Stop, Drop & Spread That Holiday Magic

As I mentioned before, I am one of the 50 blogs participating in the amazing HP Magic Giveaway. In case you forgot, you can win $6000.00 worth of HP & Microsoft gear. I’m serious. See it?

(More on the specs here.)

And I know I’ve taunted you with dates. And made you guess. And wonder. And wait. But I’ve been nice and continued to link to live giveaways. But guess what? It’s our turn! That’s right! Stop, Drop & Blog is now LIVE with our HP Magic Giveaway! Sound the alarm! Roll out the hose! It’s a four alarm giveaway, folks!

First and foremost, I need to tell you this: while our giveaway is based on a random chance, I want you guys to understand the reason our site decided to participate in such an amazing giveaway. I’ve been blogging all this week about the reasons we are so grateful this holiday season. I will continue to do so throughout the rest of this week. FireDad and I have recognized how truly blessed we have been in the past few years. We have two healthy, happy children. We have a house. We are having a Christmas of our own. We are in love with one another and with our family. We are so blessed. And as such, we want to share that feeling with your family. But we don’t want that feeling to stop there.

We know that we wouldn’t be as blessed as we are if people wouldn’t have taken time to share things with us along the way. The table my parents gave to us when we got our first apartment. The meals the ladies of the church brought to us after LittleBrother was born and I didn’t have enough time to shower let alone cook a healthy meal. The leads for freelancing jobs that others have shared with me because they felt that I would be best suited. The friendship others have extended to us over the years. Without those little bits of sharing, we wouldn’t quite be the family that we are today. And that’s why we believe so intently in the true meaning behind this contest: sharing the magic. While we can’t demand that our winner share the package with anyone, we’d really like to promote that idea. I won’t tell you who and how to share but I will delete all entries that say, “Gimme gimme.” I reserve the right to do so!

All that said: I’ll need you to visit the whole list of rules for the giveaway, of course, but here’s the rundown on how to enter!

1. Leave a comment on this post explaining what winning this package would mean to you and your family in these tough economic times and how your sharing of this package would contribute to the true meaning of the season. This counts as one entry. You may only leave one entry in this fashion. IP addresses are recorded. Obvious spoof IPs will be disqualified.

2. Tweet this contest with this tinyurl ( http://tinyurl.com/sdbgiveaway1 ) and the hashtag #SDBGiveaway. You may tweet up to twice per day. Come back to this post and paste the URL of each individual tweet you post. (I will check every single one at the end of the contest so do not delete.) Each tweet, up to two per day, will count as one entry. (How to get the URL of each individual tweet? Click on the “time” that your tweet was entered. It follows your actual tweet. “3 minutes ago” is an example.) And, not necessary, but feel free to add me on twitter. I’m FireMom!

3. Digg, Stumble or otherwise promote this contest via some form of social media (other than the twitter entry above). Come back to this post and paste the URL of each individual promotion along with your username in case things get confusing. Each promotion will count as one entry. One promotion per social media site.

4. Blog about this contest on your public blog telling your readers a longer version of the comment you left in entry option #1. Meaning: Blog about what this contest means to you and your family this year and how sharing it would impact friends and family. Include a link back to this post. Please come back this post to post the link to your permalinked post just in case my blog doesn’t pick up your track back. You are allowed to do this once and it will count as one entry.

All entries will be entered into a Google Documents spreadsheet. Your name, email, method of entry, date, time and IP address will be recorded. Upon close of the giveaway, I will double check the list for any blatant errors. I will then pick a winner via random.org. Winner will first be contacted via email on the evening of December 16, 2008. Winner has 12 hours to contact me by email reply before the giveaway moves on to the next random winner. Winner will need to provide me with full name, shipping address and telephone number but can choose whatever name they wish to use for announcement on the blog. No personal information will be shared with my readers. I will announce the confirmed winner (hopefully!) by noon here on Stop, Drop & Blog. Winner will be provided with a form for tax purposes so that HP may reimburse you via check for the taxes on this $6000.00 prize package.

Now that we’ve got the entry methods out of the way, I must insist you read the Official Rules of our giveaway. Your participation in any one of those entry methods is an acceptance of the Official Rules. And, let me tell you, #5 is quite possibly the biggest rule.

I am looking forward to meeting some new readers, reading your tweets and blogs and otherwise helping you get in the spirit of giving this holiday season. I encourage you to keep reading this week as I continue to blog about the reasons we are so very grateful this holiday season. In fact, I encourage you to swear of whining for a week and blog about the positives in your life, too! It’s quite refreshing!

Ready? Set! WIN!

ETA: Contest is closed as of 6pm on December 16, 2008. Winner will be announced on the blog tomorrow! Thanks for all of the entries, stories and awesomeness that you have shared with me during this amazing opportunity.