Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Christmas gifts that rocked!

Wow. Cool Cam. The goat thing had me thinking it was a good idea. We havent donated in a while.

Wid, my brother is an avid hunter. We got him snowshoes and he was pumped. Who gets excited to freeze their nuts off in a tree stand?

Snicker... Not me. Not even when I was young and dumber than a post.

I got nothing fancy this year... yet. Of course the best gift of all is one I get every year: Christmas dinner with the wider family. Its always fun to catch up on what everyone has been up to over the last year.

I got some piece and quiet as my wife, daughter and mother in law went up north to visit family and left me at home for Christmas.

Yea, I was supposed to clean and do the fun stuff, but got to listen to music at reference levels without a single complaint about the track list or volume.

My wonderful daughter found some great music to add to my collection:

David Gogo - 'Christmas With The Blues' (CD) - from my buddy down island. For electric blues fans, this one is unique. In fact, it is certainly good enough to play all year round - fabulous guitar work;

David Gogo - 'Vicksburg Call' (CD) - his new release. Again outstanding electric blues; and

Eric Clapton - 'Slowhand at 70' (Blu Ray/CD set) - Top notch sound quality in DTS-HD Surround in stunning HD video inside the fabulous Royal Albert Hall. Lots of impactful bass even at -17 Db (especially kick drum) for those with a big system. Generally great selection of tunes. The PBS broadcast of this concert a month ago didn't do it justice.

All excellently recorded. Electric blues fans should really like any or all of these.

Happy New Year to all...

TAM

Our best Christmas present ... There is a high school local to us that is a private, catholic school. It has incredible academic standards, with the average graduate receiving over $100,000 in college scholarships.

One does not need to be Catholic, nor even Christian, to attend this school, although the religion will be present. Of course, there is tuition to be paid to the school for attending there.

Three years ago, I started participating in the "Season of Giving" with this school. This year, we finished contributing enough to fully fund a "forever" scholarship at the school. This means every year, a student in need will be attending this school, free of charge.

This young man/woman will normally have gone to an inner city school with little chance of ever seeing college.

The young person will never know who "paid" for this, but I do know the first student is a young African American girl who was showing a lot of potential. She now has the opportunity to have a better life.

And for this, I am grateful. This is what made Christmas, 2015, special.

Well that kinda puts my CDs to shame, ha!

TAM

WOW! Wonderful, Craig.

Tam ... The CD's are still very cool.

Jack - I should have mentioned 14 others were involved in this project, which means we managed to contribute enough funding to provide a total of 15 of these "forever scholarships".

This has been done in larger cities, with remarkable results.

One aspect of this that was really compelling: There is a local money managing company who is handling the investments with no fees. There is no one getting paid for this. This means 100 percent of the money is being used for the purpose at hand.

Too many "charities" have heavy expense loads, with some seeing less than half the moneys contributed going to people in need.

This was really one of the most enjoyable "things" I have ever done. The feeling in the room when each of us had reached the goal two weeks ago was nothing short of wonderful.

I also forgot .. The new Xbox One with all 5 Halo games was a pretty good gift. You haven't lived until experiencing Halo on LFR-1100's and an EP-800.

I caved on boxing week and bought myself a new video card after talking about fallout with CV. Christmas extended! Maybe my rig can run it now. Lol.