Doing things that feel "good"

[Roadtrip]

When we bought our home, I remembered all of the years my mom would take my sis and I out to look at Christmas light displays.

I wanted lights. Lots of lights. We started small. Adding a few lights here and there until we had our house wrapped in about 10k lights, fully animated to Christmas music, and three power circuits installed and dedicated to lights.

Last year we invested in LED lights that were from a reputable person on one of the major Christmas light forums we belong to, but almost immediately we had problems. Lights defective out of the box. We finaly got everything installed and hooked up, but the first time it rained, we realized the sealed lights were NOT sealed and collecting water-- which dosn't mesh well with electricity. For days after rain or snow the lights were iffy and mostly dysfunctional.

We asked the dealer what might be done. We were asked if we wanted to return them and we said when the weather is better, yes. Long story, but it was icy and we couldn't get the lights down until after Christmas, so when when had the lights down we contacted the company to arrange the return.

Again and again we made contact and no response. When they finally did respond, the warranty is expired, so they are not going to assist or accept a return at all now. They told us the warranty started when THEY placed the whole-sale order (2009) for delivery in 2010, which is bs, but still out the $800 for the light order.

They offered new lights at there whole sale cost, but these new lights are MUCH more expensive, not to mention I'm not about to give this dealer another dime.

I comes down to this... I attempted to do something joyful and fun for the Christmas season, and while it was hard work, I secretly felt lots of joy when I saw someone outside watching the light display

Now I feel so dejected and I don't know if I'm even up to trying ot scramble around now to even put lights up. We don't have money to replace the LED lights and going back to standard lights means we loose the animated show.

I guess my rant here is to try and get some input and see what others thought. I'd hate to go completly dark and have NO lights, but I don't even know if my heart is in it.

Shannon