So...What Did You Get?

[Garritan]

Did you get what you wanted for the holidays?

Were you good all year and get nice presents? :) Or naughty and received a lump of coal? :(

Let us know if Santa was good to you.

[bigears]

Gary, I must have been very very bad this year.......:(

Actually, no new toys this Christmas.....but my wife had vacation days and I am off while rehabilitating my old body, so we spent the days leading up to Christmas together baking and getting things ready for the Holidays.
Just some quiet days where no one had to be anywhere or run here or there, and I think that is about as great a present as anyone could wish for.
John

Maybe for my birthday I'll get a shiny new toy!

[Jaybee]

Nothing yet! :) Santa's waiting for the upcoming Garritan sale. :wow:

[Cransworth]

A dinosaur.

[Hippie]

I got hosed............................again. :rolleyes:

[DPDAN]

Hi Gary and everyone,

I hope your Christmas was great!
Christmas here gets more depressing each year, I hate to say that,
but it's true.

My two sisters and their husbands stayed home in their respective states, Tucson Arizona, and Fort Worth Texas. Sometimes they come to my parents home (five minutes from me) and Christmas is more like Christmas.

I know Christmas is all about giving, but I did receive a few nice gifts.

I saw a friend at a concert that I have not seen in a long time, the last I had heard was that he was very near death. He needed a liver transplant, and got a call at 3am that he needed to rush to the hospital right away to receive the liver transplant. He did,... and man he looks fantastic! Good skin color, healthy, and so on. That was about two years ago. After the concert, he was so glad to see me too.

He is a fantastic pianist, jazz, pop you name it, he plays it. He told me that he had some cassette tapes that he was wanting to put on CD, and also make MP3's so he could email songs to various people. He does not have the equipment to do this and of course I do. I told him "you bet I can do that for you". He responded with...."not for free you won't"

So, to make a long story even longer :) I got the tapes from him and started recording them into Digital Performer so I could master them, and finally create many CD's of the tapes complete with track ID's separating the songs. I told him that I would have them for him by Christmas. He said... "REALLY?" I called him on December 23rd and told him that it was taking much longer than anticipated, and that I would have them for him sometime before new years eve. I called his home and spoke to his wife without him knowing, then I drove about two hours round trip to deliver the CD's to her, so she could wrap them and place them under their Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

To wrap up this story, (no pun :)) he did get them, and was totally surprised and excited. If I know Eddie, he ran to the closest CD player.

Here is one of the tunes with Eddie and his big band, I recorded this to a stereo cassette deck live from the Soundcraft stereo outputs,,, the same mix that went to my sound system.

http://www.dankury.com/music/Eddiegp3-5.mp3

Eddie called on Christmas morning and graciously thanked me over and over. That made me feel so good.
It is indeed more blessed to give, than to receive.

Now, the best gift I got, was having Pastor Miller to our home for Christmas day. His daughter asked my parents if they would not mind having him for a part of the day. Since she is in Florida, she hated the thought of him being alone since he lost his wife about four years ago. He is now 89, and drove to my Mom and Dad's for Christmas lunch. This is the man who filled the pulpit at my church during my youthful years. After not seeing him for a long time, it was so great to hear him pray for lunch,... I sat there and listened to him humbly thank God for Danny and his gifts, and for using them all those years at church. He reassured us all that God loves us despite our weaknesses. Since he is my Pastor, he is intimately aware of some of mine, and was instrumental in helping me get through those times.

It was just so humbling to hear that man's deep voice right next to me, instead of through an AKG C-451 pulpit mic, and an Altec Lansing speaker system, of course the ones I installed :) he he he.

Sorry for the long post here, but even though this is a depressing time for me since Christmas is technically over, next year will open new doors with new opportunities and new jobs. God has been faithful to me through some great friends (Gary, you're one of them) and He will continue to bless me more than I could ever ask or think.

Happy New Year everyone!

Dan

[Rhap2]

Really great Christmas stories Dan. They are what
Christmas is all about.

My family had a great Christmas and everyone was
"nice" so they got what was on their Christmas lists.

I wanted a bunch of classical DVDs (I like to watch the
artists perform as well as hear them play) and have been
listening for the last 3 days. What motivation they provide.

Also, a surprise gift for me was a new GPS-Personal Travel
Assistant. Man, are they great or what? The "lady" tells
you where to go at every turn to make sure you reach your
destination and even warns you about 300' before you are
supposed make turns onto specific-named streets, avenues,
etc. It's a real kick to hear her say, "You have reached ......."
and then the little racetrack flag appears to signal that it
is all over.............lol...........What fun.

Of course, the real fun is hearing from relatives and friends and
dining with the family. It's important to embrace the meaning
of "family" in one's life. So many folks just take it for granted that
the meaning seems absent, but when the chips are down, then the
meaning becomes more clear. Family is the most important asset
any human has. It can bring more joy than anything purchased with
money. A good point to remember and a relationship to pursue.

I like Christmas because I observe it the way my family and their
families have for generations. Tradition really gives substance to
a holiday of any kind, but on Christmas it seems special.

Happy New Year to all. I wish you many happy hours with your
music and creative endeavors......

Jack

[Hippie]

Also, a surprise gift for me was a new GPS-Personal Travel
Assistant. Man, are they great or what? The "lady" tells
you where to go at every turn to make sure you reach your
destination and even warns you about 300' before you are
supposed make turns onto specific-named streets, avenues,
etc. It's a real kick to hear her say, "You have reached ......."
and then the little racetrack flag appears to signal that it
is all over.............lol...........What fun.




I'll bet you $100 that voice sounds exactly like one of my ex's.


They were doing that to me before GPS was even heard of. :p





:D


PS....with my ex's there wasn't a little red flag.....it was whatever she could grab or had in her hand at the time. :wow:

[rwayland]

A Ford BMF. My little old Honda Civic Wagon died, and my son gave me a monster Ford SUV as a replacement. I love it! (And my son, also) It was not exactly a Christmas present, but happened sort of near Christmas.

Better you don't ask what I mean by BMF. My answer would be censored!

It sure makes my Camry look like a toy. On this narrow winding road where I live, I notice people giving me plenty of room!

Richard

[klassical]

Wow, you guys are the reason retail stores are in trouble. ;)

Someone got me a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)/ Surge Protector to protect my computer music setup.

Very much appreciated, but not something you have fun with.

That's it for me.

- k

[Haydn]

Klassical,

A UPS is a great gift! I've appreciated mine everytime the power went out and my computer kept on working without losing the song I was working on.

Jim

[snorlax]

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f154/suichi_aramo/DSC01507-2.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f154/suichi_aramo/DSC01508-2.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f154/suichi_aramo/DSC01510-2.jpg

1. The AKAI EWI USB

2. A Holton Model 58 Bass Trumpet, 1957 vintage. Someone offered this to me--cheap--after a Christmas Eve gig!!!

3. Snor has it coming out both sides of his mouth. (Snor is NOT a lawyer)
DO NOT try this at home, boys and girls. Please leave it to trained professionals.

4. Also got a DVD of some Bill Evans performances in Europe. Golden.

[fastlane]

I got a home soft tool box set. No more hunting for a screw driver or hammer out in the garage or tool shed when there is a needed repair.



Phil

[Pingu]

Without it sounding too melodramatic, my best Christmas present was having got through another year with my wife alive. Not only alive, but currently the most clear-headed, and closest to being her old self, that she's been for 3 or 4 years.

Amazing how insignificant everything else seems. (Although I did get Altiverb, and upgraded Sibelius)

[magnificent]

This year was all about my daughter, Melody.
Christmas started the day after Halloween with a 7.5' pre-lit tree with 1000 lights...but that just isn't really enough lights...and so it got decorated every day a little bit more even up through this week.

She's just turned 6, so EVERYTHING about Christmas is magical. She got a ridiculous number of presents and she's enjoying all of them.

For me, my wife paid for half of the drum recording session for the new album. And I let her do a shopping spree for whatever she wanted.

I also take matters into my own hands for my Birthday and Christmas, only because it is so difficult to get across to someone my excitement for things like a program that creates harmonically balanced equalization or the new Petersen Strobe tuning program...or silver core audio cables...you know?

So I got myself some nice things - some needed tools to resurrect my old album files and bring them into the modern age with my new recording rig.

It was a lot of fun.

What did you get Gary???

All the best,

Jon

[PaulR]

I received a WWI book on British and German flying aces which I really thought was great.

I thought I was going to get the Steinway Pro version piano - but somehow it never arrived. ;) :D

[EricWatkins]

I think the economy reflects a little in most Christmas stories this year. I love hearing everyone speak of friends and family this year. So much more important than stuff. I think, the more stuff you have, the more you realize that at a certain point, none of it matters. I spent time with almost all of my broken family this year. Lol, child of divorce of course. Dad, Mom, ex-stepdad's family, inlaws (mom side and dad side). All in all it was great. No major toys this year. Just some good practical stuff that I need like clothes and new work boots. I did suprise the Crystal with a new "Coach" bag. Now I'm husband of the year. LOl. She deserves everything I can give, that's for sure.

[lunker]

I didn't get much in terms of material things this year, but I have to say that it was a GREAT Christmas anyway.

My big gift was an electric toothbrush to replace the 10-year-old one that doen't work anymore. I wanted an Akai EWI-USB (I'm envious of you, Jim!). But with the economy as it is, I didn't even mention it to anyone. Perhaps later in the year after I know more about whether their are going to be layoffs at work (a Valentine's Day present perhaps?). I'm pretty sure my job is safe, but the semiconductor market is just not what we expected it to be (probably because guys like me aren't buying stuff!).

My 3-year-old daughter, on the other hand, got an impressive amount of presents: 2 sets of wooden building blocks, a few dolls, some nice clothes, etc. But the best gift by far was a collection of 13 Dr. Seuss stories. Normally she loses focus when we read her favorite princess stories (Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, etc.), but she gets really involved with the Dr. Seuss stories.

Her favorites are "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Green Eggs and Ham." I am amazed at the little details she picks up about the stories. When I read " ... the last thing he took was the log for the fire" she adamantly corrected me that it's supposed to be "the log for their fire" not "the fire" -- Wow! She's right, but I never thought she'd notice a small change like that.

She already knows the end-of-line rhymes for "Green Eggs and Ham," and it has become my new favorite story to read. It is so amazing to hear her yell "MOUSE!" when I say "I will not eat them in a house, I will not eat them with a ..."

And of course, since she's at that age, last night she forced me to change the story to "Green Eggs and Poo" -- I came up with some interesting rhymes to make it work, and we both laughed ourselves silly.

All in all, a wonderfull Christmas. The weather was even in the 60's and 70's for a few days, and we took advantage of it for some active family time.

Still ... I'm looking forward to that EWI-USB in 2009.

[raweber]

It sounds like people generally had a good Christmas - I'm glad to hear it. We were blessed with great people around us to help in trying times. On the Sunday before Christmas we were eating dinner around 2:30 when we heard a loud beeping from the basement.

I went to check it out and it was the CO alarm. We called our furnace company and a friend who works there came to check it out. Sure enough we had a cracked heat exchanger and needed a new furnace (not cost effective to replace on such an old model). The upshot, we couldn't live in the house until the furnace was replaced. Maybe Tuesday, maybe Wednesday, maybe not until after Christmas.

We called some good friends and they put the 5 of us up for the night in genuine comfort. Our kids and their kids are best friends so it was like one huge sleepover. Then, the next morning, the furnace company called us and asked if we could meet the installer at our house in 45 minutes.

We had heat that night.

Overnight, however, the pipes froze (unheated storage room, furnace turned down to 55, no water flow for over a day). No bursting, though, so I set up a space heater and we got water back, shortly.

On Christmas, however, we woke up to water in the basement - the pipes had frozen again. Not sure what to do on Christmas, we called another friend who does commercial heating and cooling. He came right over and together we figured out that the problem was a loose coupling. We tightened the coupling and had water again. I lost some stuff to water damage, but nothing of any real value.

Christmas day we traveled to my Grandmother's where we had a great time with A LOT of family.

Oh, and my GPO arrived the day after Christmas.

So, Gary, what DID you get for Christmas?

See you on Friday, snor...

[snorlax]

Rob,
I sympathize fully with your plight.
To this day, nearly seven months after the flood here, I still cringe when I hear water of any kind in the basement. We had the plumber close off the basement bathroom as well, since it was the proximate cause of all the problems. We STILL are getting readjusted to having

In our case, we had started to put some money away for Christmas long before the flood. We had NEVER before invested in quality furniture, under the assumption that the kids would "severely test" whatever we had and that we wanted to get out of the mortgage as quickly as possible.

We were able to find some tremendous bargains on price, got some further concessions, and got 12 mos. same as cash.

As many of you know, the Snorlax household has had a few major disruptions this year, and we are grateful for surviving it OK. It served as a reminder that disasters have a PHYSICAL toll for sure, but also have an emotional toll, as lives and relationships are further stressed by undesirable changes in living conditions. I looked all our events up on a common "stress scale" and it was through the roof :wow:

But I would say this: Now is a great time to be a buyer, especially for household durable goods. Just realize how much power buyers have right now, do your homework, play one retailer off against another, and don't be afraid to negotiate and ask for favorable terms. The most they can say is no.

I always try to find optimism in times such as these, and there is some to be found..."Always look on the bright side of life" he said in a Monty Python mood.*()

Snor

[schneb]

I loved reading all the replies. Some laughs, some tears, some joy, some hope, and more additions to my prayer list.

Me? I got to watch my kids totally flip out over getting a Wii. Something they always wanted, but thought they would never get. For those on Facebook (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpeople%2FRick-Schneblin%2F1129358469&ei=TFxaSarXBOHAtgfwl_i9Dg&usg=AFQjCNGWSrSRYGD7FT8Ez4Lo4xnV0nm7sw&sig2=MRWlYIUzG4aInY4jUjeedA), I posted a video on my page of them opening it. It's a priceless Christmas video.

Me? My Christmas is delayed another month until after MacWorld 2009 announcements. This will be the last one Apple participates in, and not even Steve Jobs is showing up to do the keynote.

As for an actual Christmas gift, I got a t-shirt with a neat rampant lion pendant with "Aslan is on the move" written on it. Very cool.

[buckshead]

I got this little box with dual HDD drives in it that runs on the LAN in my house, and my son has altered my computers so that all my software runs on any of my machines, in the office or indoors or if its really cold, on the laptop in bed ~|. Its been on windows all along but they keep it a secret.

[DanielB]

I got an assortment of wonderful small gifts. :D

But the big thing was a new iPod nano!

I love it! Can't keep my hands off it! It's been music, music, music, iPod games and music for the past few days. The funny thing is that my old iPod shuffle (which is 3 years old) broke RIGHT on Christmas Eve.

Hope you all had a great holiday!

[HongKongCV]

Okay, I got a bunch of books, which is good, but that's not the story.

I challenged my daughter to purchase me some CD's "off the beaten track", sounds I wouldn't pick for myself, and I promised her I'd listen to all of them. The first one was pretty hard rock, which isn't really my cup of tea, but it wasn't that bad. At least the lyrics were clean. The second one, which I will listen to tomorrow, she said is techno... that oughta be fun. But that's not the story, either.

The story is what I purchased for my wife. I bought her a copy of RealGuitar... okay, we actually downloaded it a few days before Christmas, but she got the CD on Christmas day. The funny part is that, since she sings and I write music for her albums, yes, she will get guitar on her next CD, but I'M THE ONE WHO ACTUALLY GETS TO USE THE PRESENT I BOUGHT HER! Now, THAT'S the story!

(grin)

[Rhap2]

Ern:

I got that "Rite of Spring" last year and you are right......it
is teriffic. Michael Tilson Thomas is a wonderful conductor
and another plus for the DVD is that it shows the players
(individually) playing their instruments which is very educational
up close and personal. Most concerts just show sectional
playbacks.

This year I thoroughly enjoyed Leonard Bernstein and the
Schumann Symphonies (1-4). Great listening with the
Wiener Philharmonie.

Jack

[Styxx]

I got an earful, how about you? :hp: