December 24, 2005 - A Ranch Christmas Card

Winter, and especially Christmas are a very special time of year here at the Ranch. The cold purifying air is clean and crisp. Snow usually covers the mountain tops here with a blanket of powder. Wood smoke is in the air as fire keeps the hearth of my home warm. My mother loved Christmas and made our home a sight to behold.  We had actually had people from all over the community come to see our house during Christmas. It was incredibly comforting. Those times were some of the best I ever had. Since my mother passed away in 2001, Christmas has taken on even more meaning for me as it is now up to her children to carry on Christmas for ourselves and her grandchildren. So I now I deck my house with all the joys of the season and watch as my Nephew and Nieces stare in wonder. It is very heartwarming to see the wonders of Christmas through their eyes. This Christmas video contains scenes from around the Ranch, and inside my house. Not wanting to spoil the present, I won't tell anymore about the contents. After all, half the fun of Christmas is the anticipation! The images to the left are frames from the movie. I will say that this video is much better than the last one. So from my home you yours have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Watch the very Low Definition Version on YouTube

Download the High Definition Version

System Requirements

Sorry Apple folks, but the videos are still only available in Windows Media Player format. I'm continuing to try to encode the video in the new H.264 format so that it will be viewable in QuickTime. For Windows folks, you will need Windows Media Player version 9 or higher. You can download the latest version by clicking the Windows Media Player link at the bottom of the page.  If your machine is not fairly new, you will probably have to download the latest version. If you are not sure what version you have, you should probably download the latest version.

Download Instructions

Important! Please download the video file to your computer and play it from there. 

The amount of files that can be downloaded from my site is very limited. By downloading the file to your computer and playing (and hopefully replaying) it from there you will only have to get the file from my website once. This allows other people the opportunity to view the video also. Once the downloads reach my maximum download limit I will have to take this video off the site.

The version of the Ranch Christmas Card video you choose to download will depend on your connection speed and how much free disk space you have to save the video onto your computer. The sizes are listed beside each version. Both are the exact same video, one is just compressed more than the other.

To save the file Right-Click your mouse on the link you choose to download. In Internet Explorer choose "Save Target As..", in Firefox choose "Save Link As..". Then choose the location where you would like to save the video. If you are new at this you may want to save the file to your Desktop.

After the file is downloaded, go to the location where you saved it and double click it. If you saved it to your Desktop a new shortcut should have been created somewhere on your screen! Depending on how cluttered your Desktop is, you may have to shrink your browser down and look for the shortcut behind it.

I hope you enjoy...

Windows Media                       Requires Windows Media Player version 9 or greater, download by clicking link at bottom of page

A Ranch Christmas Card - Medium Resolution - 768x480 (Size 70MB)  Duration 5 minutes 41 seconds.

Download time about 7 minutes with a 1.5Mbps DSL or Cable Modem, 4.9 hours with a 33.6k dial-up connection

A Ranch Christmas Card - High Definition - 1152x720 (Size 179MB) Duration 5 minutes 41 seconds.

Download time about 17 minutes with a 1.5Mbps DSL or Cable Modem, 12.4 hours with a 33.6k dial-up connection

		This movie is best viewed with Windows Media Player version 10. Click here to download the latest version.
“Windows Media” and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.