Emma

Emma, my ex-sister-in-law, passed away on Monday. She was only 26 years old. She left behind three very young children - Gabriel, Angel, and Vanessa. Today, Thursday, is her funeral. I watched Emma grow up since the age of 10. Even though her sister and I divorced, I always liked Emma. She was always smiling and laughing. And that is the way I will remember her.....smiling and laughing.

May God carry you on his shoulders up to the stars...

Boxes and Wrapping paper

As I have grown older, Christmas has taken on a different meaning for me. When I was a child, I could not sleep for weeks before Christmas. I would spend hours staring at the presents under the tree imaging what each one holds and pretending that I knew the contents of each package. When Christmas Eve would final come, I would beg my Mom to let me open just one present. Just one please! She would allow it. I would tear into one present under the tree to reveal - pajamas! Or worse - Chones! (Chones is slang for Underware). I would change into my "new" pajamas and go off to bed hoping-praying for a better Christmas haul the next morning. I would toss and turn all night thinking about the presents under the tree. Then 6am would roll around and I would jump out of bed and make as much noise as I could to wake the family because it was Christmas! I would open my gifts from family and friends and the cool gifts from Santa. Being satisfied with my bounty, I would head off to my room and spend countless hours playing with my new toys.

But now as a father of three, Christmas means two things - boxes and wrapping paper. It is my job in our Christmas dynamic to collect the boxes and wrapping paper that the presents came in. I dutifully man my post with a black trash bag at my side ready to collect the paper and boxes that come flying my way from three overzealous children as they rip, cut, and chew their way through their Christmas bounty.

And you know what? I have the best seat in the house!

Not a creature was stirring....

Except for my three kids at 1 o'clock in the morning...

I could hear Cayla get up and shuffle her feet off into to the living room. We had left the tree lights on and Santa had come and delivered the kids' gifts and eaten the cookies. When Cayla saw the tree I could hear her startled breath. She quickly ran to get Genesis. Genesis, being the ring leader of the crew, quickly ran into the room and let out a shreek. Her and Cayla quickly ran into Jacob's room to wake the boy. He joined the parade that ran into the living room. I could hear the shuffling of feet and the whispering of little voices as they surveyed the presents that Santa had brought.

From my bed, I called out to the kids and said, "If you don't go back to bed, it all goes away." Startled, the curious three trampled over each other to make it back to their rooms letting out giggles and whisphers the whole way.

And that ladies and gentlemen is how our Christmas began....

And the Winner is......

Not us. I opened up the paper this morning and read that the United Way had announced the winners of the Holiday Light Contest. Unfortunately, we were not picked. I am okay with that, however, my daughter Genesis was a little mad. She is now thinking (plotting) of ways in which we can win the contest next year. She already has expressed her ideas to me and I think we are going to be a little more competitive next year. It is so great to see how much she has gotten into the holiday decorating. I have never forced any of my children to like the same things that I like and I have let them form their own opinions about things. It is nice to see that Genesis is now infected with the holiday light bug. Now if I can just get Jacob and Cayla to be as focused and committed as Genesis, then I will unleash my holiday light decorating army on the world! Muuuuuuhuuuuuuuhaaaaahaaaaaaa!!!!

Health, Love, Happiness, and Wealth

To all my family and friends, I wish you a year full of pleasant days and restful nights. Merry Christmas everyone....

Wow Check out this cool display: Penguins Parade around Pond

For Christmas displays, I love the home-built look. I think that setting up a display for christmas has become more a "I-can-put-up-a-bunch-of-blowups" contest. I am as guilty as the next (I have one blowup), but I do not plan on getting any more. I prefer to make my lifesize images (i.e. cutouts). Check out Alan's site. He really knows how to be creative with the cutouts. I totally dig on the penguins. Random thoughts of an Iowa boy: Penguins Parade around Pond

More...

I just couldn't help myself. Last night, I added more lights to my display. In fact, I added 9 multi-colored light strings. I used the light strings to create "Christmas Tunnel" out of the arches that I had placed over my driveway. Look pretty cool. But of course, I didn't take a picture of it....Bad Daniel...

Better Picture of My Display

Daniels House 1
Originally uploaded by danilope28.

My neighbor Dave took a picture of my display. Let's just say that he really knows how to take a photo. Thanks Dave....You da man!

Finally Finished?

Christmas2005_10Dec05 013
Originally uploaded by danilope28.

Attached is a link to the final (I hope) version of our Christmas 2005 display. I took the pictures tonight. The display looks great and the pictures I took don't really do it justice. I think the display need to be seen first hand to really appreciate its beauty. My neighbor, Dave, also took some pictures and I will upload them here when they are ready.

I hope you enjoy....

United Way Holiday Light Contest

This is the second year that we will enter our house in the United Way Holiday Light Contest. Although we have never one anything, it is a good way for people to donate money to the United Way while being able to check out a bunch of really cool holiday light displays.

The way the contest works is that you register your home and pay a "fee" (we paid $20 - this is based on the size of your house). People can vote by donating $1 per vote for the home of their choice.

The contest is judged based on the popular vote and Critic's Choice. First place is $100 and a trophy. Second place is $100. Critic's Choice is also $100 and a trophy. If we win, I plan to donate the money back to the United Way because I really want the trophy. Just call me "Sparky!"

The deadline to vote is December 21st and the winners will be called on Christmas Eve.

Since we live out in the boonies, it will be hard for us to get that many votes. Therefore, I would like to call upon the net masses and have them vote for our display.

I will have pictures up this weekend for people to view the complete display.

Wish us luck!!!!

Busy Weekend

I made some real progress over the weekend in spite of battling a cold and cough. I was able to get the large blow-up Santa and Reindeer mounted on the roof and added even more lights to the front yard.

I would say that I am about 75 percent completed. I still need to decorate my porch area and I am going to mount the Gi-Normous star that I built onto the roof where my HD antenna rests.

So I will probably keep adding lights and tweaking all the way until December 24th.

However, I will be entering the United Way light contest so I will try to have at least 95 percent of my display completed well before then.

Now I just need to catch up on my Christmas shopping....

GT: Ginormous Tree

If you have been following along with my Christmas saga this year, then you know that my first attempt at the Gi-Normous Tree was a disaster. My buddy CC and his wife, Barb, were able to capture the fun and folly of my attempt at immortality. You can view pictures and highlights here: Ginormous difficulties for the Ginormous Tree.

Even though my first attempt was a failure, it did not stop me from reaching new heights. The Gi-Normous Tree lives and has withstood several bouts of 40mph winds that have blown through here over the last month.

Progress!

I spent the last few days trying to be more proactive in my approach to my decorations. To recap:

On Tuesday, Paul the Electrician came by and installed two new 20 amp circuits to my electrical box. He also installed two 4-outlet boxes below the electrical box with weather proof covers. This setup will allow me to run all my Christmas lights to these outlets and turn them off at the panel. No more worries about tripping a circuit if my wife decides to blow dry her hair! LOL!

On Wednesday and Thursday night, I set up my three animated reighndeers and sleigh. I placed them along the North side of the house in a configuration that makes it look like Santa has just parked his sleigh to deliver some toys. The reighndeer are attached together with two 18-foot lengths of blue rope light. The blue rope light represents the reigns for the sleigh. I also setup my SnowMan plywood cut-out. The SnowMan is wrapped with a blue ropelight and I also put an accent light in front of him so you can see the details. I put my animated drummer boy and one of my rope light Christmas trees on the North side of the yard as well. Oh, I also hung my Gi-Normous star that I built (you member? the star was soo big that it caused the Gi-Normous Tree v1.0 to buckle) on our Yucca tree. It looks pretty cool.

The yard is looking great! Now I need to start on the outdoor house decorations. I think I will go ahead and put the icicle lights like I had them last year. I also need to decorate the front patio area.

So all in all there is still a lot of work to do this weekend, but I am confident that I can have it all done by Saturday evening!

I will post more pictures on Saturday!

Way too much to do this weekend...

I was just looking in my garage where I have all my lights and decorations and I realized that I am not anywhere near close to completion. We were out of town over the long holiday weekend and we will probably have to go out of town this weekend again. I just don't know how I am going to get any of it done.

Bah humbug.....

More Power!

The Dad of one of my soccer players is coming over on Tuesday to upgrade my electrical system at my house. We are going to up the house to a 125amp circuit (it currently is 100) and he is going to add two new 20 amp circuits just for my christmas lights. The circuits will feed 8 outlet boxes that will installed below the main circuit box.

More power....whoo....hoo!!!

Dueling Snowman

SantaPaws has created a really cool animated Snowman Snowball fight display. Check it out!

Hey, SantaPaws - how about uploading some video of the fight!

Light Design Research...Yeah...that's what I will call it....research...

Hi Ho!
Me and the wife just got back from Las Vegas. Where I was conducting light design research....yeah...that's what I will call it....research....

We spent 3 nights in Sin City taking in the sights and playing Black Jack. We had a ton of fun. We had been trying to get away just by ourselves for the past year, but between her MBA, work, soccer games, and other kid activities we just couldn't swing it. Also, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house for both of our families last year and it was quite the event. I told me wife that if we were able to pull it off that I would take her to Vegas for Thanksgiving next year. Hey....a promise is a promise. So off we went.

More notable highlights of our Vegas trip:
1. The upgrade to the Jacuzzi Suite is well worth the cost!
2. Never hit a 15, when the dealer is showing a 3.
3. Riding on the "The Duece" bus in Vegas is slower than walking.
4. The Vegas Monorail system is pretty cool and fast.
5. Every casino/hotel has at least 4 Starbucks in it.
6. Do not play Black Jack until 4am the day you are leaving.
7. AmericaWest Airlines' employees are not as happy nor as friendly as SouthWest Airlines' employees.
8. The view from the top of the Stratosphere is amazing - there is a Starbucks up at the top too.
9. I wonder how much the street vendors that hand out the pornographic literature get paid.
10. What ever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas....hopefully...

Lord Gi-Normous......Riiiiiiiiiissssseeeee!!!!!!

After some tweaking and a trip to Lowes, the Gi-Normous Tree has once again risen from the ashes!

I went to Lowes and found a 50" pre-built star to put on the top of the GT. I added some more lights to it and with the help of my Father-in-Law, we raised the GT up. No more buckling and the pole didn't bend at all.





I just want to thank all those who helped out with this effort:

• CC, Barb, and Alex
• Brad, Tiffany, and Scott
• Paul the Electrician
• my daughters - Genesis and Cayla
• my son Jacob
• Brianna from down the street

1. And of course Desiree - my beautiful wonderful wife without whom none of this would have been possible. It is she that allows me to express my creative/destructive genius on projects of this magnitude and I am the luckiest man on the planet to have such a partner in life who supports me like no other....She is the best!

Gravity 1 : Gi-Normous Tree 0

As the title of this post suggests, gravity was the victor today. This morning with the help of CC, my neighbor Brad, and my electrician buddy Paul, we attempted to erect the Gi-Normous Tree with the Gi-Normous Star attached to the top. We were able to attache the star very securely, but the GT just could not handle the weight from the top. The pipe bent/buckled at the bottom and I decided that the Star was just too big to put at the top. So down came the GT. I had to replace the bent pipe so I used 3/4" galvanized pipe. I didn't bring the tree up again, because I need to buy or build a smaller version of the star. I saw one at walmart the I may go and buy. It is about 18" tall, but should be okay.

Alas, my dreams of seeing my 6 foot star perched above 20 feet of christmas tree from the interstate or camino real have been dashed. But never fear, the Gi-Normous Tree will live again (albeit in a small version).

Stay tuned for pics of our folley today - CC's wife Barb was on hand to photograph our attempt at immortality. ....

Christmas 2004 Display

In order to get my Christmas Spirit really flowing, I thought I would take a look at my Christmas 2004 display. Christmas 2004 was our first year in our new house and I wasn't sure how or what I was going to do for my display. I also didn't know how many lights I could cram into my yard and house without tripping the circuit. Well, as you can see at the right, I was able to put up quite a few lights.