The Boy Has a New Toy (And a GIVEAWAY!)

So we all know that the boy is addicted to his Christmas lights.  He was on the news decorating and what the news story didn’t mention were the amount of lights that were not working.  In fact, he checked all the lights on the house before he strung them and when the grand lighting happened that evening, there was a section of the chimney was out.

He was not happy.

I was asked to review the Light Keeper Pro and told them I would but forgot about it.  That night we were at Home Depot and he saw it, jogged my memory and so he waited patiently for it to arrive.

It came Friday.

He was so excited about it.

(He might have been more excited about the box that it came in because their depiction of the process of hanging Christmas lights was hysterical and involved karate chopping a reindeer.)

Included in what they sent us was the tool, which looks like a gun, and a set of lights (white ones even) that were not working.  We were all over the place Friday night so it wasn’t until the kids were all alseep that he remembered that it was in the living room.  I was sitting at his kitchen table getting ready to go home, hardly able to keep my eyes open, and in he comes to the kitchen with the box just laughing.

“Did you see the box?”

“Yes, dear.  I saw the box,” I groggily replied.

Like a kid at Christmas, his eyes excited about the possibilities of what this little tool will do to his Christmas display every year, he carefully opened the box (setting the instructions aside of course) and got out the broken lights.

He did read the literature that they sent with it and read that he was to plug the lights in, find the unlit section, remove the bulb, put the strand in the little gun thing, and pull the trigger until the lights come on.

As he was trying to remove the bulb, he states, “this should have a tool that helps you get the bulb out.”

Had he read the paperwork, he would’ve known that it does.  And eventually, he figured out that it did, in fact, have a section that helps you get the bulb out.  After reading more carefully, he realized that it also had a bulb and fuse tester, a storage area for extra bulbs (which we thought was really cool because we just throw our extra ones away… just like we do the lights when they stop working!), and a bunch of other nifty features.  (All of which we tested, I can promise you.)

He fixed the lights that came with the tool the company sent and he was giddy.  I mean GIDDY.  I couldn’t believe it.  You would’ve thought that he just got a Wii or something (and please tell the members of this combined group of adults and children that we are not, cannot, will not be getting a Wii this year.  Even if I could afford the system, I can’t afford all the accessories and games that go with it!)

All of a sudden his eyes grew bigger.  I really wasn’t sure this was possible.

He looks at me and gasps before stating, “We have more lights!”

“Where?” I ask.

“Outside.  The ones that didn’t work the other day!” and off he went returning a few minutes later with a BOX of Christmas lights.

“You’re going to fix those now?” I asked.  I was exhausted.  I couldn’t keep my eyes open.  I wanted to go home, crawl in to bed, and sleep.  We both had to be up early the next morning.  But I didn’t want to be uninterested in his excitement and since I have the blog and have to write the review, I needed to see his reaction and the like.

“You want to be able to write a good review don’t you?  Maybe the only lights that it will fix are the ones that they sent us.”

So I sat there while he strung four more strands of Christmas lights out – IN HIS TINY KITCHEN – and proceeded to attempt to fix them.

Was he successful?

Almost.  What he realized is that the Light Keeper Pro will not fix lights that are missing bulbs (which we’re pretty sure we stole to fix other strands) and if the wires are bad?  It won’t fix those either.  Heh.

But by midnight, all of the lights were either fixed or tossed.  And the boy?

Happy as a lark because he now has a tool to fix his lights and he can stop throwing away strands because it’s a pain in the rear to figure out which bulb is causing the problem.

A few of the little details…

You can use the Light Keeper Pro on all types of miniature light sets, regular strand, affixed pre-lit tree or yard ornament, and as stated before has a quick fix trigger, continuity detector (which makes noise much to the boy’s delight), bulb/fuse tester and a bulb puller.

The only suggestion that the boy had is that they add some way to catch the bulbs when you pull them because a few flew across the room as he was trying to remove them.  It wasn’t that big of a deal though.

When you get your Light Keeper Pro, you’ll receive the tool with pre-installed batteries, five replacement bulbs, and detailed instructions on how to use all of the functions.  (I recommend you read these but the boy will tell you that reading the directions takes all the fun out of it.)  And he wishes that you would get the same box that we did, but you won’t.  It’s not in a big box at the store, rather, nicely packaged, displaying the tool.

Now…

Here’s the deal.

When I was offered the tool to review, I did so in exchange for a tool for the boy to test and one to giveaway.  I’m not getting paid for this review (unless you count the payment of watching the boy string lights throughout the kitchen at midnight on a Friday night!) and I state this because I’m pretty sure the FTC got involved and I have to state something like this.  I’m not really sure what I have to do because I really haven’t researched it yet, but I’m hoping that this will suffice.

So, I’m giving away a Light Keeper Pro which comes highly recommended by the boy.  (He got it out yesterday to fix the lights that were to go on the tree too!)

Here’s what you need to do…

Leave a comment on this post stating what part of Christmas decorating you hate the most. I’ll take entries through Thursday, December 10th at 5pm.  By then, I’ll be back from my business trip, and can put the winner in touch with the Light Keeper Pro people and get that puppy shipped out to you so that you can still use it this season!

And if you don’t win?  Don’t worry.  You can pick one of these up for about $20 in over 20.000 retail locations nationwide including: Target, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, Lowe’s Meijer, Menards, Participating Ace Hardware, True Value, and many more.  You can find more locations on the Light Keeper Pro website.

Well worth every, single penny.  With the lights that he fixed, we more than saved that money with the use of the Light Keeper Pro.

Until next time…