Light it up!

Due to the unfortunate quality of my camera's microphone, the sound of the music isn't as it should be. Also, because of blog space restraints, videos on this page are just clips. Nevertheless, enjoy the lights of our 2011 Christmas Light Show!

Wind, Place or Show!

Merry Christmas to all! We were entered in the Willamina Home Illumination Contest and we took 3rd place! The prize money was used to buy extra food for the foodbank. Despite the heavy winds and showers that kept our GFIs popping, we still managed to complete our show schedule. There were a lot of homes entered and we went out to see them. The contest was judged by a group of people from a local senior home. They took them all on a bus ride to see and judge all the lights. What a great idea! We all need to go see the lights, no matter what age we are! We still go oooh and aahh like the kids. Below are some pictures from around our house. Enjoy!

We hope that everyone enjoyed our 2011 Christmas Light Show and want to see you again next year. Stay safe and have a Happy New Year!.

Checking out the competition

As your show develops and grows, you will notice other people's displays with a bit more interest in what they have in their yards and on their homes. Driving around town is a good way to do this and will provide you and your family with a bit of other families' Christmas cheer. If you are involved in a contest of lights, this is your chance for a bit of friendly snooping. In any case, lets check out the twinkles in our general vicinity.

Dallas, Oregon
Larry Weiss puts on a spectacular show on Fir Villa Street. Complete with a train running around and so many lights even he isn't sure how many! We really enjoyed his display!

Mcminnville, Oregon

Davison Auto Parts puts on a nice display that includes a Ferris Wheel with Disney characters riding in it. What a fun idea!

We are still in a contest in our town of Willamina, Oregon and entries have to be posted by December 19th to be eligible so get yours in now! We hope to win but whatever the outcome, there will surely be a lot of colorful lights for everyone to enjoy this Christmas season. Bundle up the kids, have hot chocolate on standby and tour your town for displays. Its a fun way to spend an hour or so. Our lights are on every night starting at 6 PM til 10 PM until New Year's day. So if your are near us, come check us out (and bring us some canned food or non-perishables to donate to our local food-bank).

Sneak Peek Telletran-style

Runescape Intro

Scape Santa

Sometimes hobbies overlap and here it is! A song from Runescape called Scape Santa (only heard around Christmas-time), coupled with a bit of programming, mix in a ton of lights and a dash of data and AC equipment to produce a dazzling tribute to both hobbies! Woot! This one is for Chief, Biggs and the rest of the clan of the Adult Lounge. Merry Christmas all.

Lets have a look at the whole thing before anyone else does! Lights officially go on December 10th but as usual, testing has to be done to ensure a flawless performance. Enjoy!

The Little Thing VS The Big Thing

Reindeer or Chihuahua? You be the judge.

With 9 days left til LIGHTS ON!, a lot of details have to be addressed. Some are easy fixes like broken bulbs or small repairs. These are always the things that will slow you down when setting up your show so you want to check over all your light elements during the year. Almost all of our data communications are in place with SSR O1 mysteriously missing (probably packed away in another box). Organize your items by type is the easiest way to keep things were they are supposed to be. Also, once your show is set up, go back to where things are stored and tidy it and reorganize whats left. You will be surprised at what was not put out for various reasons. Check these things to see if they will be needed in the future shows. If an item will not be used as is, perhaps it can be used in a project. Stow these items in a separate box and label it to keep it apart from your good stuff. Scrap the things that will not be needed and you will save on storage space. Allow a little more time for items that are new in the setup. Read the instructions if you are not sure how to go about setting items up. Remind yourself about weather and moisture getting in your cords or lights as its not a good thing if it all goes poof! A simple way to keep water/rain off cord junctions is to make a tape roof. Simply take 2 pieces of vinyl tape and attach them side edge to side edge with a slight overlap. Stick it on the junction without wrapping it around and it will act as a roof. Water will penetrate tape wrapped junctions and stay there causing a short. Another trick is to take 2 liter pop bottles and cut them into domes with long zigzag cuts to act as spikes to anchor in the ground.

Details, Details, Details! Now back to work!

Halfway there and lots to do!

All of the substructures have been put up and most of the lights are in their places. The inflatables are inflated and have stopped blowing their fuses. A few more icicles need to be put on the side of the house. Next will be the major AC lines and the data communication system with the audio system to be installed after that. Some additional programming will be needed to accommodate the new SSRs out in the yard but it will be a matter of copy and paste for that. Best news is that we have entered the Willamina Home Illumination Contest! First place is $50, second place is $35 and third place is $15. We are thrifty shoppers so any prizes we get will be spent on as much food as we can to be donated to the Food bank. I think we will finish in the top 3 at least (cross your fingers!). Also, there are still a few more items to be built or rebuilt so those things will have to be squeezed in there somewhere. All in all, we are on track to finish and test before LIGHTS ON!

Here we go again!

Its that time of the year again! Time to get going on setting up the new and improved display! Some of the old making a reappearance and some new stuff makes its debut. With the addition of new controllers, there will be more stuff to see along the side yard and in front of the shop. A few unusual problems popped including a melted data cable (total mystery how that happened) and a motherboard on Blitzen the Christmas Computer went kablooey! but all problems are solved until the next ones. LOL. More canned food has been collected before any lights were put up than was collected last year. Weird. Most of the substructures for the display have been bought out of storage and put in the yard. A new spot roughly 1/6 the space in the shop has be allocated to the new light storage and repair area. Shelves, part boxes and table space are now available for use in maintaining and storage of the light elements. The music program has been shortened by not using Intros. Although the controllers will be in roughly the same locations as last year, some of the jobs they did will be controlling other light elements. Also the start of the shows will be on December 10th due to costs for electricity. Nightly viewing will still be 6 Pm til 10 PM. Still not sure of the total number of lights but we are hoping to top last year because some the light we will be using are LED lights. As the price of lights drops, we will replace our strings with LEDs. Due to the number of reindeer collected this year, there will be a reindeer herd by the shop. Look for the sad reindeer, he is blue. Rofl.