Virtual Advent Tour 2012 - A little late

I am really sorry for being late, but due to some very late nights reading the last few weeks, I seem to have forgotten things or have nearly forgotten about things.  My brain has become mush and I should have put a reminder in my calendar to remind me.

In any case I wanted to talk about something that is slowly becoming a part of my Christmas.  About a year ago, I was looking for something to do, specifically something that I could volunteer at and it was suggested that I could help out with Help-Portrait, which was being organized locally and had been held in my town the year before.  Thinking it was a good thing to do, I volunteered and I really enjoyed it.

Again this year I helped out with the registration of individuals who were getting their portraits taken.  To explain what Help-Portrait is, it is a community of photographers that come together across the world to use their photography skills to give back to those in need.

We see a lot of individuals and families that come recommended from a variety of organizations that provide services to those in the community and the two years that I have done it, I have come away with a warm feeling in my heart that we have made somebody's year/life just that a little more brighter.

There are lots of ways that people chose to spend the Christmas/Holiday season to make the lives of those who are less fortunate than us, whether it be filling a shoebox for a kid in a part of the world that doesn't have a lot (Samartian's Purse) or we collect change (Salvation Army Kettles) or we help out an individual family (Christmas Bureau).

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas/Holiday season and remember to hug those who you love, even if you don't feel like it.

Advent Tour - Looking forward

I am slowly getting ready for Christmas.  While my garland is up and decorated and I have my gifts purchased and looking forward to wrapping them and I have the cards addressed and ready to set out for family and friends to receive them in the coming days and weeks, I am not fully ready.  I still have the lights on my balcony to put out, which I am looking forward to getting on in the coming days and today I will start my chocolate advent calendar.  I am also looking to seeing my sister in person for the first time since she left for school in early September.  I am also looking forward to spending more time with my parents and other family members and hopefully some of my friends as well.   But I think the thing that I am looking forward to the most is just kicking back and relaxing and enjoying the season.  I just want to be able to have more than a couple of days to sleep in and get caught up with things.

I am also looking forward to watching some of the Christmas movies that I have on hand and also a number of the books that I have signed out of the library.  I am also looking forward to making some Christmas goodies that I can share with others.

2010 Virtual Advent Tour

My blog post is going to about a Christmas tradition that most years my family does.

I don't know when it started, but it was when I was a kid that my dad recorded an airing of the black&white version of the Alistair Sim version of A Christmas Carol.  It got to the point that the VHS tape that my dad had got a little warped and so he would try to tape it on Christmas Eve so that we could watch the movie on Christmas Day.  I don't know why it had to be the B&W version, but I guess one of the scenes was a little more creepier than in the colourized version and so it was the B&W version that we have watched.  My dad likes the scene with the third ghost so much that when he got a dark green housecoat one year, he mimicked the third ghost

One Christmas, about 5 or 6 years ago, I was in a local video/music store just looking around one afternoon and found a redone version of A Christmas Carol in B&W on DVD.  I let my dad record the B&W version that was playing on TV at around midnight on Christmas Day and he really enjoyed the surprise that was under the tree the next morning.   And almost every year since we have had the DVD, we have watched it.

Thank you for reading and I hope you and your families have a wonderful holiday season.