Filler

filler

I have a number of posts in various stages of readiness, but at the moment not a single one of them is ready for publishing. So rather than leave you with emptiness in your inbox this week, I’m sending this fun video as filler. It has nothing to do with writing, business, faith, or politics. I could not think of a way to tie it in to this blog at all!

Can you? Will you try? Post your idea in the comments below. Think of it as a creativity exercise! See if you can come up with an answer to this question:

How might this video be relevant to “helping you share your story”?

Christmas Rebus Winners

Merry Christmas!

Well, our third and final Christmas rebus puzzle, was in fact the most difficult of the three. (I almost declared myself the winner!) But slowly, gradually, correct answers came jingling in, and finally about mid-morning on Day 2, I had some winners. Those winners are:

1. Jingle Jean Racek!

Jean RacekJean’s answer arrived via an email from her sister Karen, so they may have to share the glory and celebrity that go along with winning a LifeLines Christmas Rebus. In fact, the Racek sisters’ path to victory looks like this:

  • 6:00am – Christmas Rebus 3 is posted to LifeLines
  • 6:45am – Karen Racek (a subscriber) receives an email notification of the post
  • 8:17am – Karen emails Jean (a non-subscriber) the link, with this brief message: “Here’s this week’s puzzle”
  • 8:21am – Apparently needing less than 5 minutes to think about it, Jean emails back her answer in three words: “Jingle jingle jingle”
  • 8:23am – Karen forwards the email to LifeLines, and it is the first to arrive in my inbox.

Well done, Team Racek!

2. Merry Michelle Lagestee!

Michelle LagesteeChristmas Queen Michelle claims she was giving other people a chance to win, and that’s why she didn’t submit the correct answer until 6:30 P! M! Whatever. In spite of her delay, she was unable to keep herself out of this week’s list of Christmas Rebus Winners. Well done, Michelle!

3. Angelic Andre Nauta!

Andre NautaAndre managed to squeak his answer in just before midnight last Wednesday, beating out a number of incorrect guesses that had trickled in throughout the day. Andre also won Round 2 of last year’s Christmas Mondegreens. It’s good to have you back, Andre!

Speaking of incorrect guesses… Several contestants submitted Jingle Jangle Jingle as their guess for last week’s Christmas rebus. I considered allowing this as a correct answer because the vowel sounds are so close. But when I Googled “Jingle Jangle Jingle,” I learned that it is not even a Christmas song! So, no. No go.

The fact is, only four people altogether submitted the correct answer, so I’m going to go ahead and name all four of them winners this week. Our fourth winner is—

4. Jolly Julie Benda!

Julie BendaJulie was just about ready to give up, mainly because it was already Day 2, and she assumed she was too late. She got hung up for a while on the blue jeans pictured in the rebus—she thought they were bell-bottoms and was trying to work “bells” into her answer. Finally, she gave the puzzle a fresh look, and the answer came to her, and she had the courage to go ahead and send an email at 9:19am on Day 2. Congratulations, Julie!

Jingle Jingle Jingle

As I’ve mentioned above, the correct answer to last week’s rebus is Jingle Jingle Jingle (Gin + gull, Jenga + L, Jeans – S + gal). Some of you are wondering to yourselves, “Jingle Jingle Jingle? Is that a real song?” Well, yes my friends, it is, and I offer this YouTube clip to jog your memory—but I have to warn you that you may regret playing it after the song sticks in your head for the next two weeks:

Thanks for playing!

As always, I had as much fun with this year’s Christmas game as most of you did—thank you for playing!

Have yourselves a merry little Christmas. We’ll meet again in the new year.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Rebus 3

Christmas Rebus

Christmas rebus

This week’s  game

It’s our third and final Christmas rebus puzzle! Can you tell what Christmas song is represented by the rebus above?

Email your guess to [email protected]. (DON’T put your guess in the comments—you’ll ruin it for everyone!)

Last week’s name

The name of the carol suggested by last week’s Christmas rebus was, of course, Carol of the Bells (CareBear – Bear Olaf Dumbbells). Now, technically, I should have added a “- M” after the photo of the dumbbells, so I apologize if that rebus design error threw you off.

Fame and acclaim

Christmas kudos go to the following LifeLines readers for their rapid rebus responses:

1. Michelle Lagestee is back!

Michelle_100Oddly enough, Michelle’s email did not reach my inbox until 7:40am, which seems slow for our Queen of Christmas Games. And her arch rival Jim Heethuis (who did not clock in until 9:52am) had this to say: “It takes me a while to get used to your schedule. Pretty late on this one, but I think it’s Carol of the Bells.” Now, “my schedule” is largely unchanged from week to week:

  • I have each week’s game set up to post at 6:00am (Chicago time) each Wednesday.
  • That triggers the Feedblitz subscription service to send an email to all LifeLines subscribers. I don’t really know how long “the sending” takes, nor do I know if all subscribers receive an email at the same time.
  • I also post a link on Facebook, but I wait until after 7:00am to do that.

So it’s quite possible technology was a factor in the Rebus 2 competition, but that in no way diminishes Michelle’s victory. Technology in a blog game is like weather in a football game: It is what it is. Anyway, welcome back Mistletoe Michelle!

2. Welcome, Edie Aardsma!

Edie_100Like last week, this week we have another first-time player who has won a silver medal in this week’s game. I believe Edie is a Facebook connection rather than a LifeLines subscriber, but in this case that did not turn out to be a disadvantage. Edie emailed the correct answer from her handy-dandy iPad, and I received it at 7:44am. Well done, Elfin Edie!

3. Welcome back, Jim Grutzius!

Jim_100Jim is a long-time fan of LifeLines Christmas games, probably because he’s so good at them! He was not a winner in last year’s Christmas Mondegreens series (perhaps he was put off by the fierce competition between Jim Heethuis and Michelle Lagestee?), but he did win in both 2012 and 2011. And here he is again! Congratulations, Jingle Jim!

I will also give a shout out to my brother Ken who not only played the game for the first time this year, but played it with his daughter Edith, reminding us that Christmas truly is a time for family as well as fierce competition. The sad news is, Ken and Edith posted their answer in the comments rather than emailing it to me, so I had to disqualify them, and I felt like a Grinch for doing so!

As it turns out, the posting of the winners is scheduled for 6:00am next Wednesday, which happens to be Christmas Eve. What a joyous way to begin the holiday festivities!