That House In Milford

On August 26th, Mother Theresa would have been 100 years old.  It is her 100th birthday.  When the Empire State Building was asked to light their building in blue and white (the colors of Mother Theresa's order) the request was denied.  And it was denied over and over again although they have lit up the building for Cardinal O'Connor, Pope John Paul II as well as Mao Tse Tung.  Mother Theresa was and still remains one of the most charitable, giving and compassionate people of our time.  It doesn't matter what religion you believe in to know that she would have helped anyone in need and therefore it is only fitting to remember her as well as remember the work that she accomplished in her lifetime.

Well, we have decided to honor Mother Theresa here as well.  In honor of her 100th birthday, you will notice a "100" in blue and white lights on the roof.  It will be lit from Sunday, August 22nd to Saturday, August 29th.  It will go on at 7:00 p.m and will be turned of at 9:30 p.m. each night.

I will post a couple pictures when after I turn it on for those who cannot stop by to see it.  

For more information about Mother Theresa, here is a link to a website about her work and life:

http://www.motherteresa.org/layout.html

Thank you!

Chris and Ann Donnells

Believe it or not, this weekend will be 5 months until Christmas.  It is also, more importantly the time I usually start working on the Christmas display.  Not too much will be changing over the course of this year.  Lights will be added to the fence.  Additional arches are going to be added to the walkway and many more lights are going to be strung on the trees.  Hopefully this year we'll reach 50,001.  Just one more light than the Milford green.  I've built a donation bin so those who don't want to donate on line can donate in person.  We've also added an additional gingerbread animation to the display this year as well!

Also, as you know, I do this display not only because I love Christmas, but to raise money for the Connecticut Food Bank.  Our Virtual Food Drive is open all year long and if you'd like to make a donation feel free to do so.  The Food Banks are running in short supply this year and anything you can do would be greatly appreciated.

So if you see me out in the driveway soon wrapped in Christmas lights, you know it's not too far off from me being up on the roof!

Merry Chrismas (in July)!

Chris and Ann

I would like to say thank you to all of you that supported us and donated to the CT Food Drive.  With help from people like yourselves, we were able to raise in excess of $1,600.  Not to mention that with the help of the wonderful people at Santa Fuel, we had a matching donation amount of $272.00.  Thank you Santa Energy for your continued support!

I'd also like to say thank you to the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund for their generous contribution of the 25,000 LED lights.  The energy bill from the addition of these lights was cut substantially...by about 50% over last year's bill.  What a savings!

And of course, my neighbors.  I thank everyone for putting up with us through the Christmas season.  I am glad that you, your family and friends have all enjoyed the light display.

For now the front yard is bare (as it took much less time to tear down the front yard) and by the end of the month it will all be a distant memory.  As of today, it's only 356 days until the first Christmas of the new decade.  And believe it or not, it's less than 10 months until I put it all up again!

Thank you for your continued support! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Chris and Ann Donnells

I realized I haven't posted anything in a while.  The lights went on the day after Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately not without a hitch.  We had so much rain that it shorted out most of the display but I was able to fix it in a jiffy and we were back to normal in no time.  The bubble light lasted a day.  For some reason and I can't figure out from where, it sprung a leak.   I need to take it apart and figure out what happened.  It was working just fine.

Other than that, the display is up and running. I want to give a big thanks to the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund for sponsoring us with a donation of 25,000 LED lights!  You will be seeing more of this in the news in the future.

If you haven't done so, I ask that if you can, please make a donation to our food drive.  If you do not feel comfortable making a donation online, you may always mail a check, made payable to the Connecticut Food Bank to my house and I will send it off to the appropriate people at the food bank.

Once again, my wife Ann, myself, and our dog and cat (Peanut and Gorbachev) wish you and your's a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year!

Time to start planning 2010!

Merry Christmas!

Chris

I did get a lot accomplished yesterday.  Even though it was around 50 degrees, it felt a lot colder as we had remnants of Ida pass through the State.  The arches stayed up but one of the mega trees was shaken loose by all the high winds.  I had to shimmy it up this morning and tie it down to keep it from moving.  

Other than that, I did manage to get all the candy canes up around the yard (they're all home made and stand about 4 feet tall).  Then I draped red and clear lights from one to the other.  The Keep Christ in Christmas sign is up along with some reindeer, trees, gingerbread men, lighted candy canes and the newest edition, the gingerbread men tossing a peppermint.  This is a new animated piece we purchased in the summer.

Only two more trees  and the arches over the walkway and we're done!  I can't believe I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Merry Christmas!

Chris

Took advantage of the great weather we're having (a little cool but sunny... in the 50's) and got the three mega trees up in the front yard.  Each one consists of 2 cases or 48 strings of lights each.  Only took about and hour and a half per tree and it went pretty quick.  I'm glad that I'm done climbing up and down a ladder like some circus monkey.  Next week we'll clear all the leaves out of the yard and then we can start working on ground work.  Only a few more weeks before we throw the switch.

Merry Christmas!

Chris

Well last weekend was a busy one and this weekend may be the same.  Thanks to Ann, my loving wife who for some odd reason puts up with me, helped me out for a good solid 3 or 4 hours erecting the arches over the driveway.  You will notice that the arches have changed from last year.  I've painted them white and candy cane striped them.  The lights on them are red/white lights for a really cool candy cane look.  Also, while a small job, the siding lights are up.  This weekend is supposed to be nice so I will try to get as much done as possible.

Merry Christmas!

Chris

Well, Wednesday was a pretty nice day so I decided to accomplish the task of putting the lights on the roof.  10,000 lights were put up and boy was I tired.  The lights are spaced every 6 inches apart and alternate between a red and white string for a candy cane look.  The light on the roof were donated by the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund and are C6 Strawberry Full Wave LEDs from LED Holiday Lighting.

It only took 6 hours.  Check out the photos on the photo page.

Merry Christmas!

Chris

Well this year we are going to be taking the display to a new level thanks to the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund.  I was approched by the CT Energy Efficiency Fund about my display a few months ago.  They've seen our display and wanted not only to help us and the CT Food Bank but to also promote the usage of energy efficient lighting.  So, this year when you drive by the house, the entire house and the three 10 foot trees in the front yard will be completely LED!  The CEEF purchased 25,000 LED lights (just over half of the display) for our display.  This will not only save our bill but also save a ton on energy costs.  25,000 miniature lights (incandescent) lit all at once consume about 16,000 watts.  That's over 10 hairdryers running constantly.  As for LED's, they will consume approximately 1,600 watts.  Yes, the ratio is about 10:1.  That's huge. 

A BIG thanks goes out to them and their help this year.  Be sure to check out the Sponsor page to visit the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund's website soon!

This weekend, as long as it's nice, you will find me outside working on the display.  So if you're around...stop by and say hi!

Merry Christmas!

Chris

Well, it's October 2nd and it's only about 2 weeks until D-Day.  That's right.  It's that time again were I need to get back up on the roof to put up the roof lights.  If you go by the house at night you will see that our six foot inflatable pumpkin is up and working.  If you're in the area on Friday the 16th (weather permitting) stop by and throw up a few dozen boxes to me.  Ha ha.

This year we are looking at around 45,000 lights and will of course be helping the CT Food Bank out with our Virtual Food Drive.

Keep checking back for updates to the site and the status of the display!

Merry Christmas!

Chris