1/3/09 - Our show has concluded for the season. Check back for our 2010 plans later in the year and thank you for all your generous donations! We will be able to make 4 more wishes come true!
P.S. - Looks like "Wizards in Winter" will be returning for the 2010 season!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1/1/09 - Thank you all for a great season! We've gotten some e-mails from some folks who were disappointed that the Blizzard took away their chance to see the lights. So, we talked about it and decided....why not! We will be leaving the lights on through Sunday, January 3rd to give everyone who wanted to see them an extra chance to make it out!
Happy New Year!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/26/09 - Well, we survived the Blizzard of '09, but we've been buried!! Most of the stuff on the ground is about gone! There's a 5 foot drift where the reindeer used to be! Right now, all you can see is the tops of our mini trees and the antlers of a few deer. We'll try to start digging it out somewhat tomorrow (after we celebrate a family Christmas gathering) for our final week! We took a few pictures and posted them on our Fans of Crooks Christmas Facebook page.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!
-Joe
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/15/09 - We've been doing great thus far, and we're actually $500 ahead of last year's pace at the moment!! Thank you all for your generous donations!
We put a lot of time and effort into this display for your enjoyment each and every year, so we don't think it's too much to ask for you to follow a few basic traffic requests when you come out to visit.
1. Please don't block my neighbors driveways or park in them to view the display. I've had to go out a few times and ask people to move out of the driveway across the street. I don't really enjoy doing this.
2. Please only view the lights from the West side of the street. We want to always have a clear lane on the east side for residents and emergency vehicles.
3. Please remember that this typically isn't a "Park and watch them all" kind of show. More than likely, there is a line of cars behind you, and we ask that at least 2 vehicles exit the cul-de-sac at the end of every song to keep the line moving. If the line is short, hop back in line and watch again!
We thank you for your cooperation!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/12/09 - I think tonight was the busiest night we've ever had from a traffic perspective. I've been told that the line backed up to 4th street (you can see this on the directions map). That's a LONG way! Sorry to those of you who looked at the line and turned around to go home. I wish we the capacity to handle more traffic, but as it stands we can only move so many through at a time. Thanks for the patience of those who waited. I hope it was worth it!
We had a strange fog move in for about 30 minutes tonight. It was pretty dense, but made the light show reflect into the night sky. Looked really cool!
There's a really good chance that we could cross the $10,000 threshold for the season tomorrow....enough to grant wish #2!! Thank you for your support!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/9/09 - Well the snowstorm didn't bury us completely and everything still works despite the snow and wind! Some stuff got a little covered, but that just makes a cool glowing effect through the snow! Weeknights are still the best nights to come out. The line rarely reaches the end of the block. Since most of you come on weekends, you know how busy that can be!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/7/09 - Today I had the opportunity to visit Tri-Valley school and speak to the entire K-6 in the gym. I asked how many of them had been out to see the show and almost 400 hands went up in the air! I got to talk with them about the light display, Make-A-Wish, and the fundraiser they are taking on to experience the joy of giving to others. I also had some Q&A time with them, and for being young, they sure had some good questions for me! It was a whole lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it!
They are doing the fundraiser for two weeks, and then will be presenting a big check to Make-A-Wish. Mary Olinger, President and CEO of South Dakota Make-A-Wish, has agreed to come onsite to accept the check from the students! Thank you to Tri-Valley school for teaching your students this important life lesson, and for letting me be a part of it!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/6/09 - Just some light snow flurries and mostly calm winds made it a great night to view the show! Thanks for coming out!
We're nearly up to $6,000 and a whole lot of time to go!!
I don't think there's any chance of Wizards in Winter going away, as the "Keep It" count is in double digits, and I've yet to receive a "Dump It" vote.
Tomorrow, I'm going to be speaking at Tri-Valley school, as one of the students there, MaKayla Claymore, organized a fundraising drive for Make-A-Wish! Thank you to Tri-Valley school for agreeing to move forward with her fundraising idea.
- Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/5/09 - Again a very busy night with the wait times in the 1 hour 30 minute range. Everyone started out by following my requests pretty well and kept the line moving, but as the night wore on there were a couple people who decided they must have some special privileges or something. Like the grey Chevy Pickup at about 10:26pm or the minivan sitting out there now (10:43PM). If you wait for an hour in line, I'm sure you would like to hang around for a while, but there's probably another hour's worth of cars behind you, so please keep it moving! I don't request that two or three cars move out after each song just so I can hear myself talk over the radio! If people are trying to drive around you, that's probably a good clue. Please don't be one of those people who spoils it for everyone else!
On a more positive note, have to give a shout out to Brian Roth for creating a "Fans of Crooks Christmas" page on Facebook. I don't do the Facebook thing, but as he said "It was bound to happen sooner or later". So, search it out and join if you're a "Facebooker".....
We also crossed the $5K threshold tonight for wish #1!!!!!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/4/09 - Well, last night's news coverage was certainly a shot in the arm for our Make-A-Wish drive! The change in traffic was obvious, and we had our largest donation night of 2009! I would say the wait topped out at about 45 minutes, based on my best guesstimate... (I usually figure 15 minutes per city block of cars).
Even though we had a lot of traffic tonight, people generally followed the requests I broadcast over the air. For the most part, 2 or 3 cars would move out at the end of every song to make way for the next batch of viewers. For me and my family, you have no idea how nice this is. Instead of spending my nights outside directing traffic, so long as people keep the line moving and stay orderly, I can spend my nights inside with my family. It certainly makes my life easier, so Thank You!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/3/09 - Crooks Christmas was featured during "Eye On Keloland" tonight on KELO news at 10. You can read it and watch their coverage HERE.
By the way, if you ever lose gloves, mittens, etc.... Send me a note! People lose these from time to time and we'll pick them up if we see them.
Also, thank you to Gregg Simon for sending me a note tonight about the video on our site. He helped me troubleshoot and we learned the following. If you are experiencing "choppy" playback on the video page, hover over the video and click the "HD is ON" button to turn it off. The HD playback I have set up by default requires a lot of bandwidth. Thanks Gregg!
I've also been working with a student at Tri-Valley high school who has been organizing a fundraiser of her own. She's been working to get it approved with the school and plans to donate their proceeds to Make-A-Wish through Crooks Christmas! Awesome! More details to follow on this as things are finalized.
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
11/28/09 - Thus far things are going quite well! I did see a couple of cars park in the driveway across the street tonight to watch the lights. Please do not do this! I mean no disrespect, but a big part of keeping the neighbors happy is keeping cars from blocking or parking in their driveways. Don't take offense if I come out and ask you to move your vehicle! It's all part of making sure we can continue to have a show. Thanks.
I noticed that Crooks seems to be getting into the holiday spirit. Maybe it's just me, but it sure seems as though more people have lights up along the route this year. Another house on an adjacent block has some lights going to some music of their own. Love it!! Maybe I'll stop down there tomorrow and see if they want to hook up to our show. Who knows? :)
So today my wife and I went to Cabela's in Mitchell to do some Christmas shopping. While we were there, we were scouring the "Bargain Cave" and she found a coin sorter. I made the comment that we could put that to use counting up the change donations from the show. Didn't buy it and didn't think a thing of the conversation again until tonight. I think someone must have emptied their entire piggy bank into our donation box tonight! Sure takes a long time to count out about 15 dollars in pennies! I imagine that this was probably a little kid who decided to give their savings to our cause. Very cool!! If the trend continues, we might just need to invest in that coin sorter after all!
Wizards In Winter vote update: "Keep It" - 4 votes. "Dump It" - 0 votes. Anyone see where this is going?
By the way, I decided to have 2009 videos hosted on Vimeo. Their membership fee is reasonable, and I think the quality is pretty good. Thanks for the e-mails offering hosting space! Check out the Media page to see the video!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
11/26/09 - Crooks Christmas opening night was a success! Thank you to all who came out to see! Traffic was very orderly and generally followed our requests to not block driveways and to keep things moving. This makes life sooooo much easier for us, which we appreciate!
Also, I have to mention something fun I got to do the other day.... Strawbale Winery in Renner offers what they call "Twilight Flights". First they treat you to some wine tasting, and then off you go in the helicopter! They first take you over Falls Park to check out their lights and then fly you over Crooks Christmas to see a bit of our show. Then, back to the winery for dessert and dessert wines. Really cool experience that I would highly recommend! You can find more info at: http://www.strawbalewinery.com/twilightflights.html
Oh, and for Wizards in Winter: Yes EMails = 1 No EMails = 0
Finally, I have some videos ready to go, but don't have the bandwidth to post high quality HD video without blowing the usage cap. If anyone would be willing to host video, send an email to joe@crookschristmas.com Thanks!
- Joe
P.S. - Looks like "Wizards in Winter" will be returning for the 2010 season!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1/1/09 - Thank you all for a great season! We've gotten some e-mails from some folks who were disappointed that the Blizzard took away their chance to see the lights. So, we talked about it and decided....why not! We will be leaving the lights on through Sunday, January 3rd to give everyone who wanted to see them an extra chance to make it out!
Happy New Year!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/26/09 - Well, we survived the Blizzard of '09, but we've been buried!! Most of the stuff on the ground is about gone! There's a 5 foot drift where the reindeer used to be! Right now, all you can see is the tops of our mini trees and the antlers of a few deer. We'll try to start digging it out somewhat tomorrow (after we celebrate a family Christmas gathering) for our final week! We took a few pictures and posted them on our Fans of Crooks Christmas Facebook page.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!
-Joe
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/15/09 - We've been doing great thus far, and we're actually $500 ahead of last year's pace at the moment!! Thank you all for your generous donations!
We put a lot of time and effort into this display for your enjoyment each and every year, so we don't think it's too much to ask for you to follow a few basic traffic requests when you come out to visit.
1. Please don't block my neighbors driveways or park in them to view the display. I've had to go out a few times and ask people to move out of the driveway across the street. I don't really enjoy doing this.
2. Please only view the lights from the West side of the street. We want to always have a clear lane on the east side for residents and emergency vehicles.
3. Please remember that this typically isn't a "Park and watch them all" kind of show. More than likely, there is a line of cars behind you, and we ask that at least 2 vehicles exit the cul-de-sac at the end of every song to keep the line moving. If the line is short, hop back in line and watch again!
We thank you for your cooperation!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/12/09 - I think tonight was the busiest night we've ever had from a traffic perspective. I've been told that the line backed up to 4th street (you can see this on the directions map). That's a LONG way! Sorry to those of you who looked at the line and turned around to go home. I wish we the capacity to handle more traffic, but as it stands we can only move so many through at a time. Thanks for the patience of those who waited. I hope it was worth it!
We had a strange fog move in for about 30 minutes tonight. It was pretty dense, but made the light show reflect into the night sky. Looked really cool!
There's a really good chance that we could cross the $10,000 threshold for the season tomorrow....enough to grant wish #2!! Thank you for your support!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/9/09 - Well the snowstorm didn't bury us completely and everything still works despite the snow and wind! Some stuff got a little covered, but that just makes a cool glowing effect through the snow! Weeknights are still the best nights to come out. The line rarely reaches the end of the block. Since most of you come on weekends, you know how busy that can be!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/7/09 - Today I had the opportunity to visit Tri-Valley school and speak to the entire K-6 in the gym. I asked how many of them had been out to see the show and almost 400 hands went up in the air! I got to talk with them about the light display, Make-A-Wish, and the fundraiser they are taking on to experience the joy of giving to others. I also had some Q&A time with them, and for being young, they sure had some good questions for me! It was a whole lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it!
They are doing the fundraiser for two weeks, and then will be presenting a big check to Make-A-Wish. Mary Olinger, President and CEO of South Dakota Make-A-Wish, has agreed to come onsite to accept the check from the students! Thank you to Tri-Valley school for teaching your students this important life lesson, and for letting me be a part of it!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/6/09 - Just some light snow flurries and mostly calm winds made it a great night to view the show! Thanks for coming out!
We're nearly up to $6,000 and a whole lot of time to go!!
I don't think there's any chance of Wizards in Winter going away, as the "Keep It" count is in double digits, and I've yet to receive a "Dump It" vote.
Tomorrow, I'm going to be speaking at Tri-Valley school, as one of the students there, MaKayla Claymore, organized a fundraising drive for Make-A-Wish! Thank you to Tri-Valley school for agreeing to move forward with her fundraising idea.
- Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/5/09 - Again a very busy night with the wait times in the 1 hour 30 minute range. Everyone started out by following my requests pretty well and kept the line moving, but as the night wore on there were a couple people who decided they must have some special privileges or something. Like the grey Chevy Pickup at about 10:26pm or the minivan sitting out there now (10:43PM). If you wait for an hour in line, I'm sure you would like to hang around for a while, but there's probably another hour's worth of cars behind you, so please keep it moving! I don't request that two or three cars move out after each song just so I can hear myself talk over the radio! If people are trying to drive around you, that's probably a good clue. Please don't be one of those people who spoils it for everyone else!
On a more positive note, have to give a shout out to Brian Roth for creating a "Fans of Crooks Christmas" page on Facebook. I don't do the Facebook thing, but as he said "It was bound to happen sooner or later". So, search it out and join if you're a "Facebooker".....
We also crossed the $5K threshold tonight for wish #1!!!!!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/4/09 - Well, last night's news coverage was certainly a shot in the arm for our Make-A-Wish drive! The change in traffic was obvious, and we had our largest donation night of 2009! I would say the wait topped out at about 45 minutes, based on my best guesstimate... (I usually figure 15 minutes per city block of cars).
Even though we had a lot of traffic tonight, people generally followed the requests I broadcast over the air. For the most part, 2 or 3 cars would move out at the end of every song to make way for the next batch of viewers. For me and my family, you have no idea how nice this is. Instead of spending my nights outside directing traffic, so long as people keep the line moving and stay orderly, I can spend my nights inside with my family. It certainly makes my life easier, so Thank You!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12/3/09 - Crooks Christmas was featured during "Eye On Keloland" tonight on KELO news at 10. You can read it and watch their coverage HERE.
By the way, if you ever lose gloves, mittens, etc.... Send me a note! People lose these from time to time and we'll pick them up if we see them.
Also, thank you to Gregg Simon for sending me a note tonight about the video on our site. He helped me troubleshoot and we learned the following. If you are experiencing "choppy" playback on the video page, hover over the video and click the "HD is ON" button to turn it off. The HD playback I have set up by default requires a lot of bandwidth. Thanks Gregg!
I've also been working with a student at Tri-Valley high school who has been organizing a fundraiser of her own. She's been working to get it approved with the school and plans to donate their proceeds to Make-A-Wish through Crooks Christmas! Awesome! More details to follow on this as things are finalized.
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
11/28/09 - Thus far things are going quite well! I did see a couple of cars park in the driveway across the street tonight to watch the lights. Please do not do this! I mean no disrespect, but a big part of keeping the neighbors happy is keeping cars from blocking or parking in their driveways. Don't take offense if I come out and ask you to move your vehicle! It's all part of making sure we can continue to have a show. Thanks.
I noticed that Crooks seems to be getting into the holiday spirit. Maybe it's just me, but it sure seems as though more people have lights up along the route this year. Another house on an adjacent block has some lights going to some music of their own. Love it!! Maybe I'll stop down there tomorrow and see if they want to hook up to our show. Who knows? :)
So today my wife and I went to Cabela's in Mitchell to do some Christmas shopping. While we were there, we were scouring the "Bargain Cave" and she found a coin sorter. I made the comment that we could put that to use counting up the change donations from the show. Didn't buy it and didn't think a thing of the conversation again until tonight. I think someone must have emptied their entire piggy bank into our donation box tonight! Sure takes a long time to count out about 15 dollars in pennies! I imagine that this was probably a little kid who decided to give their savings to our cause. Very cool!! If the trend continues, we might just need to invest in that coin sorter after all!
Wizards In Winter vote update: "Keep It" - 4 votes. "Dump It" - 0 votes. Anyone see where this is going?
By the way, I decided to have 2009 videos hosted on Vimeo. Their membership fee is reasonable, and I think the quality is pretty good. Thanks for the e-mails offering hosting space! Check out the Media page to see the video!
-Joe
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
11/26/09 - Crooks Christmas opening night was a success! Thank you to all who came out to see! Traffic was very orderly and generally followed our requests to not block driveways and to keep things moving. This makes life sooooo much easier for us, which we appreciate!
Also, I have to mention something fun I got to do the other day.... Strawbale Winery in Renner offers what they call "Twilight Flights". First they treat you to some wine tasting, and then off you go in the helicopter! They first take you over Falls Park to check out their lights and then fly you over Crooks Christmas to see a bit of our show. Then, back to the winery for dessert and dessert wines. Really cool experience that I would highly recommend! You can find more info at: http://www.strawbalewinery.com/twilightflights.html
Oh, and for Wizards in Winter: Yes EMails = 1 No EMails = 0
Finally, I have some videos ready to go, but don't have the bandwidth to post high quality HD video without blowing the usage cap. If anyone would be willing to host video, send an email to joe@crookschristmas.com Thanks!
- Joe
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