Lights Lights Lights

With America being the land where things have to be done bigger and better (particularly in Texas), it comes as no real surprise that this also applies to the decorations to be found in people's homes and gardens around Christmas time. Well, i say around Christmas, but nearly always about a month or so beforehand (I'm sure i've had my yearly rant on that already so i'll not go into it here). I find it surprising that people put the time and effort in decorating their houses from head to foot in lights - particularly given the amount of electricity it must take to run them (amazing how all environmental considerations and such go out of the window at Christmas). Suffice to say, driving around Charleston has become quite an experience of late. Head down to Marion Square and the town lights are the major focus point (a cavalcade of white lights), head out to some of the James Island suburbs and the houses are definitely competing with each other as to who can give off the biggest glow. In fact, I was hoping to have a few pictures of some of these creations for you to peruse but, alas, whenever I attempted to take them with my digital camera, all i got was a rather over-saturated glow. In this case, you'll just have to take my word for it. Thankfully my landlord has a bit more sanity (and taste, i guess you could argue) and has arranged merely three or four strands of lights instead of the whole store. At least it means i can get some sleep on a night!