CHRISTMAS

In our last blog you saw a closeup of the star as we were putting it back up after repairs.  We tried several times to get a good picture of it,  but it always comes out blurry.  It is quite heavy and takes two people to hoist it up the flagpole.  This picture was taken the day after Thanksgiving, shortly after the live nativity production was finished.
Mike was in charge of the spotlights and I played the keyboard while everyone sang Silent Night.  During the two nights of the live nativity we had over 500 visitors.

The wise-men and their 'camel' pose
 after the performance.

The sheep are friendly and enjoy visitors,

 

One of our visitors is petting Annie.  The children love her.
She and the sheep stay until after New Years.

Mike decorated the red trees all around the monument.

Melanie and I decorated the green and white birch trees on the right. The birches are over 6 stories high.  We spent several days decorating them from the basket of our 65 foot lift.  We would have added more lights but we had to quit when breakers started popping.

Mike helped build the covered bridge. It is a favorite, and has become rather famous.  It was on the 6 o'clock local news this year.  We were told that one year eight wedding proposals took place under our bridge.  One of the ladies in our ward asked her friend why her son picked the bridge as a place to propose.  She explained, "Our family comes here every year.  Our kids think it's a magical place.

 Melanie and I created a new attraction this year.  We built a cozy little place to sit and visit, or take pictures.  You can walk into it from either end through an 'arbor' of lights.   You can see the post behind us in the first picture.  It is wrapped with green lights.

There is a large stone bench in the area and we made a roof over it with red lights.  We would have used more lights in the area to the right, but again we were out of power.  Mike had to unplug some of our lights because they kept popping breakers. We are hoping for more LED lights next year (even though we won't be here to enjoy them).  LED lights use 85% less power, and you can plug 40 sets end to end instead of 5.

It has been a great Christmas.  We had over 500 visitors (altogether) on the Friday and Saturday before Christmas, 660 visitors the Sunday before Christmas, and 416 on Christmas Eve.  It has been worth all the time and effort because it has brought joy to so many people.  We have a machine that counts the cars as they drive through.  We realize that many people drive by more than once, but we counted 14,616 cars from December 1st to December 24th.  The last count Mike saw was OVER 17,000! That's a lot of people who came to enjoy our lights!

WE HOPE ALL OF YOU HAD A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS.  WE DID!  WE WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas is the most beautiful time of year and it's especially lovely here at the Joseph Smith Memorial.  We have the most awe inspiring paintings of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus on display in the visitor's center.  Mike's favorite is Mary looking down at baby Jesus (on the left side of the Christmas tree).

The lights are beautiful.  Each one of the large trees takes more than a day to decorate.  Melanie and I worked together in a lift on the tallest trees.

Mike decorated the red apple trees all around the monument.  He used a special basket built last year by Elder Starley.  He lifted the metal "basket" with the fork lift on the tractor, then used a long ladder to climb into it.  (Sorry I didn't get a picture.)  One morning I heard Mike holler my name and Melanie and I looked up the hill and he was hanging from the basket, holding on with his hands like someone ready to do chin-ups.  The ladder had fallen when he was climbing down, leaving him way up in the air, holding on like someone doing chin-ups.  He laughed about it later, but it was a bit scary for a minute (for all of us).

The birch trees with white trunks and green tops took several days to decorate.  They are about 70 feet tall. The green tops don't show up
well in this picture but they are one of my favorites.  Mike spent a lot of time keeping them lit because of power issues.


These beautiful statues (below) look like marble, but they are made of a special kind of plastic.  They are lovely.  At night there is a light shining on them.



Between the buildings we have a "stable" with a donkey named Annie
and two sheep.  The picture of mike was taken just after his interview with Channel 3 news.  He had just finished feeding the animals when the reporter turned the camera on him and interviewed him.  He looked great.  In the end
he didn't get on TV but the newscast was really great. There was an
interview with Elder Schuck, the director, and Brother Dunkle who was at the visitor's center, and they showed the covered bridge made out of lights.  At least we can say he ALMOST got on TV.

I have had a lot of fun making (and rebuilding) nativity scenes.  

I made two last year (keeping one) and I have given away three so far this year.  The figures in the pictures below are ones I repainted.  The transformation was amazing.  I took before and after pictures.  

This picture shows the star that I made last year (with others taking turns helping me).  Elder Shefchik and Mike took it down so I could repair it and they are just getting ready to pull it back to the top of the flagpole.  There are over 1,000 lights in the star and over 200 lights in the tail.  It took about a week to make it.  We have tried to get a good picture of it lit up, but no picture does it justice.

We had over 500 people come Saturday and Sunday.  WISH YOU COULD ALL COME AND SEE THE LIGHTS.
WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU.
WE HOPE YOU ARE HAVING AS MUCH FUN GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS AS WE ARE!  LOVE TO EVERYONE!