And so it begins…

As summer fades into fall my thinking starts to move towards this years build. This initially kicked off in August when I put in my order in for new lights during the Annual Light-O-Rama summer Sale, but then gets forgotten about again until the boxes arrive. A pretty small order by prior years standards. Adding about 2,200 RGB bulbs to my layout and removing around 2,000 traditional LEDs. This will also leave me channels on the new controllers to add some RGB Arches next year.

This years order was:

01 Assembled Controller with Assembled-Controller-Pixie 16
02 Black Cosmic Color Ribbon Black-Smart-Strip-2811-CCR-IIB
10 12V Green Bulbs 50 Count   12V-GR-BULBS-50-EC
01 12V – 16×100 Square Pixel 12Volt-16x100SquarePixelWithPixie  16
08 RJ45 Waterproof Dangle     RJ45-WP-Dangle

When the order arrives is usually the trigger for me to start thinking about the build. The first piece is to come up with is a new Light-O-Rama Preview (layout) which I had roughed out in Aug before making my order but I now needed to finalize so I can begin converting my sequences to include the new props.

2019 Preview (WIP so replaced props still included)

The next step is to establish the build plan, really this hasn’t changed from last year, other than applying some lessons learned. I have a target go live of Nov 30, so then it was just a matter of building a work back plan.

Last years build was a little tighter as the light up date was a week earlier because I was travelling to see TSO the 1st weekend of December. I thought about doing this again this year but decided to wait another year and take the kids along. Last year I also got crazy ambitious about the number of new song I was going to add, I think it ended up between 25 and 30. This year I will not be adding too many, I have only identified one so far:

https://youtu.be/tPVNl_g5N_I

I will probably top out at five new songs for this year, focusing my effort on making sure my favorite songs have the best show possible.

Below are the sequences I will be updating to the 2019 layout (very small amount of effort per song):

Kids-Domenick The Italian Christmas Donkey
Kids-Frosty the snowman
Kids-Hot Chocolate
Kids-I Am The Grinch
Kids-Jingle Bells Batman Smells
Kids-LET IT GO
Kids-Rudolph the red nosed reindeer
Kids-Snoopy’s Christmas
Kids-Youre a mean one Mr Grinch
Misc-Christmas Vacation
Misc-Christmas Vacation Intro
Misc-God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Misc-Here comes Santa Claus
Misc-Jingle Bells
Misc-Let it Snow
Misc-Little Drummer Boy
Misc-Santa Claus is coming to town
Misc-Twas the Night before Christmas
Now-A Spaceman Came Travelling
Now-Band Aid
Now-Bing Crosby : “White Christmas”
Now-Elton John : “Step Into Christmas”
Now-Gary Glitter : “Another Rock n’ Roll Christmas”
Now-I Believe in Father Christmas
Now-I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
Now-John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band : “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”
Now-Johnny Mathis : “When a Child Is Born (Soleado)”
Now-Jona Lewie : “Stop The Cavalry”
Now-Last Christmas
Now-Merry Xmas Everybody
Now-Mike Oldfield : “In Dulce Jubilo”
Now-Mud : “Lonely This Christmas”
Now-Paul McCartney : “Wonderful Christmastime”
Now-Queen : “Thank God It’s Christmas”
Now-Shakin’ Stevens : “Blue Christmas”
Now-The Beach Boys : “Little Saint Nick”
TSO-Christmas Cannon
TSO-Christmas in Sarejavo
TSO-Wizards in Winter
Twisted-Deck the Halls
Twisted-Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Twisted-Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days of Christmas)
Twisted-I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Twisted-I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Twisted-Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Twisted-Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Twisted-Silver Bells
Twisted-The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Twisted-White Christmas

Before I can get into the build I have a few things to get done. Get the yard ready for winter, which includes shaping the spruce tree for optimal light hanging, raking leaves draining pond and marking out sprinkler heads (I’ve punctured several in years past hammering lights and pegs through the snow into frozen ground). Then I’ll need to turn around the garage, putting away the car, bikes and summer toys and moving the wall of containers from the back to the front of the garage.

I am hoping this year the weather will be as compliant as it was last year with very few cold days and little to no snow fall through November. It was also so nice post Christmas I had all the lights down and away by the first weekend in January. I doubt I’ll be so lucky this year, but hopefully the extra week will to build will help me out.