The Christmas Card and Gift Exchanges

Jazzi's Mom here: I want to get a post up about the Christmas Exchanges. I was waiting for the Halloween festivities to get over plus I am in San Antonio visiting my daughter's family. Here's the information on The Christmas Card Exchange. You can send Christmas, Holiday and Hanukkah cards. For those of you that want to go Green, you may send E-cards also. It is just as much fun getting them online as in the mailbox. The deadline to get your name on the mailing list is Nov 9th. NO EXCEPTIONS!! Again, I can not emphasize this enough. You have just 6 days left until the deadline of Nov. 9th. Once the list is sent out, it is a pain to keep adding names to it and it isnt fair to those that got their information in on time, so hence the deadline. The list will be E-mailed in a spreadsheet form to you on Nov. 11th. If you are sending to any overseas, then you will want to get those out right away so that they will have time to get there. It gives you 6 weeks to get your cards all mailed out.

There are no rules: You can mail to everyone on the list or just to the ones you know. It is entirely up to you.

Riley's Mom Elyse, from  The adventures of a cattle dog, will be helping me and she will be making the spreadsheet and sending the list out. It will be easy to read and I think you all will love it. Elyse will do a great job.

To get your name and addy on the list, you will need to sign up. The information you will need is:
1.Your blog name
2.Your blogspot addy
3.All the dogs/cats name that you want the cards addressed to.
4.Your e-mail addy for those people going green and sending e-cards.
5.Your snail mail addy for mailing
Please make sure that all your information is correct before you send it. So hurry up and get your information sent to: Dcraftsalot@yahoo.com

Now for the Christmas Gift Exchange: This is our 5th annual Christmas gift exchange. If you would like to join in, there are  a few things that you need to know.  There are 2 ways to join, by Singles and Groups:
GROUPS~~Usually if you have more than 2-3 dogs, they do a group and you will be assigned another group of dogs. You buy your group a bunch of gifts for that group to share and the group that has your name would buy your dogs a bunch of toys to share.
SINGLES~~are of course single dogs. If you have 2 dogs, you could be a group or you could go single, it just depends on how many gifts you want to buy. If 2 dogs go single, then they would buy 2 gifts and receive 2 gifts.
~~For the overseas doggies, we match them up with other doggies close by in the same area, so that you are not shipping to the US to save $$,

The deadline to sign up is Nov 9th. There are NO EXCEPTIONS!!! no ands, ifs or buts about it. Once the names are out, it is very hard to add you in. So remember Nov 9th, mark your calendars.
You can sign-up from now until Nov 9th and then names would be posted on Nov. 11th. Once the names are posted, you get in contact with your name and get their mailing addresses and any information about what the dogs/cat likes and doesn't like.

We would like to have all the packages mailed by Dec 9th so that your package has time to get to its partner.  For those that live out of the US, you will NEED to send early depending on how your mail is and how close your partner is to you so keep that in  mind ok? You can also find out from your partner about how long their mail takes to get to them.

The cost for a single is $10.00 and for a group is from $15.00 -$20.00. But.....remember...ONLY sign up if you really WANT to do this and CAN follow through. I can not emphasize this enough!! We have had a few in the past yrs where a dog didn't get a gift because their name didn't follow through and that isn't fair to the partner and is no fun for me!! I kinda go spastic!! LOL
Last year, it was so super smooth, no problems and everyone got their gifts and I was really pleased about that.

I am looking forward to a fun Christmas exchange. When you get your gift, it is up to you whether you want to open it then or wait until Christmas. (Jazzi and I have no self-control and we have to open them right then) We do want you to get pictures and do a post about it so we can all share in you opening your gift.

To join I need you to send me an e-mail. In this e-mail, I will need:
Your blog addy and e-mail
All the dogs names that are in the drawing
if you are signing up as a group or single
and what state/country that you live it.
Send to: Dcraftsalot@yahoo.com

One fun thing about the gift exchange is that you get to meet new friends, so here's to friends and a GREAT exchange!! AND a BIG thanks to all that have posted and helped get the word out about the exchanges. The numbers are down this year so far but hopeful for some more to come in.