It’s that time of year. The time to take down all the beautiful decorations, lights and ornaments. Throw them away for a year and put them back up next winter. That’s how it’s supposed to be done, at least. The Crompton family on the other hand likes to go by our own set of rules. We like to say we will do those things but then we decide we have better things to do and put it off. It has almost been to the point where I had Christmas on my birthday… in March. My mother probably won’t appreciate me publicizing our habits but they make us unique. I couldn’t think of something more exciting than having a Christmas tree up in March for my birthday.
The Christmas lights also like to hang around too long some times. This year Mr. Crompton, also known as Robert, put Christmas lights up a week or two before Christmas. They worked for a whopping 24 hours, tops. All that hard work and nothing to show for it. Now they will hang up there, with the only use they are doing for us is saving storage space. A lot of it has to do with weather and obviously Mr. Crompton and I aren’t foolish enough to get on the roof in this kind of weather… or so I thought.
Mr. Crompton and I decided to shovel the driveway, then the deck, then the roof above the deck… then attempt to shovel snow off the roof of the house. We should have cashed in on our chips while the stack was high. It’s only about 10 feet high but who knows which way Mr. Crompton’s body will turn mid-air. He stands on the roof like a statue telling me the roof is slick.
“Preston, this wasn’t a good idea. I don’t know what to do… I can’t move or I’ll fall,” said Mr. Crompton.
I try to tell him to lunge back towards me but by the time I finished my sentence he was sliding to his doom. Doom was 10 feet below him, all fluffy and white in the untouched part of our backyard. He flopped over in the snow and stared up at me with a look of shock that he was still alive. After I realized he was okay, I couldn’t help but laugh. My parents also probably want me to point out that they had no idea we were on the roof. They would’ve hid the ladder if they knew what we were up to. Rest assured, we won’t be getting on the roof to take down the lights. That is until the weather gets better.
With all of that action capping off the year I think it would be wise to make some resolutions for 2015. I went cold turkey this year only lasting one month on a resolution Mr. Crompton set up for me. No Taco Bell for the year. He held strong and still hasn’t had Taco Bell this year but once Taco Bell released their Cinnabon Delights, I caved. Those things are heaven to my tastebuds. Since I failed at that this year, I’m going to do my best to keep true to my plans for next year. I have around 12 resolutions, with half of them coinciding with each other. So it’s basically pass or fail this year. I hope at this time next year I can give everyone the good news of making it through the year without breaking my resolutions. I know two things that are going on that list are making resolutions that are realistic and not doing stupid things… but that wouldn’t be realistic.
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