Perfect Holiday Gift, Chirstmas gift ideas, Consumer Promotions website

great keyboard fro the price
This is a great package for the price. This is an easy keyboard to learn to play for both children and adults alike. The Casio Key Lighting Keyboard LK-100 is as fun as it is practical. It's an ideal learning tool for young pianists and a fun way to experience music.

The keyboard has 61 full-size keys. We love the keys' optional light-up function, and we enjoyed being able to immediately "play" the keyboard. The lighted keys help beginners become familiar with the timing of the notes that follow one of the 100 built-in tunes from the keyboard's song bank. A songbook (included) allows kids and adults to view the printed musical notes for each song. The tempo of the songs can be slowed as you learn to follow the keys, which is a nice feature. The key lighting feature can be turned off as desired. This is particularly important for advanced players who wish to use the instrument as a traditional keyboard.

We like the Casio Key Lighting Keyboard's high-tech look. A large LCD screen indicates function and song title. There is a tempo control, a volume slider, rhythm buttons and other controls. The Casio Key Lighting Keyboard's song bank is a fun feature. The keyboard has 100 popular songs stored and they can be heard at the push of a button. Songs include holiday favorites like Jingle Bells, as well as a peppy rendition of Happy Birthday to You and a variety of classical songs. Younger kids will be thrilled to hear a theme song from the Finding Nemo movie.

This feature-rich keyboard includes 50 built-in auto-accompaniment patterns (kids will feel like rock stars!). Additionally, users can choose a chord and the keyboard will automatically produce a matching bass, chord and rhythm. Advanced players will find it easy to change keys, and a microphone jack makes it a breeze to sing along with tunes. The premium package with the Casio LK100 is a great buy for the money.

The Casio Key Lighting Keyboard has plenty of bells and whistles to immediately attract children and adults. It's fun. It lights up. It plays music. The best part, however, is that the attraction doesn't end there. This is a well-built musical instrument on which children and adults can really learn to play music.

Only negative thing is that it does have MIDI but in order to use this feature, you will need to couple it with a PC to use, since it doesn't have a built-in disk drive.

Great for giants.
No - not Jack-n-the-beanstalk giants, but I'm over 6' and my kids are taking after me. I've been looking for a tent that will fit the growing family of 6. Here's the high and low points for this tent.

Sizing.
My wife and I use twin air mattresses (no sense risking discomfort there). On the 'non-door' side we fit well with our smallest beside us, a space heater (ya - 34 was a bit too cool to go without) and gear. On the 'vestibule' side slept my other mini-giants with all their stuff (waaay too much stuff - gear is an over-simplification). We still had enough room at one of the doors to take off wet shoes w/o messing up the sleeping bags.

H2O.
Enough for a refreshing drink. Amazing what moisture comes about when a cloud moves in over the campsite. During a heavy rain, the tent leaked in 4 places (without any seam sealer - didn't have instructions, so I bypassed this. NorthPole recommends Kenyon 3 or Seam Grip and NO spray for the fabric). Both bay windows collected a bit of water then dripped onto MY sleeping bag through the interior pocket. Pulling out the stakes farther would have solved the dripping. Most of the water came in just beside the doors. Water runs off of the fly and drips halfway down the arch (about 1/2 a cup in 4 hours of the storm). We played a nice game of Carcassonne inside during the deluge, until we noticed the pool collecting on the fly! Yikes - make sure you stake out the fly to avoid this. Even so, I'm the only one who got soaked as I pulled the cords and received the waterfall.

Extras.
The gear loft works well, and I could still stand up with stuff in it. The drink holders are OK, but the shelves are completely gimmicky and a hazard. Only took once to have everything drop on my head to take it down.

Customer Service.
Not by Columbia. I called for 2 different problems. NorthPole sent out the missing part immediately. Very friendly, some wait time. If they are out you get a message and need to call back.

Overall.
Awesome. Look forward to using the bay windows and cyclone vents in warmer weather. Now if we could just get on a slim-fast stuff reduction program...

I SNEER AT HURRICANES!
Well, O.K., I don't sneer at hurricanes. But after Hurricane Ike and a week without power, we decided to upgrade our emergency lighting to more than flashlights, candles and chemical light sticks.

I bought three of these family-sized Coleman lanterns and three MicroPacker lanterns (also reviewed). The first time I turned on this family-sized lantern I went "WOW!" This is a serious light! I measured the light output of this lantern (I'm a photojournalist) and discovered it puts out half the light of a 40 watt bulb, but much, much more light than a 25 watt bulb. There is plenty of light for reading and walking around like a human being instead of stumbling around with flashlights.

The "low" setting is almost as bright as the "high" setting (only one-half stop dimmer), but extends the battery life from 17 hours to a fantastic 28 hours! I figure one set (8) of fresh "D" cells should last though a week of dark nights.

The family-sized lantern is tough and well-made. It's not waterproof, but I wouldn't worry about taking it out into the rain. It doesn't have rubber seals, but the nice, tight fittings should keep it dry.

One minor point: the large clear housing is a Coleman tradition, but a simple clear cylinder would be more streamlined and compact. The lantern is about the size of a full-sized gas mantle unit. I wouldn't backpack with it, but it is a great unit for emergencies and base camps. Now if Coleman only made a battery-powered air conditioner . . .

Great Hockey Fun!
I ordered the Stiga hockey table as a surprise Christmas gift for my 2 sons, ages 15 and 23. They both think it's really cool and fun to play with, even in this age when video games rule! This table-top hockey table is very sturdy, and just the right size. The design of the table and players is very realistic, and you can even replace the teams that come with the table (the Red Wings and Maple Leafs) with your favorite teams (sold online). I highly recommend the Stiga hockey table as a family game for anyone (and not just hockey fans).