the amazing Christmas extravaganza

One of my favorite childhood memories, was on Christmas eve, my parents gave us a Christmas story book. We would put on our p.j.'s and snuggle on the couch while my dad read us the Christmas story. I think the book giving only lasted a few years because we always wanted to re-read the books we already had!

One of my favorite stories that we would read is called The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza by David Shannon.

The story is about a dad who is so obsessed with decorating the house for Christmas that he drives all of his neighbors crazy, runs up the electricity bill, buys every lightbulb he can find, and kind of forgets the real meaning of Christmas. It's has a great ending though! It's an incredibly special book to me because it brings back so many memories of wonderful childhood Christmases.

Well.. this year I have a Christmas extravaganza on my hands..

Ryan has gotten really into putting up lights.

(I use the term "puttING" because it is still going on..)

He insisted that we use solid colored lights on our house.

I wanted icicles, but he won.

We looked at multiple retailers (Wal Mart, Target, Smith's, etc.) until we found the perfect bulbs.

Good thing he's so tall! It was quite a reach..

Don't they look GREAT?!

At first I was a little skeptical about colored lights, but once I saw them in action, I fell in love!

*NOW.. this is why I feel it is such an extravaganza.. These lights weren't enough. We had to go back to Wal Mart a few days later to buy lights for "the bush."

(It is seriously a pile of sticks,

but Ry thought it needed a little Christmas love too.)

Ryan really wanted to buy some sort of blow up festivity, as well as a slew of reindeer for the front lawn. I told him, there just isn't enough cash-flow this year. (hopefully that will stall him!)

Ry went BACK out there in the frigid conditions to make our bush more festive.

The house is now complete!

Christmas bush

I'm not gonna lie, our house does look pretty cute. It is by far the brightest thing (including street lights) in our entire complex. Our neighbors must be jealous, or hating us because they can't sleep at night due to the glare.

*Secretly, I love that Ry has gotten into the real spirit of Christmas. His enthusiasm is so cute and it has made this time of year really fun!

I love our new tradition of going nuts with decorations on our little apartment..

However, I am a little scared to see what tricks he is going to pull when actually have a real house of our own..