Here We Go Again!

A new batch of parts has arrived in the mail and its time to assemble some SSRs for this year's upgrade. A total of 7 will be built and wired to handle the new parts of the show's lights. Where the new SSRs will be deployed in the yard is still open to ideas currently being batted around by my wife and myself. At least one of them will upgrade the side yard Megatree and perhaps 4 will be used to control 4 new Minitrees. Some talk of reindeer in a forest of trees has been discussed as well. Whatever is decided, we are sure the viewing public will enjoy it.

Deal or No Deal

As your display grows larger, you have probably already noticed how much things are costing. In order to achieve the effect that you are looking for, you will have to be the budgeted-minded purchaser. Buying items during non-Christmas time of the year is most likely the best time to get those super sweet deals. Shopping online is a big part of that. A place i like to shop is Craigslist. There is always someone selling holiday items there, most likely in yard sales, moving sales or "I just want it out of my garage!" sales. Pictured above is a purchase we made just after St. Pat's day. It is a mix of Christmas and Halloween lights and other items. Mostly for outside and some for inside. We paid $100 for the entire lot and we did get a bargain. Most of it was new and still in factory boxes sealed up. But what did we get? A list of items and store prices follows:

Santa and Reindeer Teeter Totter: $98
Yard Reindeer: $15
Yard Reindeer: $15
2' Spiral Tree: $7
2' Spiral Tree: $7
5 Holographic Bat Lights: $10
4 Candy Cane Lights: $10
4 Candy Cane Lights: $10
80" Merry Christmas Sign: $40
6' Spiral Tree: $16
10 White Star Lights: $10
2 Tote Bins of misc. Halloween stuff: $40
2 Tote Bins: $5
=============================
Total: $283 Approximate Value

Purchase Price: $100
Gas and Refreshments going to get it all: $10
================================
Total: $110

Value minus Expenses = $183 profit.
Smiles and Christmas Cheer: Priceless

Other Birthdays

Christmas is also a birthday party as much as a holiday. As there are birthdays every day of the year, some are special, more so if they are for your loved ones or family. My wife's birthday falls in the month of March and I made her a special cake.

Telletran's Strawberry Banana Twinkie Cake

Ingredients:

16 Twinkies (unwrapped)

1 LB Fresh Strawberries (washed and sliced- reserve biggest 1 for topping)

5 Fresh Bananas (peeled and sliced)

2 Containers of Whipped Topping

1 Chocolate Bar (shaved with cheese grater)

In a 9 x 15 pan, place Twinkies face up in rows to cover pan. Add Strawberries and Bananas. Spread Whipped Topping on top and press down into fruit with spoon. Sprinkle Chocolate shavings evenly over Whipped Topping. Place biggest Strawberry on top for garnish. For best flavor, refrigerate overnight to allow Strawberry juice to seep into Twinkies. To serve, scoop a Twinkie with some of the fruit/topping mix on top. Enjoy!

Just Hanging Around

17 pumpkins on a string

Sadly, once Christmas is over, its time to pack up the twinklies, cords, controllers and other whatnot. For most, its not much problem to throw it all in a box and stow it in the garage to await the next Yuletide season. However, if you are one of those special few that go overboard like us, then you have a storage problem. Where do you put all this stuff? Lucky for us, we have a big garage but still we need space for our non-Christmas things and we have to come up with solutions to get that space. This what we did..

Hanging stuff from the rafters gained us a large chunk of storage that would have been wasted if all the items were packed in boxes on the ground. It also allows us to see if repairs or other things are needed. 16-Penny nails were driven into the rafters so there is no danger of anything falling and allows quick access for when its time to bring them down again.

2011 The New Year

The new year is ahead and its time to get started. Making a good light display is a year-round hobby and its never a time not to work on it. This year, we will be doing a display for the 4Th of July, Halloween and of course, Christmas. The 4Th and Halloween are smaller displays and are ran only a few days unlike Christmas. These 2 displays are 32 channels or smaller with only a few strings on any channel. As with Christmas, we know that it will get more attention than if we didn't. If we can get that attention, we stand a better chance to get more donations to send along to our charities. Building a display and running it is not our only contribution as we also donate items to them as well. Lets all do our part to help those we can.

2010 Light System Report

2010 Light System Report
===================
64 channels of lights
21,645 total lights
33 extension cords of varying lengths 476 feet
16 SSRs with data cables a total of 645 feet
total run time of 193 hours
total electric cost: approx. $48

Repairs due to weather and/or vandalism
total repair time of 7 1/2 hours

Donations collected: 40 Lbs of nonperishable food

Smiles and Christmas cheer: $$ Priceless $$

Donations are still needed

During our show, we were accepting donations for the 3 charities that we were supporting. Although it was a bit of a long shot, we offered to accept donations on their behalf then pass along the donations afterward. Some of the donations we wanted to receive were nonperishable food items, pet supplies and cash. After just over a month, we received 40 pounds of food, no pet supplies and no cash. This was a good start and we hope we as a community can do better during the upcoming year. Its up to all of us to help where and with what we can. Besides, it will make you feel good :)