Twinkling Lights

I put up outdoor lights. I know I shouldn't, because it's really just a drain on electricity for no real reason. It's not like I'm keeping up with the Jones', we're the only people on our street that decorate (the family two houses down are Jehovah's Witnesses--which was SUPER convenient with my oldest decided he was running away from home because we wouldn't take him to the YMCA to buy things from the vending machines and he was going to live with the family down the street. He quickly decided to stay when we told him they didn't do Christmas gifts!!) For some reason I like the warm look of our shrubs all lit up when we come home at night. I love the little lighted wicker reindeer and snowmen I bought our first year in this house. I'm nostalgic--therefore I do lights, but not without guilt. Every year my @$#@ strands are half out when I go to put them up, so this year I FINALLY got some new lights! While I was grabbing a few boxes at CVS I found the answer to solving my guilt...SOLAR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!! These little gems come with a solar panel (about the size of a spotlight) and promise to charge even on a cloudy day (in OHIO?!?!) and turn on automatically at dusk. PERFECT, right?!?! They were a little more expensive ($2 more than the traditional lights I was buying) but I bought a box just to try them out. I got them home, pulled them out of the box and was immediately disappointed. In my haste, I forgot to look at the light count. Yes they were $2 more than the 300 count lights I bought, but there were only 50 lights in the solar box!!! So I had to put them on my sad little azalea that was saved from too much shade a few years ago and still hasn't recovered. The 50 lights cover her pretty well, but I have yet to see how they look lit up...my investment isn't paying off. I'm still hoping fora nice sunny day to give it a good charge, and hopefully they'll burn bright, but I'm not optimistic. But at least I gave it a shot. And at least I didn't waste money on buying ALL solar. Maybe next year I'll see if I can find a different brand of solar lights that may work better.