THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. PLEASE VISIT THE MAIN BLOG PAGE FOR THE CURRENT CONTEST.
Every day from now to December 12th, I’ll be posting a new contest on my blog to win that day’s prize. Your entry is only good for that day. To win the prize for any other day, you’ll need to come back and enter again.
The grand prize at the end of the 12 days of Holiday Hell Contest is two Kindles, to be awarded to two lucky winners who have entered the Kindle drawings (which are seperate from the daily drawings. Entry into the daily drawings does not enter you into the Kindle drawings).
The fine print: You can win one of the daily Holiday Hell prizes and still be eligible to win the Kindle. You must complete the entry form for each daily contest entirely, double checking that your name and mailing address are correct because this is what I’ll use to mail your prize. If your prize comes back to me due to an incorrect mailing address, you forfeit your prize. Prize winners will be drawn before the end of each day following the contest (ie Day 1’s prize winner will be drawn before the end of Day 2) and will be announced on my blog. Kindle winners will be drawn and announced here on December 13th. All prizes will be mailed by December 20th.
Only one entry into each drawing per household/IP address. Duplicate entries will be deleted and entrants will be disqualified.
International entries are welcome and I will mail overseas, but will not guarantee receipt by Christmas as it will go by dolphin due to the obscene cost of shipping overseas.
I reserve the right to modify the rules at any time.
The Day 10 prize pack is:
Black Currant Liquorice (from Australia)
Acheron button and lanyard
Australia cell phone charm
Signed by Jaci Burton Exclusive Anthology
Signed Reinvention of Chastity by Eve Vaughn
Melting Iron by Ann Cory
Trophy Girl by Melani Blazer
Sweet Moon Dreams by Rose Marie Wolf
Signed Knight of Darkness by Kinley MacGregor
Tanner’s Scheme by Lora Leigh
Satin & A Scandalous Affair by Jan Colley
Signed His Style of Seduction by Roxanne St. Claire
I can’t stress enough how important it is to read the rules and give exactly the information I ask for, as I will disqualify your entry if it’s not correctly–and completely–filled out and I would guess maybe a fifth of them come in incomplete.
We’re going to use the comments again today. This one is going to be a little different. I’ve been pretty stressed and cranky this past week, and feeling a little let down by recent things. I read a post yesterday by an author who seemed to be feeling the same way, and she signed off by encouraging everyone to say something nice to someone in their life. I liked that because, well, I know the world doesn’t revolve around me no matter how much I want it to! So for today’s entry, your assignment is to go say (email, text, smoke signals, IM, Twitter, post on Facebook/MySpace/your blog, hire a banner airplane, etc) something nice to someone you know, something that might pick up their day (and yours!). Then come back here and tell me whose day you brightened and how you let them know/told them. You don’t have to tell me what you said, just who you said it to and how you did it. Obviously, I have no way of checking that you actually did this (unless you painted your nude body with the message and ran through town, thus making sure you appear in the news–don’t do that), so I’ll just rely on your good faith that you’ll do this–something that’s fairly easy and will make someone smile. Let’s spread a little holiday cheer!
Since we’re using the comments and not the form, don’t forget to come back and check if you’ve won so you can send me your address.
Good Luck!
I helped my cousin get some free books on her new Kindle (shhhhh… don’t tell anyone, it’s her Christmas gift and she only had it out “to charge it up” while everyone was out of the house). Now it’s ready for her to start reading as soon as the gifts are opened!
Last week I ran into a “Wish List” over at the Gather Group.
Money’s tight…but it just so happened I already HAD..several items on hand that someone else really needed.
So I pkg them up and shipped them out today.
Also, over at my LJ I’ve been posting Holiday humor to help De-Stress through the Holiday madness.
Uh..could we also have a prize opportunity to winning a years supply of Prozak? (J/K)
Dana
My sister has been having a real crap week due to relationship/living issues with her boyfriend of 3 years. Her boyfriend has a son and they are trying to get things figured out and it’s just been hard on everyone. I sent her a text message letting her know how proud I am of her, including her efforts to take the little boy into consideration since he really is like a stepson to her. She and I had a brief convo about things and she expressed her appreciation for my words of support – I know it’s been tough for her and I just hope it helped to bring as big a smile to her face as it did me to get a message back from her that said, “I love you sis!”
She and I haven’t always been close and that statement meant the world to me. ::sighs::
I invited my sister and her husband to join us in Florida the first week of January. We are visiting my husband’s family and have rented a condo. It sleeps 8 and there will be just 2 of us. We will get them into Disney World so they can spend the day – they spent their honeymoon there about 27 years ago. Hope they can come down for a few days. We don’t see them nearly enough. We live in Tennessee and they live near Jamestown, VA. Did four classes of preschool story times today – spent extra time with a few of the kids who just needed to talk and have some one-on-one. I love it. Pat
This is such a wonderful idea and I’ve loved reading everyone’s responses. Those alone have brightened my day so thank you for suggesting this! For myself, I treated my friends and family to ‘holiday hugs’ and even ended up hugging a stranger who said he wanted one lol
I have a friend who run a another dept at work that was outsourced. She had been letting me work some ot in her dept. and when they were outsourced she was able to keep letting me work ot by having that company reimburse our for our labor. I sent her an email saying how much I appreciated it since extra money comes in handy especially this time of year. She sent me an email back thanking me for my work and said I made her day.
Called a friend long distance, told them I was giving them a big hug.
I emailed my daughter on her brand new email account so she can practice with email. We have to another state on Christmas Eve and I have been trying to keep her excited about the new house and state, even though it means leaving all her family and friends here
I baked my neighbor some peanut butter cookies, which she loves.
My younger sister has been busy studying for her finals, and I called to share some encouraging words with her during this stressful time in her life.
I sent my friends and family text messages with cute heart warming messages.
I made my brother laugh. He doesn’t do that often enough anymore. He works too hard, and is just too tired and worn down. So I do what I can to make him smile. That usually means I have to do something really silly. ;-0
After talking to my parents, I recommended they call this one brother of mine. About 10 minutes later, my brother called me to say that mom and dad had called to tell him they had received and opened their Christmas gift today when it arrived from UPS. He was very down about not planning for it correctly. (He’s very hard on himself). He was down about this and a few other things too. At the end of our conversation, he told me that he had needed to talk to me because I always try to see the positive side of things. sniff, sniff.
Julie
After talking to my parents, I recommended they call this one brother of mine. About 10 minutes later, my brother called me to say that mom and dad had called to tell him they had received and opened their Christmas gift today when it arrived from UPS. He was very down about not planning for it correctly. (He’s very hard on himself). He was down about this and a few other things too. At the end of our conversation, he told me that he had needed to talk to me because I always try to see the positive side of things and I have a wry sense of humor.
Julie
okay that was weird. I didn’t think I had gotten through the first time, so I sent it again and remembered something else he had said. sorry about that, Angie.
I also see there are two Julie’s—both talking about lifting up their brother’s spirits. How uncanny. I thought for a moment I had posted 3 times by accident!
I see mine has my last name though.
Sorry for the confusion.
Julie R.
A friend a work has a college aged daughter whose boyfriend “So-n-so” broke up with her yesterday. I know the her and she is a good daugher, sister & student who is now crushed. I left her a voicemail reminding her that b4 she was “so-so’s” girlfriend she was a smart and beautiful young woman, sister, daughter, friend, & student. And she is still all of those things with or without him. I also reminded her that a new year is a great time for new beginnings!
They lady who runs the religious class tonight was having a hard time today with everything and she was frustrated. I gave her a hug and told her to go out to CVS or somewhere and I would teach the class tonight for her. She was so taken back by my gesture but immdeiately a smile came to her face. It felt good to do something for someone else. Suddenly my own problems didn’t matter any more.
I sent a friend who is living out of the country, and feeling nostalgic, a cheering up email. I also told my dh and ddaughter how much I love them.
I have a “pet loss” sympathy card to express how sorry I am that my friend just lost her cat, she’s having a very rough time with this – her cat was 18 years old. And I just ordered a bag made from recycled Fritos chip bags for her, the cat’s name was Frito. She was named Frito because she was found as a kitten near a trash bin, my friend tempted her with a bag of Fritos to capture her! So I will fill this bag with all the comfort food and other items I can to make her feel just a little bit better during this difficult time. Hopefully in between all the tears (I’ve lost a cat), she will get some laughter and comfort from this gift.
I sent my sister a text message to cheer her up, she has been have an awful year. Then I found this framed poem that talks about sisters and plays you light up my life so I got that for her for Christmas. I also found this cute hanging picture of a vase with flowers for my mom that talks about how special moms are.
It may not seem like much, but having not spoken with a friend in too long with our busy lives, I sent a Instant Message to her saying a big Hi and she wasn’t there but I ended up leaving a message there telling her I was thinking of her alot and often I think more when I’m about to sleep and wished I emailed or something before hand. I got a message after with her saying that it made her day just to hear from me and brought a smile to her face, and it did to me too! So sometimes just a hello and a small note, goes a long way.
I stopped by and saw my dearest friend at her job today. Between our diffent work schedules and our crazy (okay, mostly my crazy life) lives…we don’t see each other nearly enough.
So, I just stopped in unexpectedly to say hi and I am thinking of you! It was nice for both of us.
This is an excellent idea. Thanks for letting us all share happy news.
I just finished making a couple bouquets of ribbon flowers for my grandparents. My grandmother loves flowers but doesn’t have the mobility to care for real ones. I plan to deliver them tomorrow after the kids get home from school.
I sent an email with pictures i had collected from ‘those’ emails that do the rounds (thank you, waving cat, bunch of flowers) to wish someone farewell from my company. We have worked for the same company for 7 years me in Australia and her in Delhi, India.
We only met once but worked together closely via email and phone so i am sad she is going.
She loved the gesture
I told my dughter that I was proud of her for trying so hard in school. She’s been having a rough time with some math problems and making herself sick over it (not good for a 6 year old!). I told her that she’s doing good and that she should just do the best that she could.
I swapped out time with a co-worker so she could go to a doctor’s appointment without losing any of her time.
My mom. I hugged her and told her I love her.