We were having an office debate this morning about the merits of hiring a professional to hang your holiday decorations vs. doing it yourself (Clark Griswolds of the world, unite!).

Rather than keep yakking about it, we’d like to settle the issue. At least for 2009. So we’re having a Deck the Halls contest to determine who in America did the best job of decorating their home for the holidays this year. The contest is open to anyone. Up for grabs is an annual Angie’s List membership in the market of the winner or winners’ choice.

If you’ve decorated your home yourself or hired a professional (don’t forget to send us a report if you’re an Angie’s List member), please send us a photo showing the holiday display. We also encourage professional decorators to submit a photo showing off their best work.

We’ll announce at least two winners: one for the best inside (interior) display and one for the best outside (exterior) display. Depending on the results we get, there may be also be a prize for the most outrageous.

Please submit only if you’re also giving us permission to use your name and photograph when we talk (here on the blogfurther about this contest. We may also use the photographs for magazine articles about holiday decorating. We’re only interested in home decorations – so please don’t submit commercial building examples.

Submit your photo entries to photos@angieslist.com . Please identify yourself with a name, street address and phone number. We won’t share that information with anyone else, but we’ll call you up to verify it’s actually your home if we’re going to use your shot.


              

We were talking around the water cooler the other day when one of my co-workers started talking about how her mother should win the Angie’s List Member of the Year Award because she buys so many gift memberships every year, submits reports like crazy and talks up the service every chance she gets.

We don’t actually have an Angie’s List Member of the Year Award, but I think maybe we should. We could make it a real contest – basing it on number of reports submitted, number of categories reported on and depth of reporting. What do you think? Can you give Brittany’s mom a run for her money?

Speaking of gift memberships: are you done with your holiday shopping yet? Remember that when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve, our gift membership prices bounce back to full price. You can buy a membership for your friends and family for 50 percent off right up until it’s officially 2010.

Oops: I meant Sarah's mom. Brittany's mom  may need to up her game...

I'm really excited to tell you about the latest innovation from one of my good friends, John Chuang. John helped me start Angie's List 15 years ago, and he's been an integral part in making Angie's List what it is today. He was a great entrepreneurial inspiration to me then and he continues to be.

John just developed the “litl”, a compact portable webbook.  

We've been passing around the model John sent over from desk to desk here at the office and learning about how it works and what it offers. I really like how easy it is to use. You just turn it on and you’re online and ready to surf the Web!  Check it out here and let me know what you think of it.

Tree trimming, home repairs, gutter cleaning -- they all seem like jobs you can do yourself and save money, right?

Not always... It's simple to determine if you should DIY or call in a pro. And even hiring the right person isn't that hard.

Just follow our tips to make your project -- and all your body parts -- end up in great shape.

Check out the video below!

I’m really loving a series of clever – and spot-on accurate – commercials that encourage patients to question their doctors like they would anyone else.

The ads illustrate how most of us will give wait staff and sales clerks the third degree when it comes to the food and products we buy, but we rarely do much more than nod and say OK at the doctor’s office. We talked to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which produced the ad series and we totally agree with their stance on how important it is for patients to be active participants in the process:

"Consumers need to do their part to get good health care quality, and their part is being involved with their health care, particularly by asking questions about their treatment options" said Allan Lazar, director of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Office of Communications and Knowledge Transfer.  "We encourage all consumers to go to www.ahrq.gov and click on the figure in the upper right hand corner. There is lots of information for consumers---and a “question builder” that has nearly 100 questions that you can pick from to ask your medical professional."

As you well know, at Angie's List, we focus mostly on the importance of good service, whether it’s a physician or another type of service provider. We'd hate to see you waste all the work you do to find the best doctor in town by not continuing that quest for good help in the examination room.

So don’t let the white coat intimidate you: Speak up!  (and then tell us how it went, of course…)