The Lights at Copeland Christmas

I was finally able to get a few shots of the lights. They didn't turn out that good, but it's a start.

Toys For Tots Delivery

Here's the first load of toys we brought to the fairgrounds for the Toys For Tots campaign.

We were soooo happy to get a mini tour of the warehouses and system that the White Doves of Martin County uses for their distribution process.

Each and every toy is cataloged in an excel spreadsheet...I love it! It's so organized!

A Bus and a Roast

The standing rib roast at Publix is half price right now. The cuts of meat are good, so I've bought a few over the past week. Here's my first practice. It turned out great, but I will adjust the recipe (at the bottom) for Christmas dinner.

John likes his prime rib rare to med-rare. This one turned out med-rare.

Here's the second load of toys that I took to the fairgrounds this weekend for the kids at Toys For Tots.


Here's the bus that showed up last Friday when the rain made our lights turn off. It really was a rare sight to see a huge bus in our little neighborhood. We scrambled to turn on all the lights, but 4 of 6 boxes would not work. The visitors still came inside to check out the inside and the garage, so I think they were happy anyway :)




Standing Rib Roast (Prime Rib)
5 lb roast (bone in, not tied)
4 packs baby portabella mushrooms
1 cup low sodium beef broth
Montreal Steak Seasoning

Directions
Allow roast to rest at room temp for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 500. Add broth and shrooms to deep baking dish. Generously season all sides of roast with seasoning. Cook roast 60 mins then turn oven off and keep door closed. Allow roast to remain in oven for 5 mins per pound (5x5=25).

NOTE:
Next time I make this roast, I am going to trust my internal thermometer. I will do 45 mins instead of 60 mins and I will take the roast out of the oven when the internal temp is 120...which may be less than the calculated 5 mins per pound.

The lights are off tonight

The rain is too bad. Sorry...no lights tonight. Come tomorrow.

Lots of International Traffic at www.CopelandChristmas.com

I received an email this morning from a woman in Sydney, Australia. She met my brother last month when he was on his way home to surprise us for Thanksgiving. He bought a boomerang from her gift shop and told her about our Christmas display. Apparently, she visited our website yesterday and has been emailing it around the other side of the world. Pretty cool.

So, then I was interested in recent international website hits...so I pulled up google analytics...

In the past 30 days, www.CopelandChristmas.com visitors ranked as follows:

1500 visits from USA
100 visits from Canada
8 visits from UK, Canada, Germany
6 visits from Australia
4 visits from New Zealand
...1 from Bahrain
...1 from Vietnam

The list goes on, but these are the highlights. Pretty cool.

Toys For Tots Stash

We have entered the final 24 hours of Toys for Tots collection. More toys were just dropped off. I get drop offs at all hours of the day...it's pretty cool. Here'a video of the Toys for Tots tree. I'm sure there are hundreds of toys but it's hard to tell from the video. More photos to come tomorrow...that's when I do my final shopping. So excited.

Crazy Toys For Tots Donations

We've had soooo many pepole come out in droves to donate toys. I'd like to thank Mark (Navy) and Robin Stevenson for bringing a dozen bags of toys over last night! Also Caiden dropped off a donation that I will use to go shopping for more toys!

Here's Robin, me, and Mark in front of the Toys For Tots tree. The toys are covering the floor below.

THE CUT OFF FOR TOY DROP OFF IS THIS THURSDAY.

Distribution begins Saturday, so if you have last minnute toys to drop off on Friday, bring them to the Martin County Fairgrounds.

Resurrecting an Idea from Years Ago

A few years ago we took photos inside the Christmas store at one of the Disney parks in Orlando. That was the first year we did a gingerbread scene at the house. Anyway, I was just looking back through the photos and discovered a ginat gingerbread man that I believe I can carve out of styrofoam for next year's display.

From Copeland Christmas Blog

I don't know where the scene would go, but the little Annalee gingerbread guys could hang from lights like they did in the 07 display shown here.

The gingerbread is hanging from a blue icicle light in this photo...it's just hard to see. Maybe I could do a giant candy themed tree and have the gingerbread village under it and the large styrofoam pieces on the wall. Or...I can make oversized candy pieces for the tree!!!...this sounds good. Large swirl candies wrapped in cellofane...large gingerbread cookies carved from styro...gum drops dusted in pastel glitter and strung over LED lights...strands of popcorn. I just have to find a source for good thick styrofoam.

Toys For Tots Drive Did Great Lastnight

Lastnight, a great Palm City family pulled up in front of the house and asked John if he could drop off toys for our toy drive.

This generous family (The Cirels sp?) brought in bags upon bags of toys for the Toys For Tots toy drive. The kids had fun arranging the toys under the tree and the parents had fun watching the kids. I think it was a pretty cool experience for everyone.

I'd like to say hello to the folks from Italy...I was told by Kimberly that her family in Milan, Abruzzi, and Florence would all know about our house by morning. Chow!

I'd also like to say hello to all our friends from Monarch and Harbor Ridge again. And hello to the family from Australia and New Zealand!

Lastly, thanks to Mr Ridgely for the pizza!

Videos from Copeland Christmas

We posted new videos!
2009 video from the local news
2008 video from the local news
2007 video from the local news
2006 video amateur recording

Here's a video from two years ago (2007) of the display

2007CopelandChristmasDisplay from danielle copeland on Vimeo.