We are excited to announce that we collected $1,437.14 in donations for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital this season!  We only set a fund-raising goal of $500 and were shocked at the overwhelming support.  It was fun to see our neighborhood and our community rally behind us and the display and really made this Christmas something special.  We plan on making this a regular part of the display, together we can make a difference in the fight to end childhood cancer!

        Back in 2007 we bought our first house on New Jersey Street.  It was the perfect little first house and I couldn't wait to put up lights!  After 5 years in college and no place for a proper tree, we couldn't wait for the holidays in our new home.  Alicia gave me a big budget of $50 that first year and we had some white strings along the roof and a few snowflakes.

        Then came the North Pole... I decided I wanted to build a north pole and ran to Home Depot for some PVC.  I disassembled an old decoration Alicia had in college and converted it to bright white LEDs to top the newly candy striped pole.  While searching the Internet for other north pole ideas, I discovered Planet Christmas, the Mecca of Christmas Decoration Websites.  That pulled the trigger and in 2008 we added a 4' snowflake, two 3' wreaths, 20' of lit garland, 6 light presents, a 3' snowman, a 4' home made north pole, and a partridge in a pear tree.

         In the world of decorative lighting though, there are many classes.  And without a doubt, the biggest and best displays are animated.  In 2009 we jumped to just over 10,000 individual LEDs and invested in 40 channels of Light O'Rama, a sequencing software that allows us to program the lights to blink and fade along to music.  I finished 6 sequences before our official "GO LIVE" night and added two additional songs before the end of the season.

         2010 brought major changes.  We built a new house so the display moved!  $2000 of extras were spent on the electrical alone and we are expanded to 210 channels and added another 5,000 lights.  The whole display was re-vamped to 4 colors on every item in the display.

Plans for 2011 include the addition of:            

1.  Several more snowflakes

2.  10  new "million color" wreaths

4.  New "million color" strings for our new trees

5.  2 new songs

6.  45 more channels!

Thanks for stopping by and come see the display, 4530 Larissa Drive, we'll be up and running the day after Thanksgiving and the show will run through the first of the year.