a tangle of snowflakes

Christmas tree today, put it up and all looks very nice. I do always shed a tear as I put the ornaments on the tree; some date back to my childhood and all have a memory attached. But then it's done, and lovely. Followed this by trying to put up the lovely christmas light snowflakes. After an hour of pure wrangling I did manage to separate them from one another, switched them on, was just about to call M to say "Ta Da!" and lo, they all switched themselve off again, never to revive. M. very supportive and swearing kept to a festive minimum.