Happy Birthday to Me. A Giveaway for You!

Yes, its true my birthday is at the beginning of December. I'm "nearly 30" this year. Which really in the giant scheme of things isn't that old, although I am still quite pleased when I get ID-ed at the liquor store. Now don't get me wrong, its not like I frequent the liquor store. Its just the odd time to get Rob some beer, or around Christmas time to pick up some Kaluha for my Eggnog Kaluha deliciousness! The last time I was there, all I asked was if they had a smaller size of bottle. Basically I said something like "I'm looking for not a mickey but a smaller sized thingy." The chick looked me up and down and said, "Can I see some ID please?" I suppose if I didn't talk like a total valley girl they wouldn't have to ID me...

Anyway, onto my most fab giveaway. Now I'm fairly excited about this one, and believe me, I would win it if I could (although if I was super stealth I could get the Hubby to set up a fake blog, use his name, then win it through him...bwa ha ha, brilliant! Can you tell I'm slightly competitive?).

In honor of the most grand day of my birth and well, the fact that I love, love, love the Christmas season, I wanted to give away two things that I absolutely love to one of my most faithful blog readers.

First I wanted to give away this beautiful angel figurine.
Ain't she loverly?
She stands 12" tall. The base is 3.5" at its widest point. I would venture to say its wooden, as its very solid.

Beautiful scroll detailing on the base and around the tealight holder.
And if you didn't think she was sweet enough already, Rob thought a little bling* would only be appropriate (*bling not included ~ well, unless you put up a big fuss!).
The second item I want to give away, I'm very excited about. My good friend Sarah gave me this CD last Christmas, and I immediately fell in love. Look at the CD cover. Most adorable!
It is called Lowana Wallace: Hymns & Carols. If you are looking for something new this Christmas season, this is the CD for you. She has an incredible ability to take a well known song (whether it be a hymn or a carol), change the arrangement, and breathe new life into it! Her style is compared to that of Sarah McLachlan, Diana Krall, Fiest. I just call it fabulous!
I haven't loved a CD this much in a long time. Sadly (for me, not them!), I left it at our hosts house while we were visiting in Kelowna this summer. So when I finally located the whereabouts of my CD this past week, I "gifted" it to them, and said "Merry Christmas, enjoy!" Now you'll ask, why were you listening to a Christmas CD in the middle of August? Well, because this CD is so stinkin' fabulous I listen to it all the time! It obviously has a Christmas vibe, but the music just so resonates with me, I could listen to it any day of the year (and believe me, I do!).

Now if I would a fancier blogger I would know to post sound clips to my blog, but alas, I can't figure it out (can anyone help me?). The hope was that the loveliness would be playing the background as you read this. So I am going to direct you to Lowana's CD Baby webpage, where you can not only purchase the CD (for only $15, which is an awesome deal!), but you can also preview all of the songs on the CD. I would strongly recommend you give them a listen.

If you are hip and happenin' with iTunes, you can also download Lowana's CD there as well.

And as a shout out for CD Baby, I have to say their customer service is awesome. I ordered two of Lowana's CDs last week and was so impressed! The ordering process was super simple, and this is the confirmation e-mail I got from them. If this isn't customer service with a smile, I don't know what is!

Holly -
Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, November 24, 2009. We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sigh...
We miss you already. We'll be right here at http://cdbaby.com/, patiently awaiting your return.

And finally, as my last little shout out to this most awesome CD, remember how I said my good friend Sarah gave it to me? Well, she just happens to do some of the backup vocals on track 6,
"O Come Let Us Adore Him." So it was already uber cool, but that just brought it into the 21st century, where I could say something like it's "wicked awesome!"

So what must you do to win my most fab prize? Well, I would love to hear about your most favorite Christmas thing. That could be anything from a Christmas memory to a Christmas song to a Christmas treat to well, anything Christmas related. I suppose if you don't celebrate Christmas, perhaps your most favorite Kwanzaa or Hanukkah or heck, even Omisoka, memory!

*Contest Rules: If you win, I ship you said prizes. If you live in Nairobi, we may have to split shipping costs. If you live in Edmonton, I demand that upon delivery of said prizes, you invite me into your home, serve me coffee and sweets, and allow me to stay for a visit!

The contest runs from 12:01am December 4th, 2009 until 11:59pm December 10th, 2009.
This contest is open to residents of planet Earth.

PS. From what I can gather, Omisoka, is just a fancy Japanese way of saying New Year's Eve!