspen. And neatly clipped back into their respective plastic frames, one bulb at a time. Four hundred little bulbs, or so. Boxed up until next year.

Including the string of lights that had been left in a loose ball in the dining room from Christmas 2001.

Really.

It's not like the outside lights have been lit all this time. The string to the aspen was wrapped through the flagpole bracket, so the tree lights have been off since Columbia came home. And the wife soon unplugged the rest on the porch, since we were the only place in town with lights still up. The extension cord was frozen into the ground, and is in the bathtub, letting the ice thaw off.

Now I just need to find space for the box of lights. We acquired four boxes of globe lights, two rope lights, and my Egyptian lights this year, so the new box is quite a bit larger than the old. And there is only space for the old box on the shelves.

But we're just about done de-decorating from Christmas.

The tree goes out tomorrow (the wife suggested we wait until after dark).