Chapter 7 - Lights Everywhere (12 December 2023)

"Ziva!" Tony called out for his wife as he tried to lay out the rope lights along the front walkway and driveway. "Come get LJ… PLEASE!" He watched as the toddler picked up the string of lights along the inside edge of the walkway and dragged the plastic tubing several yards across the concrete.

"Me help, Abba!" the little boy grinned at his father with a handful of the plastic rope.

"LJ, buddy, leaving the lights where Abba put them is helping. Dragging them across the walk is not," Tony tried to reason with the two-year-old. "Understand?" he looked the child in the eyes as the little one solemnly nodded.

Anthony came around from inside of the garage with another tote full of the strings of lights. "Tali has the tote of icicle lights," he informed his father as he carefully placed the tote on the front lawn. "Ima says this one has the lights for connecting the blow-up Santa and Christmas tree."

"I found the tote of mesh lights that we bought on clearance in January," Ziva placed a large tote by the bushes and shrubs in front of the house. "Are we sure we want to put out all of these lights?"

He nodded and grinned at his wife, "Yep. I want our yard to be seen from space."

Ziva turned and gave him a look, "You are serious? That would be one heck of a light display neshama."

"Uh-huh… epic DiNozzo lights for the holidays. Who's in?" he called out to the family.

"ME!" all five kids and Ziva replied with huge grins; Tony was sure LJ didn't understand to what he had responded, but the kid had enthusiasm for sure.

"All right, then, we have a lot of work to do to get all these lights put up… the rope lights will be the outlines and connections between things, the mesh lights will cover the shrubs, bushes, and some trees, the icicle lights will be placed on the evergreens and the smaller trees, and the shorter strings of lights will go around the windows and doors on the front of the house.

"The inflatable Santa and Christmas tree will go out on the lawn connected by rope lights. I think we can use the smart home stuff that Tim set up with our phones and computers to program on and off times for the whole thing. Or we can get sensors to turn them on at dusk and off at daybreak…"

Ziva patted his arm as she listened to the grand plan, "How long have you been planning this?"

"Since we bought the mesh light sets on clearance in January," he smirked at her. "There is a brain in this head, you know. I have even been researching solar options to power the whole display; that would make the epic DiNozzo lights spectacular have minimal impact on our power bill."

Tali overheard her Abba, "Solar power for all of the lights and stuff? That's cool, Abba. We learned about alternative power sources in science."

Tony nodded, "I ordered solar panels to be installed on the roof and they will be connected to the house and to multiple outside outlets for the Christmas lights. Since all of them are LED, they consume minimal power anyhow. Only the inflatables are higher power consumption. I think we can still use solar for them though."

Ziva stared at him, "I did not realize that you meant to power Christmas lights when we talked about going solar. But I like the idea. And if it also saves money on our power bill, that is even better!"

"Let's get these lights up!" Tony motioned to his family. "We got a lot to hang and lay on the ground to make this an epic display…"

~Lights~

The light display took most of the day, but everything was in place by nightfall. The solar panels were scheduled to be installed in three days, so the first dew nights would be conventionally powered. Tony had the family stand out by the street as he connected the powered box to the outside outlet with a heavy-duty extension cord. The inflatables took shape as the rope lights, mesh lights, icicle lights, and other strings shone brightly.

"I have to admit that was a stroke of genius on your part, Zi, to use clothes pins to attach the mesh lights to the shrubs and hedges," Tony came up to the street with the others. "Epic!"

"Yeah, Abba!" Anthony high-fived his father. "And we all helped!"

"I wonder if you really can see our lights from space?" Riv mused out loud.

Beth smiled, "I wish there was a way we could find out…"

"Pwetty!" LJ pointed to all of the lights and grinned a DiNozzo grin. "Me help-ded too."

Tony lifted the toddler onto his shoulders, "We all helped, buddy. It's a family project." He put an arm around Ziva as she snuggled into his side. Tali, Anthony, Rivka, and Beth joined the family cuddle.

"Are we gonna do this every year, Abba?" Anthony looked up at his parents. "I had fun today and it was kinda neat how we all helped."

"You betcha, kiddo!"

"Mewwry Cwris-mas!" LJ called out to anyone who was within earshot. "D'noz-os are da bestest ever."

Ziva wrapped an arm over her two oldest who were in front of her, she looked up at her husband and little boy. "Merry Christmas, DiNozzos," she whispered before brushing her lips on Tony's.