Alright, it's been a while, but part of that is my lack of knowledge about technology. I've been trying to upload the 3 videos from below for the past couple days. I got them on my computer, after loading discs and videos, then had a heck of a time getting them onto the internet. The videos took about an hour each to upload, something I was not expecting. I ended up going through YouTube, thinking it would be faster (it wasn't), and embedding them into my blog. The Youtube site is protected, so if for some reason you want to see them on there rather than here then let me know and I can get you access.
The kids' Christmas Concert at school was this past Wednesday night. It actually clashed with the Concert for my school, but I got permission to attend my own kids' performance. Last year I put my school first seeing as it was my first year there--If they continue to present on the same night I guess I will have to alternate.
We got each of their performances on tape and thought we would share them with everyone who is interested. So if you are a regular and know someone who would like to see these, but doesn't usually visit the blog, then pass along the URL.
http://risk-shipsatsea.blogspot.com
Here is Knox. If you listen closely you can hear him distinctly about half way through, over top of everyone else. And we were not close to him either, as it would appear from the shot. He was on the far side of the stage from us. All his looking around at the beginning is him trying to locate us in the audience.
Here is Declan. Isn't she cute in her Santa hat? She starts off just looking around but then gets into the song a bit more as she goes. She walked right by us on her way up to the stage.
And just so she isn't left out, and so you can see Oakley, here is one of her waiting for the show to start. She loves that blanket--never took a soother, but won't sleep without her blanket in her mouth. And it generally calms her when she is upset.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tis the Season
Over the last week or so our family has been getting into the Christmas spirit. The tree and outside lights went up Grey Cup Sunday (as is my wife's tradition--and yes, that was more than a week ago). More recently, we have been getting some presents wrapped and put under the tree to make it look more Christmasy. I have downloaded our favorite Christmas songs, and some that we really don't like, but like making fun of. I also spent an evening with the kids folding, cutting out, colouring, and hanging snowflakes from a ceiling. We even got a wreath for the front door and after some debate on the best method for hanging it, got it put up.
And our most recent foray into the season was the purchase of some Santy Claus hats for the family.
Declan immediately saw and fell in love with the one she got, which really is rather cute.
It took a bit of looking around for Knox, who wanted something cool, but was disappointed when all the cool, boy hats were adult size. He finally found one that is made from some neat fuzzy material and he loves it.
Again, I found one pretty quick for myself, the goofier the better, and just had to have it. I am looking forward to Monday when I will wear it to school.
Jen wasn't there, and to tell you the truth I really didn't think I would ever get her to wear one; so to increase the odds I bought her the plainest, most authentic hat I could find. And she is wearing it at dance all this week.
Oakley was the hardest to buy one for because her head is so small. They didn't have any at the dollar stores, where the others all came from, and we looked and looked. We even checked out the baby department in WalMart thinking they might have some, but the only one they had was part of a 3 piece suit and the biggest size was 12 months. It turned out that WalMart's seasonal department had some Santy Claus hats and we were able to find one that fits her beautifully.
The kids wear their hats any time we go out anywhere, all three of them, and they get some pretty good looks from people, especially Oakley. We have not all worn the hats out as a family yet, but I hope to be able to talk Jen into it when Christmas week arrives.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
My father-in-law posted on his blog Monday his favorite Christmas piece:
Scott posted Bach's Magnificat on his blog today and it got me thinking of my own favourite Christmas peice, Handel's Messiah. Here is my second favourite movement from it -- probably most of your churches included this verse in yesterday's service, the first Sunday of Advent.
I thought I would join in the fun and put up my favorite: O Come O Come Emmanuel. According to one website:
O Come, O Come Emmanuel was originally written in Latin text in the 12th Century. The author of the words and the composer to the music to O Come, O Come Emmanuel remains unknown. It is, however, believed the melody is of French origin and added to the text a century later. The Latin lyrics were translated into English by John Mason Neale in 1851.
I have always loved this Christmas song. It is a song about hope and trust in God. It is song that is not afraid to mention the purpose of Jesus coming to Earth in the first place: To save us "from Satan's tyranny" and rescue us from hell. And if you are a Christian you can have the hope that is in Jesus' promise to return for us one day and take us to live in Heaven with Him.
I would recommend the following YouTube video to you; even if you don't like the song, the graphics that accompany it are worth the 4 and a half minutes of your time. This version does not use all the verses of the song, but again, I like the video that goes with it.
Here are the complete lyrics if you want them.
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times did'st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Scott posted Bach's Magnificat on his blog today and it got me thinking of my own favourite Christmas peice, Handel's Messiah. Here is my second favourite movement from it -- probably most of your churches included this verse in yesterday's service, the first Sunday of Advent.
I thought I would join in the fun and put up my favorite: O Come O Come Emmanuel. According to one website:
O Come, O Come Emmanuel was originally written in Latin text in the 12th Century. The author of the words and the composer to the music to O Come, O Come Emmanuel remains unknown. It is, however, believed the melody is of French origin and added to the text a century later. The Latin lyrics were translated into English by John Mason Neale in 1851.
I have always loved this Christmas song. It is a song about hope and trust in God. It is song that is not afraid to mention the purpose of Jesus coming to Earth in the first place: To save us "from Satan's tyranny" and rescue us from hell. And if you are a Christian you can have the hope that is in Jesus' promise to return for us one day and take us to live in Heaven with Him.
I would recommend the following YouTube video to you; even if you don't like the song, the graphics that accompany it are worth the 4 and a half minutes of your time. This version does not use all the verses of the song, but again, I like the video that goes with it.
Here are the complete lyrics if you want them.
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times did'st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Gift Cards: Bah, Humbug!
Gift Cards! They are all the rage in today's society of debit and credit cards; another way to avoid using, or, during the Christmas season, giving cash or cheques. And they make a lot of sense when you stop and think about it. Gift Certificates were a great alternative to buying a present for that hard-to-shop-for person, or family and friends who lived further away. They were a thoughtful gift that allowed someone to get something they actually wanted while cutting down on postage costs to the giver. They also allowed you to say that you were thinking of someone (by choosing a particular store) even if you weren't quite certain what they would like or what they would need--much more so than giving cash; at least you were choosing the store. And the stores must have loved the extra customers they gained simply by reminding consumers of all these points and being a store that offered gift certificates.
As gift certificates became the norm someone decided that Gift Cards had some very unique advantages over the paper Certificates. First, Cards could be reloaded which would hopefully keep a customer coming back (though quite frankly I don't think I have ever reloaded a gift card from any store). Also, because they could be reloaded it allowed the company to tout the environmentally friendly angle--reuse it rather than toss it out. As I was thinking about this I began to wonder if the plastic cards were somehow cheaper than the paper certificates. I wouldn't have thought so, but it could also help explain the switch. As it turns out I was right the first time. According to a CBC.ca article the plastic is quite a bit more expensive. (Check out the article here for some other very good information about gift cards.) However, the cost of the cards is often easily made up for with the biggest advantage a company has when using the plastic over the paper: forfeited money. You see, when you used a paper gift certificate and spent less than the amount of the certificate in the store, they had little choice but to give you cash back as change (unless they had smaller denominations of certificates). But with the gift card, if you spend less than the card amount you are simply left with a small amount still on the card. And if you are anything at all like me then you have allowed many companies to keep quite a bit of your money over the years as you forget about the last .75 on the card, or even maybe $1 or $2 from a $50+ card. This is money the company sold to the giver, but the receiver never spent and is free money for them. That right there is a pretty good reason to switch to plastic.
I know, I know, what does all this have to do with you? For the first time, that I have seen anyway, companies are charging you a surcharge to purchase a gift card. That's right, you pay for the amount you want PLUS you pay an extra "whatever they want to charge you." I first saw this at BestBuy here in Grande Prairie. They had a price tag on their cards charging an extra penny--but only on the fancier, sparkly cards which had no packaging, which is a bit ironic because the cheap looking cards were free even though they were packaged in the large plastic CD cases. Since then I have seen, and been charged, a dollar on another gift card, and noticed that VISA is charging something like $5 on a $50 card (the charge goes up with the preset amounts.)
Does anyone else think this is a joke, or just me? Why not just give cash and tell the receiver where you intended them to spend it? Or is it worth the extra charge to show that you tried to shop for the person, but decided to give them some choice? Personally, I would buy the cheaper looking card and save the penny. When this isn't an option I suppose for now I will likely pay the extra . . . For now--my patience won't last long though, and this blog may be only the first step in my rebuke about being ripped off by companies.
As gift certificates became the norm someone decided that Gift Cards had some very unique advantages over the paper Certificates. First, Cards could be reloaded which would hopefully keep a customer coming back (though quite frankly I don't think I have ever reloaded a gift card from any store). Also, because they could be reloaded it allowed the company to tout the environmentally friendly angle--reuse it rather than toss it out. As I was thinking about this I began to wonder if the plastic cards were somehow cheaper than the paper certificates. I wouldn't have thought so, but it could also help explain the switch. As it turns out I was right the first time. According to a CBC.ca article the plastic is quite a bit more expensive. (Check out the article here for some other very good information about gift cards.) However, the cost of the cards is often easily made up for with the biggest advantage a company has when using the plastic over the paper: forfeited money. You see, when you used a paper gift certificate and spent less than the amount of the certificate in the store, they had little choice but to give you cash back as change (unless they had smaller denominations of certificates). But with the gift card, if you spend less than the card amount you are simply left with a small amount still on the card. And if you are anything at all like me then you have allowed many companies to keep quite a bit of your money over the years as you forget about the last .75 on the card, or even maybe $1 or $2 from a $50+ card. This is money the company sold to the giver, but the receiver never spent and is free money for them. That right there is a pretty good reason to switch to plastic.
I know, I know, what does all this have to do with you? For the first time, that I have seen anyway, companies are charging you a surcharge to purchase a gift card. That's right, you pay for the amount you want PLUS you pay an extra "whatever they want to charge you." I first saw this at BestBuy here in Grande Prairie. They had a price tag on their cards charging an extra penny--but only on the fancier, sparkly cards which had no packaging, which is a bit ironic because the cheap looking cards were free even though they were packaged in the large plastic CD cases. Since then I have seen, and been charged, a dollar on another gift card, and noticed that VISA is charging something like $5 on a $50 card (the charge goes up with the preset amounts.)
Does anyone else think this is a joke, or just me? Why not just give cash and tell the receiver where you intended them to spend it? Or is it worth the extra charge to show that you tried to shop for the person, but decided to give them some choice? Personally, I would buy the cheaper looking card and save the penny. When this isn't an option I suppose for now I will likely pay the extra . . . For now--my patience won't last long though, and this blog may be only the first step in my rebuke about being ripped off by companies.
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