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!