Advent Calendar Reviews

This is a comprehensive table of contents or appendix of all the Christmas Advent Calendars and Countdowns in one easy to find place.

The Body Shop

Tea at the White House

Bonne Maman

President's Choice

Ilchester Cheese

T.Kettle Tea

The Body Shop 2023

Bird & Blend

Christmas Vacation Jelly of the Month Club

Walkers Shortbread

Grove Place Market 12 Cups of Joy

President's Choice : Advent Calendar Review

I picked up the President's Choice Advent Calendar on a whim.  I did not need another calendar in the slightest because I had three for the 2022 Christmas season.  It was on sale and was only $12.  There's no way I could leave the store without it.

I tucked it away until after the holidays were all over.

It was January when I decided to take it out and open it up.

The President's Choice Calendar was a light cardboard which unfolded to reveal all the numbered days.  It included a string so that it could be hung in the kitchen for easy access and to decorate for the holidays.  The calendar was 24 days but there were some duplicate flavours.  Each day was a single teabag in it's own package.  Behind the tea package was a quote for the day.  What really impressed me was that each tea package included a list of ingredients, whether it was caffeine free or not and brewing instructions.  This impressed me because tea advent calendars which I've spent far more money on didn't include these things. Bravo!

As I stated, the calendar was 24 days and I spent $12 on it (which is actually rounded up).  That breaks down to 50 cents per cup.  That's an excellent value!

My favourite flavours included Ginger Peach, Feeling Soothed, Dreamland, Lemon Ginger, Spiced Apple, Chocolatey Chai and Feeling Calm.  Honestly, I found something to like and enjoy in each flavour.  I even purchased a box of Ginger Peach and Feeling Calm.  I can see myself purchasing some of these other flavours as well.  A box of President's Choice tea is very affordable and you won't feel guilty for having them in your tea cupboard.

Would I buy this President's Choice Tea Advent Calendar again?  You bet!  Next time, I'd even enjoy it during the holidays instead of after the New Year.

Music Teachers | A Blog Appendix

This is a comprehensive list of links (appendix or table of contents) to all the blogs I've written about my musical journey including teachers, training and experience.

Elementary School Band

My Rockin' Organ Lessons Part 1

My Rockin' Organ Lessons Part 2

Klassical Karen

The One Who Didn't Like Me

Meet Mrs Sandra

The Time I Broke a Piano

Teaching in a Time of Covid

Music Teachers | Meet Mrs. Sandra

We aren't supposed to have special students.  When asked we will deny that we think of some students over others.  We treat everyone the same and have the same expectations but it would be a total lie if I didn't admit that some students find a way into my heart unlike others.  There's been a few over the years but I won't name names.  You know who you are. 

If you've followed this series of blog posts then you'll know I played clarinet in elementary school and started organ lessons at the age of 12 which is late for most keyboard students.  At age 17 I began teaching keyboard and working to get my grades with the Royal Conservatory in piano.  I taught for several years in my home town before moving here in 2001.

At that point, I was feeling burnt out so I took a job in retail.  I worked my way into management but never really got the respect I thought I deserved for my work.  So, in 2005 I approached a teaching colleague and she hired me on the spot saying "what took you so long to come see me."  I took over the Monday to Friday teaching slot at the Academy of Music and that was that.

I realized this was my true calling.  The first day I returned to teaching gave me feelings like Scrooge waking on Christmas morning.

I've taught so many people over the years ranging in ages from 3 to 83.  People tell me I'm a good teacher and while I feel confident it's hard to believe them when you keep striving to be better and better versions of yourself.  Students come and go but it always amazes me when someone approaches me and says I was their piano teacher.  Students grow up and change and teachers remain mostly the same.  A few years ago I had this exact thing happen.  A young lady at an outdoor concert kept staring at me.  Finally she confessed that I was her piano teacher.  I said "forgive me, but I don't recognize you."  She told me who she was and yes, of course I had taught her!  I've had this happen in stores and other places around the city too.  I’ve also had the experience where a student said “you taught my dad” and yes I did.

I am rather oblivious to the year gap.  The most popular age for a student to begin is age 7.  I see them once a week and while I know they're growing up, suddenly they can drive and in a flash they have boyfriends and are starting university.  That is, if I've had the pleasure of teaching them that long.  Many many students often quit lessons in high school but there are those special ones who keep going.

How blessed am I to know these young people for so long!  I've had a couple of these special people become teachers as well.  I feel a lot of pride for their accomplishments but its also bitter sweet.  My encounters with them make me a better teacher and have made me strive to be better year after year, exam after exam and festival after festival.  I'm happy for them but always a bit sad too for the end of a relationship which honestly is a big part of my life but a miniscule part of theirs.

Some days are good and some are bad.  Some students come to lessons emotional after school or elated over something else.  I hear a lot of things from students and probably things that might make their parents shudder.  I tell them stories, I ask about their day, ask what's new and always wish them well on their way out the door.  They're free to talk and show honesty with me while getting down to the business of learning to play and appreciate music.

My main goal for my students is to make me obsolete.  They should be able to learn, play and perform without me.

It's the end of an era when a special student moves on.  I’m sure it’s far harder on me than it is on them. Meanwhile, I continue to do what I do.  I make everyone feel special.  I share the love of music everyday.  The rewards are far greater than I ever could have imagined.

So when your kid says they want to take music lessons.  Please, please do everything in your power to support them.  Buy the books, buy the instrument, and show up at every event they're in.  

And, take pictures all along the way because you just never know where it's going to lead.

Music Teachers | The One Who Didn't Like Me

In my last blog about Music Teachers I walked about Karen.  I did my Grade 5 & part of Grade 8 with Karen.  If you go back and read, you'll understand the impact she had in such a brief amount of time.  When I completed Grade 6, I did that with Candace Sorenson and while it went fine I can't say it was particularly memorable and the couple memories I have were of when her dog died and when I competed in the festival.  That's no slight against her at all.  It's what it was.  When Karen needed to move after I'd learned three quarters of the Grade 8 material and already registered for the exam, I had to search out a new teacher to help me get the rest of the way.

I had one lesson with a lady who picked apart every single piece I had learned to the extent that I was supposed to work on my hand position and gestures.  Um no.  No time for that whether it was necessary or not.  I found it pretty ironic that she had incredibly long fingernails that prevented her from actually having great hand position and yet here she was commenting on mine!  I have no idea what her name was and I left her house with a determination to find someone else.

I got a list of Registered Music Teachers in the area.  One name stood out because her husband had been the band teacher (remember I quit band after grade 7) at my high school.  Mrs. Gibson.  She had a warmth about her, was small in stature and had short grey hair.  I'd go into the basement of their bungalow where there were some couches to wait and two baby grand pianos amongst shelves and filing cabinets of books.

Mrs. Gibson was a good teacher but she had a very cutting way about her.  My perspective is that she likely had a lot of students who excelled and while I always thought I was average I do realize now I wasn't.  She was the one who made me feel that way.  She told me things like how I needed to practice 4 hours a day.  She said things like "I thought you knew what you were doing." when I'd got 91% on my theory exam and not 100%.  She made me file my nails as short as they could be because they tapped on the keys and encouraged me to remove all rings and watches so 'I could be free'. 

I often describe her as "the one who hated me" even though I chose not to title this blog in those words.  It's possible she did like me or at least tolerate me. I know she didn't like that I was already teaching.  She didn't like that I played on keyboards.  She didn't like a multitude of things about me.  I never got to hear about the things I did well.  The drills on scales I won't ever forget nor will I ever teach them that way.  None of these things I took forward with me in my own teaching.

I received a 75% on my Royal Conservatory Grade 8 exam.  I thanked Mrs. Gibson and never looked back.  

I thought for a long time that 75% was a poor mark.  Many many years later and after putting my own students through multitudes of exams I have gained an understanding that it was actually a pretty good mark and that even the most exceptional of piano students only got marks in the 80's.  You see they mark in a way that means you have to prove your worth and show why you deserve the mark.  I spent a long time thinking less of myself.

But who really cares because I got the certificate and I've spent 30+ years teaching music.

A few years ago, I saw Mrs Gibson at a Royal Conservatory seminar.  I was shocked.  She still looked the same.  I didn't talk to her and she didn't recognize me.

Music Teachers | Klassical Karen

I was in my third year of teaching when I decided that I needed more training.  My student load was increasing and my employer at the time, Gordie Brandt’s Music was getting more confident in my abilities.  Remember, my background was mostly music played on the organ and mostly pop/rock music.  But, things were changing.  Technology was changing.  The plinkety-plink piano’s of the past were now high tech with digital sounds and disk drives.  They were considerably cheaper than an organ with the same capabilities.  As the market changed more parents were enrolling their children for for piano lessons.

The course that I was taught was Technics, TMA, and later TriTone.  They published a course for organ and a pop keyboard version.  The music wasn’t all that different, yet I knew I needed more knowledge…..more than I could teach myself.  So I checked into some other teachers at the music school.  There was a new teacher, Karen Berard, who had just moved to the city.  She was very experienced and was a top notch teacher.  She taught in the next classroom and we soon hit it off.  

My first lesson with her was an eye opener.  There was so much technical stuff that I had missed out on with my previous teachers.  She drilled me relentlessly.  Sometimes, I think she must have wondered how I got to be a teacher without knowing these things.  I wondered too why anybody had faith in me. 

I don’t remember what my lesson day or time was.  I know that I had one hour lessons before we had to teach.  It was fun.  Karen had a way about her.  She was my age and was strict…..without being strict.  If I goofed up, she would laugh about it.  She was patient.  She was silly.  Karen turned out to be one of my best friends.  

I took my Grade 5 Royal Conservatory certificate with her, but because of her changing circumstances she was not able to teach me for Grade 6.  I was able to do part of my Grade 8 certificate with her.  What I really learned from her was so much more than the notes on the page or what a minor sixth interval sounds like.  It wasn’t perfection, but an attitude…...or a way to be Me and the teacher and the student all rolled into one.  What ever it was, she made me willing to practice like I’d never practiced before.  

We had the same battles.  Karen was not overweight by any means, but always worked hard to keep thin.  We would go walking together early in the morning at the Communiplex and then sometimes we wouldn’t!  Sometimes she would show up at my door and say “I don’t feel like walking today…..how about we go to Robin’s Donuts?”  She once confided in me that she had moved around so much over the past few years that she had never really had any good friends.  She said I was probably her closest friend.  

One night, I showed up for my lesson at her apartment.  Karen greeted me at the door and informed me that they had to move again.  This time to High River Alberta.  Her husband had either gotten a job there or was going to go to school there, I can’t exactly remember now.  Her mother was there helping her pack.  It was sad.  

I talked to her once after that on the phone.  Then a number of years later, I heard she bought a new piano from my employer and was living in Red Deer.  Then one time, when I worked retail, I actually saw her mom.  It was a weird circumstance.  She came into the store and we'd always input into the computer where the customer was from and she mentioned the same town Karen had been from and I said as I often do "oh I used to know someone from there named Karen Berard" and she informed me that not only was that her daughter but that she'd just dropped her off at the airport.  

I finished my Grade 8 certificate with another teacher.  But I didn’t take any formal lessons after that.  What I learned from Karen was far more valuable to me than a certificate.  Lot's of the things she did in her teaching I also do in my teaching to this day.  As for lessons, while I think about continued education from time to time I also think I am pretty successful just the way I am.  I've had a lot of good friends in my life but I haven’t had a friend like her since.  If I ever have the chance to talk to her again, I would definitely say “thank-you.” 

Music Teachers | My Rockin' Organ Lessons Part 2

When I was finished with lessons from Su Ling Lo I went to a new teacher, Claude Rivet. He was a middle aged man with a thick Canadian French accent.  He taught out of the basement of his house and was able to teach me contemporary music, rock and even jazz.

I would play and he would accompany me on his piano or keyboard. He’d dance around and make faces to our playing. He had lots of practical information. He let me arrange and be as creative as I wanted to be. I was always a step ahead or sometimes several steps ahead. I could always go and learn things on my own. I don’t know if this frustrated him or just made his job easier.

At one of these Step Ahead Lessons, he asked if I would start on the next song.

“I can play it already.” I stated. But little did he know that I could not only already play it, but I had been working on if for quite a while. I had made introductions, accompaniment variations, sound and drum choices….everything. (In those days, we'd orchestrate the entire song and instruments were capable of playing back up in the roll of a band.)

“Okay, play it for me.” I think he didn’t believe me. The song was ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’. I probably liked the song so much because Corey Hart was singing it on the radio then. Gosh, that dates me doesn’t it? At any rate, when I was done playing the last note, I turned to look at Claude. “WOW!” He exclaimed and somewhat shocked. He praised me up and down for what I did and then we moved on to the next song.

I don't think he gave stickers.  Actually, I don't think any of my teachers gave stickers for rewards.

I ventured to his house every week for about 2 years and then he moved to teach in the Gordie Brandt’s Music Academy which had opened in a run down creaky ex movie theatre. It was during one of these lessons in this spooky old place that Claude informed me that he was getting out of teaching. I don’t remember what he was going to do, just that he was moving on. He explained that he had taught me everything he knew and he really didn’t feel that he could take me any farther. What he did need though, was someone to teach a couple beginner keyboard students of his on Saturday mornings. He asked me if I would want to try my hand at teaching and reassured me by saying that he would be around to keep an eye on me. I agreed.

So in the spring of the year I was turning 17 I began teaching. Claude did keep his eye on me. I taught for the Prince Albert Academy of Music as the old Gordie Brandt’s had gone bankrupt and changed hands.  One day he contacted me. He offered me the job of school director as they were trying to reopen Gordie Brandt’s. I declined. Not because I couldn’t do the job, but because I just didn’t trust that a new business would fly. I was right to go with my gut feelings. Since then, there's been many incarnations of that same music school.

Many years after this and just when I was beginning to feel burnt out from teaching we crossed paths again. I was working in Cotton Ginny in the mall and I happened to cut through the furniture store where he was working as a salesman. I told him how I was feeling and that I just needed to prove to myself that I could do other things. He said he understood, but that it was a shame because I was a natural. Claude told me that he even was getting back into teaching after all those years.

After Friending each other on Facebook, I did see Claude another time in recent years.  I was in Costco and I heard, "well look who it is?" and I wondered, who is it?  It was me.  I gave him a big hug right there in front of the rye bread and we did a little catch up.

I often think of his bopping around to music while we were practicing together and all his funny faces.  Sometimes I catch myself making faces when I listen to my own students play or perform.  I wonder if they notice.