{"id":1288,"date":"2024-12-20T17:09:57","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T22:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=1288"},"modified":"2024-12-21T10:46:57","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T15:46:57","slug":"best-christmas-of-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=1288","title":{"rendered":"BEST CHRISTMAS OF ALL!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KEN BANKS\u2019BLOG DECEMBER 2024<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"KEN BANKS BLOG DECEMBER 2024\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7x2GDNKK5jc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>PRESS PLAY&gt;&gt;TO VIEW THIS MONTH\u2019S WELCOME VIDEO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BEST CHRISTMAS BRAND OF ALL!<\/p>\n<p>This blog was supposed to be published in October, but Hurricane Helene had another plan.\u00a0 As I mentioned in the revised intro video on September 29th, our world as we know it got turned upside down when our house was totally flooded by Helene. Almost all of our worldly possessions were hauled away to the county dump, including much of my office equipment.\u00a0As we set about the task of dealing with insurance adjusters, trash haulers, home repair companies, and locating to a temporary apartment, we got a whole new perspective on what\u2019s really important in our lives. We are now preparing for a different Christmas, so I thought I would share some personal thoughts in this annual holiday blog message.<\/p>\n<p>We had decided to downsize last spring leaving our beautiful home on the waterfront of 28 years to settle into a smaller, less storm prone setting.\u00a0 The beauty of our location convinced us to hold off for another year. Not a good idea as a mini tsunami deposited 2 feet of murky water throughout the house. \u00a0We watched helplessly as five trailers full of most of our furniture and other possessions were hauled away .\u00a0 While we were emotionally distraught, we were comforted by the love and support of our family, our friends and our local community.\u00a0 Once the pain eased somewhat, we realized that we, like most of today\u2019s consumers, had accumulated a lot\u2014a really big lot\u2014of STUFF.\u00a0 \u00a0All of this could be replaced and as we prepared our inventory for the insurance claim, much of that stuff hadn\u2019t been used in a long time and should have been cleared out or donated a long time ago.\u00a0 Honestly, as we watched many of the holiday commercials and internet messages, our desire to shop or accumulate more has lost its appeal. What\u2019s more important is the love that we need to share every day and the appreciation for those who share in this life we lead.\u00a0 The messages and calls that we received with offers of help with the cleanup and move, the offers of lodging and meals, the offers from former business associates for support, and the true friends that reached out to us has reinforced the true spirit of Christmas. I know that many of our neighbors\u2019 and fellow citizens in Tampa Bay have experienced the same support. We hope that this spirit expands beyond the storms and damage into our government, our business world and to our world\u2019s leadership now and in the future.\u00a0 Let\u2019s re-focus our energies to our families, our true friends, and the spirit of love.<\/p>\n<p>Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Ken<\/p>\n<p>PS:\u00a0 Here a few of this year\u2019s holiday spots that I feel capture this spirit as well.<\/p>\n<p>Coca Cola. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4RSTupbfGog\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/4RSTupbfGog<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Amazon. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ecV3E779MfU\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/ecV3E779MfU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>United Airlines. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ecV3E779MfU\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/ecV3E779MfU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Toyota. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Tod5LEaAg18\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/Tod5LEaAg18<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kroger. <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/9IRvv0jScPs\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/9IRvv0jScPs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KEN BANKS\u2019BLOG DECEMBER 2024 PRESS PLAY&gt;&gt;TO VIEW THIS MONTH\u2019S WELCOME VIDEO BEST CHRISTMAS BRAND OF ALL! This blog was supposed to be published in October, but Hurricane Helene had another plan.\u00a0 As I mentioned in the revised intro video on September 29th, our world as we know it got turned upside down when our house [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1288"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1291,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288\/revisions\/1291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}