The End of the Contest

Wow.  Is it just me, or was December one merry month?  It was so fun to see all the entries come pouring in, to hear how much fun everyone was having, and to meet so many new people.  I wish I could do something like this forever.  Not realistic, but hey, it's fun to think about.

We've got ourselves a few items of business to take care of before we can wrap this thing up.

First of all, our winners from this last week are:

Beverly won Alison Palmer's fiction giveaway

Karlene won the vinyl and wood sign

Angie won the scrapbooking set

and ...

Taffy won the Grand Basket of Goodies

Margot won the free night's stay at Lions Gate Manor

Congratulations, ladies!!

I had a little bit too much fun yesterday.  The kids and I braved the ice and snow and went out to deliver Taffy's basket.  Why mail it when you can have the fun of hand-delivering?

Here is Taffy looking into the basket.  That thing was pretty heavy, as my twelve-year-old son will attest - it rode on his lap on our way out to Taffy's house.

And here I am with Taffy, both of us very happy and feeling the merry miracle ... except I'm not wearing makeup, and you're not allowed to look closely enough to discover that.

So that was the fun I had yesterday.  Then I got to have fun again this morning, when Margot received my e-mail that she had won the stay at Lions Gate Manor.  Darn it - I couldn't show up on her doorstep.  She lives too far away.  But if she didn't, there would have been some Tristi-appearing-on-doorstep going on.

First, allow me to quote Margot's e-mail - with her permission, of course:

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no way no way! 

**freak**

are you freaking serious????

Margot, who is dancing and shrieking. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

After looking around for the right picture to show her state of joy, Margot sent me this one.  Hmmm ... I'm not sure, but I think she's pretty happy.  Do you think she's pretty happy?

I also thought you might be interested in a few other tidbits about this contest.  First of all, over the course of the contest, I received 463 e-mails with entries.  Now, many of those were returning participants, but still, that's downright awesome!  Some other facts:

My followers increased by 50

The most entries received in one day - 40 

The fewest entries received in one day - 20

The task most appreciated by the participants - yesterday's, to write down goals

And here's one more fun picture for you.  On the last day, when all the entries from the previous contests were added into the pile, we had a mighty lot of slips of paper.  This is what the pile looked like - I put it on a table, so you could see it better.  Compare it to the can of beef broth so you can gauge how big it was - that's one huge pile of entries.  It's too bad you can't really tell how mounded up it is in the middle. Thank you for making it all happen!

I would also like to thank the sponsors of this contest.  None of this would have been possible without them.   I'm going to upload a list of all the sponsors to my sidebar, and I would really like to encourage all you, my faithful blog readers, to keep my sponsors in mind when you are thinking about your future purchases.  Send some of your business their way, and support them and our local economy. You can check out the list here. 

And with that ... I'm putting this baby to bed.  Good night, all, and Happy New Year!!