MERRY AND BRIGHT

Sometimes just the smallest thing will make my day – like finding a fix for the M&M lights.

It was Christmas 1996 – or thereabouts – when I found the strings of M&M lights at the old PayLess Drugstore. I remember the year because I sent a set to grandson Douglas and Murray told me how much he liked them. I believe Doug was just short of two at the time. I bought two sets for myself and strung them up in the kitchen at the Broadview house for several years. Merry little clear plastic M&M guys in red, green, yellow, and orange danced above my counter. The guys are definitely "funky" and I wouldn't use them just anywhere, but somehow they're just right for the kitchen. As the years wore on, the light string wore out, but I hated to part with the guys. It seemed to me one solution would be to get a new string of 20 lights and simply snap the M&M guys onto it.

So that's what I did. I bought a string of 20 clear lights in the traditional style only to find the string was too short for the farmhouse kitchen window. I'm sure you've noticed that as time glides on, things change. Nowadays light strings are shorter, the lights closer together, and we also have those new little nubby lights – LEDs or whatever they call them. As it turned out the M&M guys wouldn't snap over the lights anyway. I despaired of being able to make this situation right. It's harder and harder to find short light strings.

But Friday on our way out of town Mike had to stop at a hardware store, and I headed for the Christmas aisles to see what they might have in the way of short light strings. How about a 35-light string? Hmmm – combine the two light sets and this might work, I thought. So I bought the string and sure enough – it did work. The lights are bright, the guys snapped on, the string easily reaches all the way around the window sending out a message of colorful cheer, inside and out. I was so pleased that I left the lights on most of the day.

We leave a string of decorative lights in the farmhouse kitchen window year-round. We display Christmas lights, flower lights, Easter egg lights, various Halloween lights. The string of red chili pepper lights is apropos anytime and Mike's particular favorite. I like lights.