I got the last stake out of the ground today, so the display is officially completely down.  It's just in time for me to start work on next years display.   As usual I have quite a few planned projects.  I'm hopeful tthat I'll get more done than last year.   Here is my list of projects. 

 Rebulb the dancing Santa because it is looking bad.  Many of the red bulbs have had all the paint peel off them. 

 Fix the sax player because one half a string of lights on the sax it brighter than the rest of the sax.

Build a Robin Wheel to put on the face of the chimney.  If you don't know what one is, you will have to wait to find out.  This will require me getting 2 more control boxes.

Build at least two more band members.  The three I have planned are a drummer, trumpeter and guitarist.  Which two should I do?

Program 2 to 3 new songs.  Randy Bachmann's "Takin' care of Christmas" is on the must do list.

In the meantime, I'll try to get the Robin wheel done and ready for the 4th of July show and throw together another song for that show.

Well, at least I have a plan.  Stay tuned to see if I can make it a reality.

Till next time, Keep the lights blinking.

Brian

It was quite a fun season here at Magic Christmas.  We had a fantastic time talking with people visiting the display and handing out candy canes.  We handed out over 1900 canes and collected almost $1,500 for CHaD.  The weather was pretty good this year as there were only a few really cold nights and three rainy nights where we battled the circuits tripping off.  We never really had any snow, but that was a welcome break when it came to tear down as the last five years we have had between two and four feet of snow and ice to fight with. 

After a few minor adjustments on the first couple nights, the show ran flawlessly for the whole season and I didn't even have to fight too many lights burning out.  Tear down took us three days to get everything down and put away.  All that is left is a ton of stakes that are frozen in till a thaw.

Now it's time for me to take a break from lighting and maybe get some skiing in before I start work on next season's show.  Maybe this year won't be as hectic as last year and I can finish the Christmas tree band and get a few more songs done.  I'll need to buy a couple more control boxes and I have another project I'm planning to build.

Until next time, keep the lights blinking.

Bri

It is now less than a week to light up.  The display is all up and wired.  Last night I fired the show up and ran some tests.  Looks like I have a few problems to fix but nothing major.  I still have some sequencing to do in updating last years songs and I still want to bring a couple songs back into the show that I haven't played in a few years.  I'm figuring a couple hours for each song to update depending on how much I have to do to it.  I work every day now right up to next Friday so I needed to have it up and running.  Friday, I will get the final touches and fixes done before the 5 PM lightup ceremony.   I hope to see a lot of you come by in the next month because I will be outside almost every night handing out the candy canes and tending the display.

Talk to you again soon.

Merry Christmas

Brian

Welcome to Raintober.  It's rained every day of October so far.  This hasn't been a good year for me to work on the display.  Life has just been too busy.  I did manage to get the sax player done however.  Pictures are available in the photo gallery and I have made some progress on the new song for the show.  It looks like there will be only one new song this year.  My original plans of 3 new songs and four band members just isn't going to happen.  

I am now only about a week till I start setting up. My days off this week will be to take some of the props out of storage and test and repair them.  Hopefully I can get some time to complete the song also.  It is about 2/3rds done.  Then I still have to update the old songs to add in the sax player and do some tweeking on some of the songs I wanted to fix a bit.

It is now crunch time!

I'll try to check in again soon to let you guys know how setup is going.

Till next time, Merry Christmas.

   Wow!!  Where did July go? 

   The 4th of July show went really well.  It was up for a week and had quite a few visitors.  Nothing at all like Christmas but more than we had last July.  There is a video of the one added song posted in the video section.

  July really flew by so fast I really got nothing done for the Christmas display.  I started back in this past week and finished up the super strings and bought the coro for the new project. I was able to cobble together a good enough sketch to use for a pattern for the new project and have the grid laid out on the coro. Next I have to transfer the sketch to the coro and then punch the 1000 or so holes for the lights. I'm still going to try to get at least two of the four figures I have planned done. I still have time, I just have to get to it.

My daughter will be heading off to college in a few weeks so things should be a bit calmer around here.(fingers crossed)

I also have to get on the ball with my sequencing. I'll be dropping my Netflix instant watch next month so I won't have that to distract me any more either.

I'll try to give another update soon. Till next time, Happy Ho Ho!!

Brian

  Summer is upon us and it's more than half way to this year's Christmas display.  But for right now, the 4th of July is next week and I will have a display to celebrate.  Tomorrow will be a very busy day.  I have to mow the lawn and then put up the 4th display.  It will be the same display as last year but with one more new song that I just completed on Sunday.  R.O.C.K. in the USA by John Melloncamp is added to the lineup.  I wanted to do Born in the USA also but I just didn't find the time. I'll run the display for the whole first week of July from 8 to 10 PM. I'm not putting any speakers out in the yard because neighbors have windows open, so sound will just be on the radio at 95.9 FM.

I did some lighting decorations for my daughters Post Grad party this month. I posted a short video of those. I've had no time to work on the Christmas display this month, I should get back to it in July hopefully.

Till next time, have a great summer.

Bri

It's starting to feel like summer finally, but it's still a bit like Christmas around my house.  At least in the basement.  For the last few weeks I've been working on rebuilding all my super strings for all the lights on the house.  I am replacing all the lights that outline the house with new LED light strings.  This involves taking each superstring, which is five strings of lights bundled together, and clipping all the zip ties off, then pulling the blue strings out of the bundle (They are already LEDs), then laying out all the new strings along with the blue on the floor and stretching and zip tying them back together. 

I'm also starting to work on a couple new songs for the 4th of July show.  I'll be putting that up in about 4 weeks and running it for the first week of July.  I'll be adding R.O.C.K. in the USA and maybe Born in the USA to my patriotic mix.

I've been dubbing some with a new song for Christmas but haven't really gotten serious with it yet. It will have to be put on hold till after the 4th of July now.

I've been hitting yard sales on some weekends but the pickins have been pretty slim for Christmas stuff.  I think I already cleaned out the town on blowmolds in previous years.

I'll try to check in again before the 4th show goes live.  Till then......Merry Christmas.

   Today, the display is officially 100% down.  The snow finally melted in the back yard and I got the last of the lights off the back of the house.   I haven't really started work on the 2011 show but am getting some prep work done.  I have a friend working on some drawings for my secret project and I bought over 7000 LEDs to replace all the lights on the house.  The current lights had been used for several seasons and were really starting to fade and show their age.  The LED's are top quality and should last many years and should show some savings in electricity.

  I've started working on programming a new song but haven't gotten very far with it yet.  Now that we are getting more sun, my energy level seems to be picking back up again, so it's time to start pecking away at the sequencing.   I have a vacation coming up in a couple weeks, so I hope to get going on my lighting projects.

Enjoy the spring everyone and I'll check in again soon.

Merry Christmas

Brian

  As I sit here today, we have had our third snowstorm in a week with another 4 inches today.  Winter is in full bloom.  We had a fabulous Christmas season this year.  We had a ton of press coverage which brought in a lot of new visitors.  We handed out almost 2000 candy canes to guests and we set a new record in donations.  We raised $2000, crushing our old record of $1200.  We decided to split the donations.  We gave $1500 to the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth and $500 to a local family who have a 2 year old boy who has just completed cancer treatments and declared cancer free. 

  On New Years Day, a couple helpers came over and we were able to get the bulk of the display down and put away before winter really kicked in.  Today I cleaned up the basement and got most everything into its proper storage spot.  The only parts of the display still up are the lights on the house that I need a ladder for and all the stakes in the ground.

  Today I also went to Walmart and picked up 1500 candy canes at 10 cents a box for next season.  I may go back and get one more case.  

Now it's time to take a little break before I start getting into the programming and building for next season.

  Till next time, keep the lights twinkling.

   We have now been lit up for two weeks and what a couple weeks it has been.  Opening night was very busy and everything went off almost perfectly.  Just a couple minor things not working and a couple minor tweaks to the show were needed.  Mostly just things that only I would notice.  We followed up the next night with the concert with our special guest, Grammy Nominee, Judy Pancoast.  The weather didn't cooperate with us too good as a snow squall blew through the area in the afternoon and dropped about an inch of snow which quickly turned our hill into a sheet of ice.  I called the city but they never got over till after the concert was done.  Needless to say, that kept attendence down for the concert. We only had about 25 people make it, but we had fun anyway.

   We have gotten a ton of press this year with coverage in the Valley News, Eagle Times, the e-Ticker News and a mention in the Manchester Union Leader.  The biggest news is that New Hampshire Chronicle was here last Tuesday taping for a feature story that will air Monday, Dec. 13th at 7:30PM on WMUR channel 9.  I'm pretty excited to see how that comes out.  We will probably look like fools as they caught us doing our little Heat Miser dance.

  Donations have been steadily rolling in and we have already given away over 450 candy canes.  Santa should be making some special appearances the next couple weekends and will definitely be here Christmas Eve.

  I have really been enjoying meeting all the people that have been stopping and talking with us.  Make sure you say "Hi" if you stop by.  We are usually out in the yard every night freezing our tootsies and warming our hearts.

Till Next time,  Merry Christmas!!

  I had last week off to work on the display.  I got everything basically all up and then we had a huge wind storm Sunday night that let me know everything that I forgot to stake down and also knocked over several things that were staked and even broke a few stakes.  So I've got a couple hours of work to get everything secured again and then I will begin the wiring process which usually takes me about 2 or 3 days.  Right now I have 5 days left that I can work on the display and a couple hours each morning to work on the programming.  It's definitely crunch time.  Added into this is the work I've been doing to promote Judy Pancoast's concert. 

Seventeen days to go....tick tick tick....

I'll post again after we're lit up.

Till then.  Merry Christmas.

The leaves are all falling and it's now just under two weeks till I start hanging the lights for this year's display.  I keep chugging along with the programming. I'm about 80% done with the TSO song.  I'm still hoping to get one more done before Thanksgiving.

  I believe I finally have success at getting the carousel working again.  It is up on the patio and ready to go.  The stores are starting to put a little Christmas stuff out and I keep sneaking in to check if there is any new "I gotta have" stuff.  Lowes looks like the first one to get product out.

  My next task is to break out the lights and start testing and repairing any that are out.  They will be scattered all over the cellar floor till I hang them. 

  It seems that life has been keeping me pretty busy lately and I haven't been able to concentrate on the display as much as I like.  I wish I was further along at this point but I'm not overly behind.

I'll try to post again while in the midst of setup.  Till then, Merry Christmas!

  Hello everyone.  August just kind of flew right by.  The weather was great and my family spent a week at the ocean camping.  Christmas was never far from my mind even though I didn't get a lot done. 

  I did manage to get Joy to the World by Go Fish all sequenced and have now started on This Christmas Day by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  I have another week of vacation coming up next week and I'm going to try to get that song done as well.  We are also starting to get out some of the wood cutouts that need some touchup painting done and I'll take another shot at getting the carousel working again.  Last year I spent $100 on it but my engineering skills failed and I never got it to work. Hopefully all I need to do is get a mounting bracket built to mount the wiper motor to and I'll be back in business.

Time is flying.  It's only 5 weeks till I start setting the display up.  Tick tock tick tock........

Till next time.  Merry Christmas

The 4th of July show was a big success.  We had traffic every night and had an article in the local paper and a local E-news site.  I will definitely be back with the 4th show again next year.

  Programming continues for the Christmas show. I finally finished the Disney sequence and am now working on Joy to the World by Go Fish.  The next song on the list is a new Trans-Siberian Orchestra song which will replace one that has been in the show since my first year of doing this.

I'm heading camping in a couple weeks and always bring something Christmas to decorate the campsite.  Any suggestions what I should bring this year?

Till next time, Merry Christmas

Summer is here and things seem to be moving forward pretty much on schedule.  I finally finished the Disney sequence and am quite proud of it.  I can't wait for people to see it.

Today I finished the sequences for the 4th of July show.  I have this week off and will get the show set up by this weekend.  We will light up in a week, for a week.   Then I can get back to programming more new songs for the Christmas show.  I'm going to stay busy all summer and fall getting as many done as I can.  I still have a couple small building projects to do like a star for the top of the megatree and still want a new donation box but don't really know what I want to do.

Enjoy the summer folks and I'll check back in soon.

Merry Christmas

It's the middle of May and work continues on the Christmas display.  I got my new props built. You can see pictures of them in the picture section.  I am happy with the results.  I am still working on sequencing the same song.  I am now past the 7 minute mark and into the home stretch.  It's been quite a bear, but I think it is probably some of my best work to date.  It's going to look amazing.  As soon as I get this one done I will update my 4th of July sequences and maybe add another song there.  I'm looking forward to the 4th show.  Maybe more than 25 people will see it this year.

Tomorrow is my 21st wedding anniversary.  I am blessed to have a wife willing to put up with my insanity and help me so much.  We are truly soul mates.

I'll try to check in again before the start of the July show.  Til then, Merry Christmas!

Bri

On April 1st, I was able to get the last stake out of the ground and officially say the display was entirely down.  Work on programming next years display is continuing.  I am about half way through the 9 minute song I've been working on.  I have a vacation next week and I may try to build the new props for next season just to get that over with.  They are pretty easy so it shouldn't take long. (hopefully)

Light-o-rama announced the winners of this years lighting contest.  As usual, the winners displays were amazing and I'm still proud to be a past winner in this contest.  You can check out the winners videos at this link.  Please do, you won't be sorry.

http://www.lightorama.com/w_winners2009.html

The tulips are getting ready to bloom, which means it's now time for my wife to take over the yard with her gardens for the summer until I get it back in the fall to put up the display.

Till next time.  Have a great spring.

  We are past the midpoint of winter and the days are starting to get longer.  My yard still looks like a stick farm and some stuff is still frozen in.  I've started sequencing for next year.  I'm starting off with a tuffy, a 9 1/2 minute Disney medley.  Also will be doing some new Trans-Siberian Orchestra music and a Brian Setzer Orchestra tune and a song from The Polar Express.  A Go Fish song is also on the list.  I've got my work cut out for me.    I'm looking forward to the sale at LightORama coming up to pick up one or two more controllers for this years additions. 

Talk to you all soon.

Merry Christmas

Brian

  We had a great season with the display this year.  We had articles in both local newspapers and a fun night with Judy Pancoast and met and talked with many people visiting the display.  The weather cooperated pretty well and all this helped us to set a new record for donations to CHaD.  Thank you to everyone.

   We had the 1st and 2nd off and were able to get the bulk of the display down and put away.  All that is left is lights on the house, some of which will wait till the snow is gone and it's safe for me to put the ladder out.  Dec, 26, I had to work so I sent Joyce to the big box stores to gather lights and supplies for this coming year's projects.  Yes, planning has already started.

  I'll get most of the lights off the house this week and packed away then I'll take a break for a month or so and start back in.  I have a lot of sequencing to do this coming year as I want to have all new music for the show next year and a couple more additions to the display.

Till next time.  Merry Christmas

We are now up and running for the year.  Having the lightshow done a little early this year was a blessing.  I was able to test a couple nights and get all the bugs worked out before opening night.  The lightup ceremony turned out pretty cool.  I was worried that noone was going to come, but about 15 minutes before lightup, cars started lining up on the street and there was a nice little crowd when the show kicked off, even though it was raining.  The show ran perfectly right out of the gate this year. Whew!!

  I'm still tweeking things here and there as usual.  That is part of the fun.  The visitors have been pretty steady and donations for CHaD are building.   The local paper did a story and I landed on the front page on Tuesday. 

 I'm going to try to get out and shoot some video this weekend.  Also next weekend, Judy Pancoast will be here singing.  We had a great time with her last year even with bad weather and the blackout (funny story).

On the technical side, I am having a small problem with one channel on one controller.  I called LOR support and ended up talking with the owner of the company and even he couldn't explain what might be wrong.  Looks like I will be sending the controller in after the holidays for repair but in the meantime I just rerouted cords to not use that channel.

Make sure y'all say hi if you come to visit the display.

Merry Christmas!!