Closing out a year,  closing out a decade.  For many,  2009 is great year to forget.  For many, it is a year to remember. 

2009 for me was a year that I will always remember for the positive.  America saw it’s first non-caucaision President sworn into office.  My oldest son got his drivers license.  I got to see all of my three kids grow older and wiser.  It’s easy to forget all of the little smiles that they brought me,  the hugs for no reason,  the welcome home daddy,  I missed you when I got back from a business trip.  I will do my best to remember them.

The first decade of the 21st century is over now as well.  Again,  for many folks,  this decade is a nagative.  The dtock markets are all down from there openings in 2000.  America is fighting multiple wars,  9/11/2001,  the current recession, etc…

For me,  it’s the decade where I got married, became a father to three wonderful kids,  bought my first house,  relocated 2000 miles away from where I grew up and basically,  became a grown-up. 

10 years ago tonight,  I was sitting in a conference room at The Bank of New York waiting for the clock to strike midnight,  wondering of the banks’ computer systems that I was responsible for would continue to work at 12:01am.  A small part of me was wondering if the world would simply end. 

I’ll remember this past year and past 10 years for the positive.  I can only hope that the next year and 10 years will bring me as many smiles.

We dropped off our first batch of donated canned food this morning and the Northwest Assistance Ministries Food Pantry was busy.  We dropped off 76 lbs of food today.

There are soo many folks who need your help this year.  Please take a few moments over the course of the next several busy days to help someone in need.  Maybe it’s an extra toy or two in your basket at Toys R Us or a few extra cans of vegetables or tuna fish at the grocery store.  It only takes a minute to stop by NAM and drop these items off.  You’ll feel a little bit better and you really will help make a positive difference in someones day.

a few minutes ago,  a very nice young lady presented Sydney and I with the best gift ever – She and her family voted us the Best Christmas Lights of 2009 and gave us an award!

Better than the best lights in the subdivsion

This makes all of the hard work worthwhile!

Talk about a soggy December in Houston. The show ran fine last night in the thunderstorms so it looks like I have everything taped up. As long as the wind isn’t a problem, the shows should be running, even in the rain.

Don’t forget to bring a canned food item. We have one box full and ready to go. Hoping to have to make a few trips to drop all of the donated food items off!

Merry Christmas

Wish Liszt (Toy Shop Madness) by Trans Siberian Orchestra. Thursday night is the Rock and Roll Christmas Show. C’mon by.

We’re just shy of 50lbs collected so far. If you plan on coming by to watch the lights, please remember to bring a few cans of food. Even if you’re not coming by to watch, you can still bring some canned food items.

We’ll distribute to the Houston Food Bank and the NWA Food Pantry on the 18th and again on January 2nd. Thanks to everyone who has dropped some items off so far and a thanks to all who will in the coming days.

Merry Christmas!

Again, Mother Nature decided to send some showers our way. A lot of them. With over a mile of extension cords on the ground, 400+ strings of lights and 80 AMPS of electric current running around, it’s just not worth the risk to run the show. Weathyer for tomorrow looks bad as well but, we’ll see what happens.

The weather outside shoudl be perfect to watch the lights tonight.  Of all things,  Snow!  Can’t wait.   We may need to bust out the hot chocolate.  If you’re coming by,  drive slow and stay safe.

The rain last night left me with a very nasty suprise this morning… one of my controllers was filled with water!  Thankfully,  the GFCI breaker worked as the damage could have been much worse.  I spent a few hours drying it out and the problems seem to be limited to only three channels so if you come by,  you will notice that the lights around the windows on the garage and the bushes in front of the garage are a little flakey in that they don’t ever go off! I’m not going to run out and drop another $200 on a new controller so we’ll have to live with it for this year.  Sorry.

Sorry.  Heavy rain and several hundred strings of lights just don’t mix.  I can deal with some light rain but as soon as it starts coming down in sheets,  I risk getting something of mine broken in a very bad way. See you tomorrow night. 

Don’t forget,  snow is in the forecast for Friday.   Come by and watch the ligths in the snow!