Guest Blog: Hanging Christmas Lights in the Van by Sweetie

When you're the parent of an autistic son who is anxious to please and very resourceful, one needs to be careful with requests. After 20+ years you would think I would have learned this.  

Wrong....  

It all began last week. I got in the big van and saw a strand of LED Christmas lights. Wouldn't it be cool to get the inverter and spread Christmas cheer though the back of the big van? It didn't work out as planned because it turned out that most of our hangers were broken and there wasn't a good way to string them. The two little boys each ended up with a ball of lights in their laps.  

So I asked the Dog Walker to find some suction cups and get the inside of the van all decked out. When we got in to go to the Festival of Lights down in Spanish Fork tonight, I wasn't disappointed. He had the strand strung all around the van, including across the front! 

Oh, my! How was I going to drive with that? But it looked real nice, maybe it would be OK. How did he attach them? Only some were suction cups, others were stuck to the headliner. That was when I suddenly nearly went into shock. 

Nails!

From the looks of the heads, big nails. Then I remembered the 8-penny box of framing nails that had been sitting on my desk. How in the world did he get them in?  How were they holding and what kind of permanent damage had been done? 

I must admit at this point I don't have any answers to those questions, but I do have some awesome Christmas lights in my van....