My Most Favorite Project of the Year

Here at SusanvilleStuff our December is packed with so much stuff that we basically start sprinting around Thanksgiving and drag ourselves over the finish line in time for Christmas. It has been that way for the 20 years we have owned SusanvilleStuff and it’s become our Holiday tradition to just sort of exhaust ourselves. I end up with a whole string of big projects that all conclude about this time each year.

But then along comes the final project of each holiday season, and my absolute favorite, putting together our annual Video Light Gallery. If you haven't seen this before you have to check it out. Here is a link to last year's gallery at YouTube.

This is something Marshel and I have been doing now for sixteen years – traveling around the valley taking pictures of the neat light displays and putting together a big year end gallery.

It is amazing how technology has changed. In the beginning we used to take still pictures of the light displays, now we shoot 4K video. Usually, it takes us three or four full nights of shooting to get the 150 to 175 video clips we need.

We go stand in the dark in people’s yards in the cold and howling wind and it is usually miserable and we don’t care, because it’s a fun tradition. And the end result is worth it.

This has been a Couso family tradition long enough that we have taken both our kids, and then our grandkids, out with us on our video-gathering expeditions. Christmas carols playing way too loud… searching up and down and all around for the most Christmassy displays to film.

I mention all of this because Mrs. Couso and I will be out taking video for this year’s gallery over the next few nights, so if you have submitted your displays make sure you have them on. Of course, we stop and take video of any really neat displays we see, so if you have something cool make sure the lights are on this weekend for us to drive by and video.

Here is a tip from our video guy – if your holiday twinkly lights are on the front of the house turn your porch light off. The bright porch light makes it impossible to get video of the dimmer lights.

Also, (and this is something we have noticed over the years, and we aren’t sure if it is just a ‘Susanville thing’) for some reason this time of year people like to leave their garage door open and the light on in the evening. This makes it hard to get nice video of your house and holiday light displays.

It’s a Winter Wonderland at the Fairgrounds

I just love the annual Festival of Lights at the Fairgrounds and this year there are some added attractions to behold as part of the twinkly high-wattage fun.

New, bigger displays line the drive through portion of the fairgrounds, refreshments are now being sold at the fairgrounds’ entrance and in the floral building there is the most amazing display of Christmas, put together by the nice folks at Lassen County Grown.  

For those of you unfamiliar with the group, their mission is to promote the production and marketing of Lassen Grown Products, encouraging growth in, ‘entrepreneurial opportunities to better serve the community of Lassen County with helping drive out of area visitors to our lovely Lassen County through Agri-Tourism.’

The building-sized tribute to the Christmas spirit features nearly every iteration of the holiday, from Christ’s birth in a lovely nativity, scenes from that famous Dickens novel, a ride on the Polar Express, electric trains, snowmen and more.

A lot of time and work went into this display, and it is worth taking some time to stop by the fairgrounds to see the Holiday Festival of Lights and the Lassen Grown Christmas display. Click here to head over to the Fair’s website for a complete Festival of Lights schedule.

Here is what it looks like in the Christmas building:

A Pretty Little Church Full of Beautiful Music

In the early years of the Susanville Symphony I can vividly remember going to the Christmas concerts at the Methodist Church, and it was simply perfect. The much-vaunted acoustics, the unique architecture, and its cozy little uptown location lent itself well to the annual Christmas performance. Plus, it is a block from our house.

I was disappointed when they moved the concerts out the Assembly of God Church, and I totally understood the move gave them much needed room, but still, the old church at Christmas was the best.

And now, this year, the Christmas concerts return to the Methodist Church! Just like the old days. Tickets are a little harder to get because there are fewer to go around but grab yourself one early this morning if you want to go because they normally sell out.

Artistic Conductor and baton waver Ben Wade promises a spectacular show full of all of the wonderful things we have grown to expect from the annual Christmas show. That sounds good to me! Wade is just as excited as everybody else about the return to the Methodist Church, saying it feels like coming home for Christmas.

Hey, go put up some Christmas lights so when we come around to your house tonight, we can take video.

Have a great weekend everybody! When we meet again Christmas will be near!

LARP representatives and Susanville City Council members -photo submitted

LARP Group Donates $50,000 to City from Community Block Grant Funds

Representatives from the Local Area Revitalization Project gave a giant check and $50,000 to the City of Susanville at last week’s City Council meeting.

The group delivered the $50,000 from a LSPCAA Community Block Grant, that will go towards the environmental assessment of creating a local composting facility in Susanville, as well as providing additional funds to help cover costs to install a walk-in cooler/freezer system for Crossroads Ministries, aiding our community to be able to hold fresh and frozen products during food donation days.

On social media LARP posted, “We are so excited to invest back into our community, strengthen our local food system, and cannot wait to see what we can all build together in the future!”

It’s time for our 16th annual SusanvilleStuff Holiday Light Gallery Video! Each year we spend the month of December taking video of the valley’s most beautiful light displays for our big gallery.

If you are proud of your light display, or see a light display we should include in our gallery, let us know.

We have neat prizes from Lassen Municipal Utility District for winners in three categories: Best Theme Display, Spirit of the Season and Most Spectacular.

Our panel of judges will visit each entry and our top winners will each receive a $100 Energy Gift Card from Lassen Municipal Utility District.

Click here to head over to SusanvilleStuff to send us your address. We’ll be around to shoot video for our gallery sometime before December 22nd.

Program restrictions may apply so before you purchase your lights log on to www.lmud.org and click on the rebate link. Or call LMUD at 530-257-4174.

To learn more about how LED’s can reduce your holiday energy use visit energystar.gov.

Congratulations to our Christmas Symphony Ticket Winners

Congratulations to Matt Hennessey, Destiny Tavares and Brandon Vinson! Each wins a pair of tickets to this weekend’s Symphony performances!

Christmas Concert performances are slated for tonight, December 16th and tomorrow, the 17th. Tonight’s performance is at 7:00 and Saturday’s is at 2:30.

Artistic Director and Symphony Conductor Ben Wade says that this is his favorite concert of the year, in great part because of all of the families, home for the holidays, who come see the concerts together.

“It’s always great to see former youth musicians who played for the Academy of Music and the Symphony,” Wade adds.

This is the 19th annual performance of what has become a Susanville holiday tradition, featuring some of our hometown’s best musicians playing your seasonal favorites – Sleigh Ride, movements of the Nutcracker, White Christmas – enough musical cheer to warm the grinchiest of hearts.

Conductor and Artistic Director Ben Wade encourages families to attend the festive concert, promising a performance filled with a little something for people of all ages.

“You might know some of the music we play at our other concerts, but you will know, and hum, or sing along, to all of the holiday favorites.”

“Who doesn’t wait for the horse whinny at the end of Sleigh Ride? Who doesn’t want to sing shoulder to shoulder with your friends or family at the end of the concert carol sing-a -long.”

Performances will be held at the Susanville Methodist Church on South Lassen Street and tickets are $30 each. You can buy them at Margie’s Book Nook or Axia Home Loans. For more information call the Symphony Hotline at 530.310.8111.

Wade says, “Don’t be a scrooge, splurge on yourself and your loved ones this holiday season!”

Jack Ellena’s 1955 Los Angeles Rams football card

Susanville’s Jack Ellena Chosen Lineman of the Year

December 16, 1954

Gigantic Jack Ellena, whose bone-cracking tackling helped make UCLA the team of the year and Red Sanders coach of the year, picked up an accolade for himself today – Lineman of the year in the Annual United Press poll.

Ellena, a 223 pound tackle who is deft despite his heft, received 69 votes in the balloting by 336 sports writers and broadcasters, just beating out Kurt Burris, the Oklahoma center, who had 66 votes.

For Ellena, who was cited by Sanders as “the best tackle I ever coached,” it was only because of diligence that he was on the UCLA team at all.

He cracked up scholastically in his freshman year and would have been ineligible for athletics, but he went to Lassen Junior College and made up his credits, reentering UCLA after a term there.

This time he tackled his books as proficiently as he did his opponents. He climaxed his three year career on the gridiron with standout play in every one of UCLA’s nine triumphs in 1954, as the Bruins rated No 1 spot in the United Press ratings and Sanders won the 20th annual Scripps-Howard newspaper poll as coach of the year.

Ellena, who wants to play professional football before trying to break into the ranks as a college football coach, may wind up with the Los Angeles Rams if they can maneuver him in the draft next month.

He was the Pacific Coast Conference intercollegiate heavy weight wrestling champion for the past two years and is in good bet to win the title again in 1955.