Yes, Virginia....

Merry Christmas.

Can`t spend too much time today.  Just want to say that we have had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa was very good to us all.  In the spirit of giving,  here's my favourite little Santa snippet:

Merry Christmas - more to follow in the days to come.

Unobtainium...really? 300 million and that's the best you can come up with?

This afternoon I went to see a really expensive movie.  AVATAR is James Cameron's latest movie and is reportedly the most expensive movie ever made.  It shows.  The movie is a spectacular feast for the eyes.  I watched it in 3D and really can't imagine watching it any other way.  Apparently the landscapes are entirely computer generated and I've heard that they rendered over 150 different varieties of plants.  Visually - it was stunning.

The CGI characters - so well rendered and such fluidity of motion that I fear Hollywood actors should start reining in big egos because, frankly, they aren't needed anymore.  I know that this movie used a new motion -capture technology to build the images, but really, any old face will do for that - you don't need a star or starlet.  True - you will still need voice actors - for now.

The one part where the movie fell apart for me was the story.  There were some holes, but not many.  The problem was predictability.  There were no surprises.  The characters were stereotyped card-board cutouts.  There was not an unexpected plot twist to be seen.  My friend who accompanied me to the theatre dubbed the movie "Dances with Cats" and he's pretty close to the mark.  Did I enjoy the spectacle - absolutely.  Would I encourage other to see the movie - yes.

Just don't hope to be blown away by the unexpected ending - there isn't one.

Honourable duties

There are very few things in this life to which, when asked, you simply cannot say no.  All you can do is nod and ask where and when you need to show up.  This is one of those things:

Yeah - that's me.  When the director of the local BIA called me up and explained that they needed someone for what will become the Annual Pancake Breakfast with Santa, well, how do you say "no" to that?

It was just a couple of hours in an ill-fitting red suit with a scratchy synthetic beard and it was one of the most rewarding things I've done in a long time.  I highly recommend it.

If you look closely, I swear you can see a twinkle about the eyes.

On the same morning I snapped a couple of pictures of our Heritage Committee's little park covered with a blanket of snow.

After playing Santa, it was time for this to go away:

Yes - the beard that began as three day's growth for Really Raggedy Andy is now gone - but that didn't mean we couldn't have some fun along the way...

Here we are with goatee and massive sideburns.  I came down and asked the family what they thought.  The two little ladies didn't like this look at all.  The boy, however, loved it.

So - I went upstairs and tried again.  "How about this?" I asked.
"No way!" said my daughter.
"Too Amish." said my wife.
"Awesome!" said my son, who really didn't want me to shave the beard at all.

My final attempt arrived downstairs to an almost uniform reaction of, "Hey, that's kind of cool."

The last bastion of facial hair - the soul patch, though to be fair, this patch was a little more soulful than most.  The only problem was I didn't really like it.  I mean, hey - I'm 42 years old - I'm way too old for a soul patch.  

So I shaved it off.  Then I went outside and built this with the kids:

Too old for a soul patch?  Maybe.

Too old to build Snowmen?  Never!