"We Three Kings", and Other Christmas Ditties

We have had lots of busy-ness around our house over the past few weeks. Blog posting shall resume next week when things settle down. Computer time has been off-limits to everyone besides Bob as he works on a very special annual project. Can you guess what it is?

He has been working so hard this year at two places: home and the Glencoe Hospital display. He took one week off in October, and has taken 10 days off in the past two weeks to organize and hang lights, problem solve equipment, supervise the Glencoe project, hire Alex---who has been doing a FABULOUS job, I must add, working many,many,hours with his Dad--- plug in countless extension cords and computer cables, and enter all the tiny little details into the computer programs.

It has been truly a family affair this year. I think all of us have done some helping in one way or another at some point. And that's how it should be(though of course, we will give Bob 99% of the credit as this is composed of primarily all his efforts)....one great big family project!

Tubby even helped by bringing Daddy extension cords.

Crispy, Jonny, and Alex worked hard to make over 60 "megaballs" of lights.

So far, we have only had one penguin meet his doom in the driveway under the wheel of someone's SUV (not naming any names here!).

Now that the outside stuff is complete, he has been programming the computer music. Perhaps this is the most time-intensive piece. It takes nearly one full, no-break day to program one Christmas song to lights and music. That is a lot of time...especially considering that he is programming 4 separate songs for each separate location! I can't even begin to understand the process---and I am the musical one! Every beat is programmed and each and every string of lights is individually turned on or off precisely to the vision of my husband. It is amazing. And hopefully when he has some time, I desire him to write a post about it to better explain the whole complicated process! But for now, time is at a premium: the Glencoe show goes "Live" the day after Thanksgiving, complete with a visit from Santa, cocoa, cookies, the works. Bob's goal is to run our show "live" that night, too, but in reality, that is a pretty tall order when both shows will undoubtedly run into a few snags (as typically expected) on the first run.I miss my husband who has been working (um, for free) night and day, but am excited to see the finished project. Each year is different from the last, and it is such a treat for us, and our entire community!!