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After 100 hours 25 minutes, the 2008 Christmas Lights Display is up, but not after some significant challenges. The new LEDs continue to be a worry. All are working now, but I’ve had to change out several strings on the mega-tree, which is a challenge. Then the elves decided to slide down the roof. The good news is they stayed on the roof, but I had to find a better way to anchor them down. So far, so good.

Then during the testing phase, some of the lights wouldn’t come on. Find out you actually need to plug them into the controller. Who would have thought?

So how about some statistics?

30,863 lights including 14,400 on the mega tree

When all the lights are on, the display draws 62 amps

5,000 feet of extension cords

Eleven 16-channel Light-O-Rama controllers

335 hours devoted to this year’s display, not including research on the Internet at the various Christmas websites, or running around town for supplies.

On Tuesday, November 25, we had our annual preview show for the neighbors. What a great night. Cool but calm. Our neighbors across the street, Sean and Ann Marie, had a firepit going, and after the show, the kids roasted marshmellows. Things went well, but I spotted some things that needed tweaking. I’ll probably see more things as the days roll by.
And last night, Thanksgiving night, the show kicked off for the rest of the world at 6pm. We had two cars there at 6 to see it. Here is a picture of the display with all lights on:

So for those in the KC area, we look forward to having you stop by.

7909 Fontana
Prairie Village, KS
6-10:30pm through New Year’s Eve

Tune your car radio to 91.1FM to “Listen To The Lights”

Thanks for everyone’s support, and we hope you enjoy this year’s Christmas LIghts Display. I’ll be posting video as soon as possible for those outside of the area.

It has been a good week with another song sequenced (White Christmas) as well as voice over #6 completed. Only one voice over and one song remain to be sequenced.

We’ve also spent about 15 hours this weekend getting more of the lights up. All of the grounded lights are strung, and the frames to display our elves are up on the roof, held down with tube sand that weighs 60# per tube. I did have help from neighbors across the street, Rick and his son Andrew. And the three elves were here too.

From left to right, Jingle (Taylor), Elf Judy (Brooke) and Jangle (Fisher). Fisher has quite an arm as he was able to throw a tennis ball with a string tied through it up over the high tree limbs so we could string our grounded lights. Couldn’t have done it without him.

It has also turned cold. Yesterday never made it out of the 30’s and a good wind, so wind chill was down around freezing. And no sun. Today we did get better weather with highs in low 40s, calm and sunny.

We’ve also had people stop to say hello and tell us how they enjoyed our past shows and are looking forward to this year’s display. That’s what it’s all about. Joy and memories.

Today, November 1, the lights started going up.

We had beautiful weather, sunny with a high in the low 70’s. And with just a little over three weeks to go before the lights shine out, I need to take advantage of every good day I can get. In fact, later this week it is suppose to rain with highs in the low 50’s. So for the next couple of days, the lights will continue to go up.

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Just finished song number five, which is a mix of several Carol of the Bells renditions. Sequencing it “only” took 20 hours, and it is 5:38 minutes long. In all, I’ve spent just over 170 hours in getting this year’s show ready, but I’m not done yet.

I’ve also started to sequence the elves, Jingle, Jangle, and Judy. Takes a little different technique, but it looks good on the computer. I’m going to do a real test with the actual “elves” to see what it looks like live.

Time keeps clicking by with only 42 days before the lights go on. And the plan is to start putting up the display sometime shortly after November 1. At least I’ve got a little more time this year than last. Also a lot will depend on the weather.

Time is moving on with the target of November 1 for the start of putting up this year’s display. And then the lights go on Thanksgiving night at 6pm. That is only

 79 DAYS FROM NOW

I’ve tried to keep track of the time working on this year’s display and as of last night at 10:55, I’ve recorded 133 hours. Time flies when you’re having fun.

And during that time, I’ve completed cannibalizing a perfectly good computer ATX power supply to run the LOR (Light-O-Rama) DC Controller that in turn will turn on and off the MR16 LEDs that will be used as wall wash color. Then all of the elves have been completed. Here is Elf Judy and her voice, Brooke.

We’ve (Mary and me) have put together the 38 MR16 LEDs in their holders, which are plastic champagne glasses. It will be interesting to see them lit up outside.

So now the biggest task ahead is sequencing the remaining six songs plus the nine voice overs for our elves. Stay tuned.