Don't Vacuum Up the Christmas Tree Lights

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This is a true story. Every year, we pack up the car on Christmas Eve and fill up Santa's sled. Then we drive off to Pennsylvania to spend the holiday with the in-laws.

This one year started off the same as others. When we arrived at the country house, we unpacked the car and had lunch. Then we started on our regular chores. The women prepared the food, and I cleaned up the living room.

I started by dusting and vacuuming the rugs. However, when I ran the sweeper around the Christmas tree, I started seeing the ornaments pop off the tree. Then the lights started flickering, popping, and sparks began to fly. Before I knew what happened, half the lights and ornaments were missing. Smoke was coming from the vacuum nozzle.

It was then that I realized that I went too close to the tree and the vacuum caught hold of the lighting wire that was plugged into the wall. The nozzle was coiling up the lighting strands, but it was still plugged in. It was sucking up the lights! I quickly turned off the vacuum sweeper and unplugged the Christmas Tree lights.

Then my mother-in-law rushed into the living room and screamed: "What happened to my tree?" I didn't have to answer as she could see what caused the damage.

Luckily, only very few of the ornaments broke, but we needed to replace 3 strands of lights. Did you ever try to buy lights on Christmas Eve? Well, everyone was sold out of the clear lights. We called everyone, and my brother-in-law offered to bring us his red lights. Grandma didn't want red.  Finally, after calling a few more people, we were able to obtain a few sets that others took off their tree.  We got everything back in order, and then I was told that:

I'll never operate the vacuum cleaner 

at Christmas Time again!