The way that fell on the spreadsheet, our winner is KC! (She as asked not to share her legal name, which she properly shared for tax purposes, on the blog as she doesn’t share it online.) She and her husband have had a rough year with the economy and are excited as to how winning this prize package changes their holiday ability to give. We discussed quite a few things over email and I can tell you, like any of you who would have won, this family is truly grateful. I feel a peace in their winning, a feeling that our family has been able to give something special to another family this year. Not that I wouldn’t have felt that with almost any other entry but, it made me feel good that the family receiving the gift is truly grateful! I’m sure you understand.

I want to share something with all of you who entered. It is simply this: thank you. Thank each and every one of you. I have truly enjoyed reading your stories, interacting with you and meeting so many new people. While I am not best new buds with anyone yet, I have made some new friends, contacts and followers in this process. Through that I have been continuously reminded that everything really happens for a reason. I have hosted a giveaway of this magnitude not just to gift another family with an awesome prize package but to branch out and meet new people. And spread some more holiday cheer!

I know some of you are likely disappointed. To be brutally honest, I was quite sad to pack everything up for the FedEx man today. It all looked rather happy sitting in my house. All the same, I encourage you not to look at this as losing. You’ve all been a part of something amazing. Why don’t you click through some of the blogs and meet new people as well? Or, even, get in the spirit of giving and Elf someone? Or, if you’re particularly bummed, do something nice for yourself today. My guess is that you deserve it.

Also, thanks for largely keeping the entries whine free. It was very nice! That said, keep post-giveaway whining to a minimum, please. Any harassing comments as other sites have received will be forwarded to your ISP. We’re a family friendly site here. Keep that in mind.

Thanks again for making our HP Magic Giveaway a success!

(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.

To be fair, I didn’t decorate yesterday and won’t today because even though LittleBrother’s birthday is not at our house tomorrow, many a person will likely stop by, including my best friend and her eight-ish month old son. Our living room isn’t fantasmically huge so if you try to shove in an extra baby, a best friend and multiple grandparents while I’m scrambling to give orders so we can get out the door and to the party, well, it doesn’t bode well to have less room because of a half-decorated Christmas tree.

Yes, half-decorated.

We don’t do the whole “put it in a playpen” thing because with the traveling we do around the holidays we might need our playpen. For BigBrother’s first moving-around Christmas, we did decorate. He pulled two (non-breakable but glitter covered) balls off the tree. Just that once. BigBrother was content to sit in one place and play quietly, even if I ran some laundry downstairs. All I had to do, at that age, was tell him “no-no, don’t touch” and he didn’t bother the tree again. LittleBrother is likely to pull the tree over on himself. I’m serious. And so I am predicting: no tinsel (sigh), all unbreakable ornaments (sigh) and too high up the tree for the littlest one to reach. Very sexy Christmas tree, no?

I might take down the Thanksgiving wreath from the front door and replace it with the Christmas wreath. I might also put the candy cane ribbon around our outdoor firefighter’s neck. (Oh, yes.) I might get a few things out for the living room. I might find our Christmas towels for the kitchen.

I might. I might.

Are you realizing that this post is more about convincing me than convincing you, my reader? This year has been so hectic and set at such a whirlwind pace that I have no idea how I’m going to fit in the minor/major task of decorating for my most favorite holiday of the year. Perhaps I should have considered this back when we planned our December 18th wedding and purposefully conceived both of our boys in the first week of March. Apparently I had no idea what parenthood would really entail when it came to birthday parties and holidays.

All that said, Morningside Mom has just launched her HP Magic Giveaway. Another one will launch later today. Be sure to pay attention to my tweets on twitter to find out when the other one goes live today!

I’ve never gone Black Friday shopping. To be fair, three years ago I was caring for a newborn on this day and last year I would go into labor by evening. Still, I don’t like crowds. And I treasure my sleep. But four dollar jammies? I was in! I, however, don’t do 5:00 in the morning. As such, I set the alarm for quarter to six. I was out of the house at the top of the hour, grabbed some coffee at Sheetz and continued on to That Store That Has Everything from Toilet Paper to Rain Boots.

First of all, I was walking in as the crazy people who arrived at 5:00 were finishing their shopping. The lines at the cash registers, all open for once in the history of all history, were ridiculous. I felt overwhelmed. Then, being a Black Friday Virgin, I figured that since I wanted pajamas, I should go to where pajamas are sold. It made sense to me. Wrong answer. Logic doesn’t apply to Black Friday. I mean, obviously, right? Since people are out as early as 4:00 to shop. I then wandered around the store for a good twenty minutes before I found them next to the ice cream aisle. Of course! Where else would they be?! Thankfully I am actively parenting two boys because the girl pajamas were almost gone. The boys had a few more sitting on a well-picked-over display. And so I began searching. I needed a 4T because BigBrother’s head is too big for 3T pajamas and a size 18 months for the long, lean LittleBrother. I wanted Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Train. Whereas I normally shun licensed character clothing, I can handle them on pajamas. I mean, you just sleep in them (which is why it drives me nuts that they’re so costly).

My first pass yielded no characters that I was searching for and no sizes. I then began to dig. Like those crazy movies depict Black Friday. Yeah. I became that woman. But I came out with four sets of pajamas. In my head, victory music played as I held them over my head laughing maniacly while pumping the other fist in the air and yelling, “BOOYAH!” Or something. I got the very last 4T Lightning McQueen Thomas and Lightning jammes and the very last 18 month Lightning McQueen and Thomas jammies. I felt victorious. It soon passed.

I walked around for awhile, finding a few little deals for some friends and family members. But the store? Was a mess. The selection? Was well picked-over by 6:15am. The people? Were rarely polite. (I did run into (sometimes literally) a few people who had a spare smile and a kind word which is how I was purposefully trying to act myself.) I was scowled at by a few employees (though my cashier was a fabulously friendly lady). And to walk through the parking lot was to take your life in your own hands. Black Friday is not for the weak, let me tell you.

I will pass along this tip: go grocery shopping on Black Friday morning! No one was in the grocery section. Why was I? I had to grab some last minute items for LittleBrother’s birthday party on Sunday. My other tip? If you’re throwing a birthday party the weekend after Thanksgiving, go shopping for party fixins before Thanksgiving. That was my duh-moment on Wednesday evening and one of the main reasons that I ventured out this morning. I finished my morning at the dollar store grabbing some wrapping paper and plates, silverware and napkins for LittleBrother’s birthday party.

Perhaps I would have been more “into” the experience if I wouldn’t have already been mostly finished with my shopping. Maybe I would have filled two carts with stuff. But, knowing me, I doubt it. And so, the main question, will I go next year? Maybe. If That Store That Has Everything from Board Games to Beer has Power Wheels on sale for $88.00 next year, well, I’d have to cave. I couldn’t this year because I just envisioned BigBrother running LittleBrother over. And backing up. And doing it again. Without realizing he was doing it. And LittleBrother laughing, thinking that anything his older brother does it the most awesome thing in the world. All while internally bleeding. Yeah, no Power Wheels this year.

If, like everyone else who didn’t get to the store for an hour and fifteen minutes after they opened the doors, you missed a deal that you were looking for, don’t forget about the HP Magic Giveaway! Three giveaways are going live today! Bleeping Computer, Gear Live and Windows Connected are all launching their giveaways today, Black Friday. (TWO of those are already live as I write this.) I can tell you that Stop, Drop & Blog will go live with our giveaway on December 11th. In the meantime, I will keep linking to live sites. Keep reading, folks!