Just another WordPress.com weblog
I was able to complete the take-down on Sunday afternoon. Everything is put away and ready for next year.
I’ll start working on the figures in September (including the new ones) and should post again in the middle of October.
Thanks to all of you who have followed my posts…hope you enjoyed them as much as I did when I wrote them. Highest day for readers was just before Christmas when we went over 300!
God Bless and thankyou for your donations to the Shrine Children’s Hospitals!
Almost complete. All I have left are my neighbors’ house and the 2 perimiter fence lines. Today I will remove the lights from the Bellevue Florist building and from my neighbor’s house…maybe even get started on his perimiter fence. Estimating about 7 more hours to go.
Once everything is down, its time to organize my light room (a 16 x 16 foot room where all the lights are stored).
Already working on some designs for next year. It will be my 30th anniversary, so its got to be special.
Weather has been great, moving right along. Except for perimiter fence and front fence, my house is almost complete. 6 neighbors will be finished today and starting work on the 7th (although his yard is clear, perimiter fence and house left). Hope to wrap it up by Sunday, which will be a new record for take-down.
My organization of figures in storage has received alot of attention and should be easier to get to next year. I placed them in relation to when I need to set them up next year, so no more searching for what I need next in the set-up. I’ve already identified about 4,000 lights that need to be replaced, but I have about 11,000 new ones in reserve so no problem.
Next blog will be when the take-down is complete…probably Tuesday.
I was out of town Fri – Sun so missed a few posts (but my neighbor was there to collect the donations).
Thursday night was as expected, slow but steady. Friday night was active, but no big deal. New Year’s Eve was extremely slow (it was busier last year).
I got back on Sunday afternoon and found my neighbor had already taken down all his figures and stacked them for me. Make a quick decision to turn off the other neighbors and just have mine on for Sunday evening…the last night. Glad I left mine on since I had a constant stream of visitors…never less than 2 cars, nor more than 5 at one time. Had a few walkers and the donation box picked up a little more for the Shrine Hospitals.
Ended up the year within a $100 of the $7,000 dollars given to the Shrine Hospitals. Best year ever and it brings the 6 year total to $30,000.00. THANKS MIDDLE TENNESSEE!!!
Started take-down yesterday (temp in the low 20′s with wind chill) and was able to clear all the figures from the neighbor’s yards. Even got Santa’s shack and the MC arch removed from my yard. Will start working on my yard, bottom to top, today (temp in the low 30′s with wind chill). Goal is to remove the figures from the bottom third (along with the electrical) and get rid of the arches going up the driveway. I’ll also try to remove all the stakes left in the neighbor’s yards.
I’ll save removing light strings till tomorrow when its warmer. They become a little more fragile when its really cold (forecast is the balmy 40′s). The weather forecast for the next 5 days looks pretty good and I should have alot accomplished by this weekend.
Spend the evenings wrapping up the electrical cords (rubber banding them). With 6 bins of short cords, it takes a while (and alot of rubber bands). The heavier 25′, 50′ & 100′ cords I wrap up as I go…and its not easy when its cold (but fortunately, I only have a little over 100 of them).
I’ll wait until the end of the week to make my next progress report.
As expected Monday and Tuesday night were fairly busy, but parking was easy. Sunday was my last night to meet & greet and I’ve been monitoring the traffic from the window. We are still getting several limos and a couple of small busses each night, but the most I’ve seen at one time was a limo and 8 cars in the turn-around area. Although its been cool (30′s) both nights, there have been a good number of walkers and collections are matching last year for the period.
Speaking of donations for the Shrine, I just wrote them another check for $2,000 which reflects the record setting weekend. The total for the 6 years I’ve had a donation box out is now $30,000 for the Shrine Children’s Hospitals. Sure says a lot about the generosity of Tennessee folks!
The next 4 days look great, temperature wise. We’ll hit 60 degrees by Sunday with no rain in the 4 day forecast. Should be a great wrap up for an usually warm season.
Expected Saturday, Christmas Eve, to be big and it came close to tying Friday night! The waits on Friday night were up to 40 minutes according to a few friends I talked to. But the waits on Saturday night were in the 20 minute range. The big difference…Santa was no longer around and that resulted in less walking traffic (parking). The line moved at a fairly good pace…I was actually surprised at how many cars didn’t slow down to a crawl as they passed the lights (after waiting 20 minutes to get there).
Even tho there were relatively few walkers (no more than 50 on the driveway at any given time), donations for the Shrine Hospitals set a new record. It seemed that every third card had money hanging out the window for me to collect…such a deal! I think I gave out around 600 candy canes to passing cars.
Sunday night was busy, but with no more than 15-20 cars in view at any given time. Weather was great and lots of them got out and walked. Parking was easy since I could open one of the areas were the limos and busses parked and there were not that many cars. Limos and busses were way, way down (about 10 limos on Saturday and 5 on Sunday). The rest of the week should make for easy parking and walking…at least I hope so because it is my turn to visit other light displays.
The lights will be on thru next Sunday night.
For those of you who missed last night…you were one of the few! Last night goes down as one of the 2 biggest ever! When the lights went on at 5:00 there were 15 cars awaiting. It didn’t stop until 10:05…cars all the way down to Hillsboro Rd (about 3/4 of a mile) for 4 hours straight. That is way too many as it took (according to a couple of limo drivers) an average of 20 minutes to gain the top…so at least we kept them moving. I estimate there were about 6,000 folks who visited the lights last night (counting cars, limos and busses).
It was Santa’s last night and they really came out to see him. There was only two moments when he didn’t have someone sitting on his lap (and they were mostly children). He gave out almost 600 candy canes. A very nice send off for the year.
My apologies have to go out to our Sunnyside neighbors for the long lines getting into the subdivision.
Tonight is historically a busy night too (although hopefully not as busy as last night). There should be considerably fewer limos and busses, as most did not except bookings for tonight and Christmas Day. The weather will be perfect…40′s and clear.
I got on the scale this morning (first time in a month) and found that I had lost 15 pounds…thats what street walking will do for you!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL from all of us at Sunnyside.
Wednesday started off with a bang and just kept going…temp and weather were great. I was able to fix a couple of the figures, but still have a couple more that need work.
Thursday night started off steady but a little slower than I anticipated. Didn’t really get started until after 7:00 and then it went big for the next 2 hours. I needed all 3 of my traffic men to work the crowd. I was afraid of the forecast of rain, but it turned out to be a 10 minutes sprinkle…but thats probably what caused the delay in the start.
I expect tonight to be one of my biggest, especially since it is Santa’s last night…of course. Only have 1 or 2 men helping me with traffic , so I’ll be doing a lot of running to keep it moving. Its also been busy at the flower shop so I did not have any time to work on fixing figures and will barely get back in time to get everything set up for tonight.
No rain on Tuesday night!!! All we had was a slight drizzle for about 10 minutes, just enought to wet the street. And the temperature was great…how about 60 degrees?? Had to keep taking off coats and vests.
The night started off slow, but steady. It wasn’t until about 7:15 when the rush started and it lasted till about 9:00. The rest of the time parking was easy. Had lots of limos, of course, and a number of busses. It appears that the Channel 2 exposure really helped as numerous visitors mentioned it. Australia and China were represented last night, which brings me up to 4 countries (including Germany and Mexico). Still missing Maine, Washington, Idaho, North Dakota and Deleware.
Tonight looks great weather wise and I will have plenty of help with the traffic.
Comment on food and drink…none of the neighborhood children asked and I sure don’t have the time to manage it. Will ask around for next year.
Speaking of next year, that will be the 30th anniversary of my light show and I’m thinking big. Suggestions are welcome.
Big surprise last night. I looked out my window at 4:45 last night to see if any cars were waiting for the lights to come on. And what did I see…a Channel 2 truck! A roving reporter was there, camera in hand to do a special on the display. He did a live shot for the 5 & 6 news and a really nice interview with me on the 10:00 news. Great year…both channels 2 & 4 did nice specials on the display…advertising you just can’t buy (not that I would). We’ve had a good representation on the local TV channels (except for Channel 5, which doesn’t seem to want to cover anything outside of Davidson county) throughout the past 10 years and I really appreciate it!
Pretty busy last night, but not a super rush. Santa had a great time as usual with lots of kids (both young and old). He gave out about 400 candy canes (only 50 less than the first night). Had 20+ limos and Gray Line busses (and that huge black bus again). Kept busy from about 5:40 till 9:20, than slowed down. I had pleanty of help directing traffic, so it moved well.
Tonight sure looks a lot like rain, which is a bummer after the Channel 2 exposure (the temperature will be in the 50′s). But Santa will be there and so will I (and probably 1 or 2 assistants). Wednesday night looks outstanding, weather wise.
Santa will be there thru Friday night (than he is off to the North Pole to get ready for his big night) from 6 till 9.
 | Fred REgan on Christmas Eve |
| Fred REgan on Monday – Final Post for … |
 | Carol Helton on Monday – Final Post for … |
| Fred REgan on Tuesday – 5 days till… |
 | Joe on Tuesday – 5 days till… |
