Katie, Juliette and Dave's Christmas House 2005

Katie, Juliette and Dave's Christmas House - 2005

Welcome:
Welcome to Katie, Juliette and Dave's Christmas House for 2005. Here you will find a description, some happy snaps and a few small video clips of this year's Christmas Lights. This is the third year that Katie and Dave have decorated their house together and we hope you enjoy your visit.

If you haven't been here before you might like to see our previous web pages so that you can see the progression of Katie's and Dave's Christmas House.

Katie and Dave's 2004 Christmas House - Bigger than Ben Hur.
Katie and Dave's 2003 Christmas House - Our first effort.

Summary of 2004:
2004 was a big Christmas for Katie and Dave. Katie was 6 months pregnant and Dave had gone crazy in the garage setting up the Winter Wonderland. We were wrapped with the response from the public who visited our display and we had a heap of fun with Santa and Mrs Claus visiting most nights. Although we didn't vote for ourselves in the SMS Voting Competition, we were very appreciative of the large number of votes that we received from other people...

2005:
Preparations for 2005 started even before the 2004 lights came down. Dave purchased a DMX512 - USB interface and computer control software from Entec and 3 additional 4 Channel Light Chasers to allow computer controlled switching of 12 additional power points. The Christmas Lights plans for 2005 slowed down considerably in March with the arrival of our baby daughter, Juliette, but we have still made some additions and enhancements to last year's display.

There are 6 new Rope Christmas Trees (4 green and 2 red) in the front yard that are all 2m tall. They are connected to the light chaser so that they flash on and off at different intervals.

The Rope Christmas Tree has had some more enhancements and modifications this year.

In 2003 it had 3 x red, 2 x green rope lights and an unlit guy wire all of which were separated at angles of 60 degrees.
In 2004 it has 5 x red and 5 x green rope lights separated at approximately 30 degree increments. The additional rope lights fill in the appearance of the tree nicely. The tree ended up a little bit shorter in 2004 as all of the additional weight caused the pole to bend during its erection, requiring rectification with a hacksaw...
In 2005 after significant re-engineering and the purchase of a new pole the Rope Christmas Tree is back to its full height, much to Dave's pleasure. Our neighbours Wally and Bobby were fairly receptive to the idea that Dave cuts down a few trees in their front yard that partially obscure the Rope Christmas Tree, but Dave hasn't gone that far yet...


2003 Rope Christmas Tree	2004 Rope Christmas Tree	2005 Rope Christmas Tree

Even Yo Yo got into the act this year wearing her designer outfit. We all laughed when she first put it on as it reminded us of the outfits Kim wears, from the Australian TV comedy series "Kath and Kim" as a significant amount of her tummy was still poking out of it...
Letter from Santa:
Katie, Juliette and Dave were lucky enough to receive a special letter from Santa Claus in November. You can read the letter here:

Santa's Letter - 40KB Adobe Acrobat

Application for Santa to Visit:
Has your child or loved one been "naughty" or "nice" this year. They can fill in this form requesting a visit from Santa:

Santa's Visit Application Form - 45KB Adobe Acrobat

Video Clips:
We have a couple of small video clips in WMV format that show different elements of this year's Christmas Lights.

Area:	Clip:	Size:
Winter Wonderland - Frosty Singing	xmas2004-frostysings.wmv	800Kb
Carson William's - Wizards of Winter - VERY COOL!!!	lights.wmv	4,400Kb
Carson William's - Jingle Bells - VERY COOL!!!	jingle.wmv	4,500Kb

SMS Voting Competition:

The Courier Christmas Lights Competition are running an SMS voting competition for the most popular entry.

The top 5 entries, that receive the most SMS votes, will win $250 cash, courtesy of Carworks.
Voters, who register an SMS vote, are automatically placed in the draw to possibly win a $500 voucher courtesy of Tanya Daniels, The Good Guys.
To vote for Katie and Dave's Christmas House, send an SMS to 1999 8877 (Australia only) and in the text message, enter 76 and your full name.
The maximum cost for each SMS is $0.55 inc GST and entries close at 1PM AEST Wednesday, 21 December, 2004. All winners will be notified by telephone and names will appear in The Courier on Saturday, 24 December, 2004.

Thanks in advance to everyone who votes for Katie and Dave's Christmas House.

Next Year:
Plans are already underway for next year. The main emphasis will be on:

Migrate the DMX-512 controller into a full computer based control system.
Synchronise the lighting with sound...
More power points, and add 3 phase power...
Bigger power bill...
Bigger train track...
Light up the apex of the house...

We hope you've enjoyed looking at our Christmas House and have a Merry Christmas...
Katie, Juliette, Dave and Yo Yo

E-mail: dave@daves-portal.com
Last Updated: 9th December, 2005.