Rockin’ the Christmas lights
Tune the car radio to 91.7 FM and drive slowly along Collins Drive on the hills above the Sugar Creek Golf Course to see the white Christmas lights gleam, twinkle and blink to the rhythm of “Jingle Bell Rock.”
The light and music production is the culmination of a dream for Bobby and Jody Morrison who bought the house at 1965 Collins Dr. after their offer on the home made Christmas Eve 2019 was accepted. After looking at 77 homes northwest Arkansas, the Morrisons knew the house was going to be their “forever home.” They moved in January 2020.
“Soon after we moved in, we had neighbors come introduce themselves and bring us a welcome bag full of goodies,” he said. “This entire neighborhood is full of wonderful people.”
The Morrisons “went together” when they were 14 years old in middle school in Denison, Texas, but life took them different directions and it was many years later before they reconnected.
Now, married for 10 years, he says they have a lot of history and were childhood sweethearts.
“She’s my soul mate.,” he said. “We feel very blessed and fortunate to have found this house. The neighbors are great.”
The couple own a car lot in Joplin, Mo., and he said he has worked in architecture and engineering. He joined the military immediately after high school, served four years overseas and returned stateside in 1999.
“My wife and I love celebrating every occasion and we love having friends and family over every chance we can,” he said.
“We love celebrating the Fourth of July (I’m a veteran and get to blow stuff up) and with our dream home we finally get to decorate for Christmas,” he said, explaining that they hired a company — HoHoHo Lights to custom cut and install the lights on the house rooftop and windows. He and Jody did the landscaping, driveway and sidewalk.
“The lights are for us as another way of celebrating Christmas but we also wanted to make it where others could enjoy them as well. That’s when we decided to do the lights to music. For that we had to get an FM transmitter so we could broadcast our own music play list (91.7 FM). This transmitter broadcasts out about 300 yards. Then we had to get a music box controller that all the lights are plugged into and each plug triggers the lights to go on/off to the beat of the music and different instruments being used,” he said. “This was our first time ever doing this and it turned out great! We also have a Santa Clause projection in a side window of our home for the kids who are really paying attention. This looks like a real Santa walking around and waving and it’s pretty awesome.”
Morrison said that when he was young, there wasn’t a lot of money and he committed himself to save, to work hard and to achieve his dream.
“We’ve worked out tails off,” he said. “Now that we’ve got this, we want to go all out and celebrate.”
The couple shares their home with Mrs. Morrison’s mother and their two grown daughters.