It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

... at least in our neighborhood.

Last weekend, hubby and I were running some errands when we saw him. The early decorator.

During the spring and summer, this house is impeccable - perfect green grass, thick and lush and always mowed to precisely the right height; and well-manicured shrubs (I have actually seen him out there trimming individual leaves/branches with a pair of scissors). This guy is dedicated.

But once the flowers die and the shrubs and the grass stop growing, he must have nothing else to do. When we saw him putting up lights (on every tree and every shrub in the yard) and hanging a giant wreath over his garage on Saturday, we figured that it was just because he was taking advantage of the nice weather. Surely he couldn't actually be ready to flip the holiday switch this early, right?

Wrong. That house is lit up every night on my way home from work. Now, I love Christmas as much as the next person (probably more) and it doesn't bother me when stores start their holiday decorating in October (they need to make money too), but can't you just hold off on decorating the house until the Thanksgiving turkey is carved? Seriously.

Also, it is hard to get excited about the upcoming holiday season when it is so damn warm out. It should not be 60 degrees in upstate NY in mid-November (as it was this morning). I actually saw some guy on the Northway with his convertible top down on my way into work...