My Favorite Christmas Music in Videos Day 7

This duet by Bing Crosby and David Bowie is perhaps one of the most beloved Christmas pieces of all time. I remember the first time I saw the two of them do The Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth) on television and I make it a habit to see it every Christmas.  I hope you enjoy it as well.  Merry Christmas!

Thanks for listening!  Have a great rest of the day!

My Favorite Christmas Music in Videos Day 6

Perhaps my all time favorite Christmas song is Silent Night.  This is the first version of that beautiful song that I will post and is the 1980 version sung by the R and B legends The Temptations.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Have a very Merry Christmas!  Thank you for listening and have a great rest of the day.

My Favorite Christmas Music in Videos Day 5

Even though "We Three Kings" is not exactly biblical per se, I still love the song.  After all, the three wise men from the east came not at the birth of Christ, but later after He had been born.

I hope you enjoy this rendition of "We Three Kings" as performed by the incomparable and legendary Ella Fitzgerald.

Have a Merry Christmas and a great rest of the day!

My Favorite Christmas Music in Videos -- Day 4

Not all of my favorite Christmas music is traditional.  I discovered Trans-Siberian Orchestra by accident one day when I saw a video very similar to this on YouTube.  I had to know what the tune was and who performed it.  Turns out it wasWizards In Winter by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  Bought their mp3s and had more Christmas music to listen to.

Hope you enjoy.  Have a Merry Christmas and a great rest of the day!

The True Meaning of Christmas

Every year I try very hard to post a video a day in December of something Christmas related.  Usually that is a video of one of my favorite Christmas songs and starting tomorrow that won't change.  But I wanted to start off my Christmas blogging tradition by showing you a clip from perhaps one of the greatest Christmas specials of all time: A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I watched this as a child and we continue to watch it every year, now with our children.  It never grows old and the truth in it remains the same.  So I hope you enjoy.  Linus explaining the true meaning of Christmas.

Have a Merry Christmas!  Thanks for reading and have  great rest of the day.

How Geno at Home Depot Saved Our Christmas This Year

On Black Friday this year, I waited up for most of the night to go to Home Depot for one specific item my wife really wanted: a Martha Stewart brand Christmas Tree.

We actually needed a tree this year to replace the one from last year.  That tree had served my wife's family, and our family for well over 15 years and to be honest I hated to see it go, but it had been dying for a number of years and last year it finally succumbed to its old age and could no longer be repaired.

So when Home Depot placed a seven and a half foot tall, pre-lit Douglass Fir style Christmas tree on sale for Black Friday for 59 dollars, I was told that this was the tree we needed to replace our last tree.  So I waited up through the night and at 4:45 AM, I drove to the Home Deport we frequently shop at and got in the line that had formed.  The store had 29 trees to sell and when the doors opened at 5:00 AM, I and a few others rushed over to the trees and started snatching them up like they were made of gold.  It was early, I was tired, but my wife would have her tree!

What the Martha Stewart Tree I purchased Black Friday looked like.

Later on in the weekend, we opened the box and assembled the tree, plugging in the lights and moving it to where it needed to go in our living room.  Everything was great, all were happy and Christmas was a joyous time!

Then the lights went out on the tree.

Not all the lights, but just the white lights.  You see, the tree had two settings for it: White Lights and Multicolored Lights.  We could turn on the multicolored lights, but when we tried the white lights, the multicolored lights would simply dim to almost dark and then nothing else would happen.  When you hit the switch again, all the lights would turn off.  Needless to say my wife wasn't happy.  Neither was I.  My wife started taking the ornaments off the tree and I called the Home Depot where I bought the tree.

The first Home Depot associate I spoke with sounded all of 20 something years old, and offered me the standard "bring it in for a refund" line after he put me on hold for a few seconds to see if they had any of the same trees in stock, which they didn't.  I'll be honest here, I wasn't really satisfied with that answer.  I shop at Home Depot a lot; almost everything I buy that is home repair related, lawn related, and gardening/landscaping related is purchased at Home Depot and I trust the brands they carry, and I trust the company itself.  So I did what I think everyone in my situation would have done and told him I would like to speak to the manager on duty please.

That brought me to Geno, who was the manager on duty that night.  Geno listened to my situation and said he'd be happy to replace the tree with a comparable one that was 150 dollars or under for the same price I had bought mine at.  I said that sounded like a winner and my wife and I went up to the store to look at what was available.

What was there was not much.  None of the trees available had the dual lighting feature, and most of the trees available were outside the 150 dollar price range Geno had mentioned.  My wife pointed this out and was upset.  Not really upset at Home Depot or Geno, but upset at the thought of having to find another tree that she liked and would be happy with.  I think Geno saw this and made another offer to us.  "I'm feeling really generous at the moment" were his exact words to my wife, and offered her whatever tree she liked right then for the same price we paid for the original defective tree!

I was floored and my wife was too.  She looked around and pointed to the Martha Stewart T-2 style tree and said that one.  A little while later after returning the defective tree and paying 59.00 dollars for the newer tree, I had loaded it in the van and driven home.  Everyone was happy, and Home Depot and Geno had saved our Christmas.

Our new Martha Stewart Christmas tree from Home Depot

So to everyone out there, a public thank you to Home Depot and Geno Specifically for their help and out of this world customer service!  I am my family greatly appreciate it very much.

Merry Christmas all!

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the day!