Movie Friday: The Christmas Gift

This week's movie is a made for TV movie from 1986.  The movie starred John Denver as a New York architect who goes to a beautiful, sleepy Rocky Mountain town just before Christmas to work on a project to transform the quiet town into a major ski resort.  The neat thing about this town is that everyone there believes in Santa Claus.  The movie is about the struggle of the town to fight off the development and how Denver's character finally turns on his boss and helps save the town.

I couldn't find but this one clip on YouTube.  I used to watch this all the time when I was little.  Mom bought it on VHS, and I must have almost worn out the tape.  From what I found last night, it looks like it is now available on DVD.  Who says made for TV movies can't become classics?

Have a great Friday!

I'm Still Alive

Just a quick post today to let you all know that I'm still here.  I haven't been home much this week due to having family here from out of state.  I am still working on what to include in the 100 follower giveaway, and it will be posted soon.  Sorry for the lack of posts this week!

What a Weekend!

It was a very busy weekend, and I have nothing vintage to share.

Saturday was the Christmas Parade in the town where I teach.  A little town of about 1,000 people had a parade with around 50 entries in it.  I think that's pretty good! Our Community Teachers Association (I'm Vice-President) had a float.  I love the people that I work with, and we always have so much fun when we get together.  The theme for the parade was "Christmas Miracles" and as we couldn't do a religious theme, we chose to focus on families being together, and focused on military families being reunited for Christmas.  The grandson of one of our members is a Marine and he's home now, so he agreed to be on the float.  It was a great day.

Then on Sunday I had church and Sunday School, took my truck to the mechanic (the steering gearbox needs to have a seal replaced - so no power steering on the drive to the mechanic, 15 miles away), then drove over to the town I teach in to a photographer appointment.  Back home for our Sunday School Christmas party (always a good time) then over to Grandma's to visit my family that is visiting from out of state, and finally, home to do a load of laundry before bed.

Therefore, I really have nothing vintage to post about today.  However, I do want to share this great clip of Rose Nylund's St. Olaf words.  Somehow, this seems to be a great way to start out the week.  Hope you enjoy, it's not very long.

Have a great Monday!

And The Person Who Gives a Hoot Is...

It's time to announce the winner of the art glass owl paperweight that was the subject of my giveaway last week.  Remember this little guy?

Thanks to Random.org, I can now announce which person from the 9 entrants will be receiving this little guy.

The winner is comment number 1, which is Linda @ A La Carte!  Who says the first entrant never wins?  Congratulations Linda!  Please send me an email at culdesacshack (at) gmail (dot) com with your shipping information and I'll get this little guy on his way to you!

Also, yesterday afternoon I hit 100 followers, which I think calls for another giveaway.  Something special to celebrate the event.  This week I will be gathering things together and announcing what the prize will be.

In the meantime, if you are looking for another giveaway to enter, my good friend Mick over at Everyone Goes to Mick's is having a giveaway to celebrate his first blog birthday!  Congratulations Mick!  Click here to enter his giveaway!

100 Followers!

WOW!!!! Thanks to all of my loyal followers!  I just hit the 100 follower mark.  I think this calls for a  giveaway.  I'll figure out what will be included and get it started hopefully sometime this week.  Also, I hope to be able to announce tomorrow who the winner of the art glass owl paperweight is.  Thanks for reading!

Movie Friday: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

** Don't forget to sign up for my current giveaway - entry period ends at 11:59pm tonight! **

Time for something a little more modern.  This is an absolute must each Christmas season!  Most of my favorite Christmas movies are more touching, but everybody needs a little comedy once in a while!

Have a great Friday!

Follow Up

Last Friday I posted a question for everyone to give input on.  I had received a package I had ordered off the big auction site, and discovered that it cost the seller more to ship it than I paid for the item and shipping combined.  They are a new seller, so I presumed that they just didn't know what they were doing yet.  I asked if I should offer to compensate the seller for the extra shipping costs.  I appreciate all of your thoughts and input, but before I ever received a comment, I got into PayPal and sent the seller a payment to make up for the extra shipping charges, along with a message about what the payment was for.  I felt that it was the right thing to do.

Now, if you were the seller, wouldn't you contact the buyer and acknowledge the extra payment in some way?  Some simple statement of gratitude for their act of kindness (after all, I was in no way obligated to right their wrong) seems appropriate, does it not (you know, a quick email message)?  Maybe my expectations of humanity are too large.  After 5 days, I have heard nothing from the seller.  I didn't expect anything over the weekend as it was a holiday weekend, but after 5 days, I'm sure that they know about receiving the payment.

Now I'm just irritated.  I tried to do the right thing, but was completely ignored.  I don't think that I will consider buying from this seller again, and most likely the next time that a seller makes a mistake like this, I'll just let them eat the extra cost.

So, was I expecting too much to think that I might get a simple "thank you" from the seller?

P.S. If you haven't entered my current giveaway, you may do so here.