Christmas of Dreams Winner
Wow, this was harder then I thought. I mean, really, REALLY hard. I was touched by so many stories, so many families, so many lives, I just didn’t realize it would be like this when we went into this contest. Please know that we struggled a lot. Truly, everyone deserves a wonderful holiday, for a huge variety of reasons. Families that are in financial times, families that want to reward their wives or husbands this year, families with multiple kids, or sicknesses, or families that just want to go out with a bang this year.
It took a few days because we went back and forth on about 5 stories that were the strongest. One of the problems I had, was that the story we felt would be the best winner, didn’t have a young child, therefore half the prizes would go unused or unneeded…when there were so many stories that could use all these prizes as a whole. In her entry, she said she would donate the ones that she didn’t need, but we felt badly that there were families HERE that truly needed them.
So we contacted her and asked her if we could keep the prizes and redistribute to those entries that needed baby things since she had no need and in true Christmas spirit, she said that would not be a problem at all.
Therefore, Christmas of Dreams will be broken up by more then one winner, which was not what we had expected of course, but in a way, seems even more appropriate.
I am getting ready to go through and break up the Grand Prize Winner prizes and then whom will be collecting the baby items and what those are.
~Trisha
Grand Prize Winner Lisa from Knits and Notions
Prizes: Value: Approx $1200
Baby Pop Super Hero Set, Painting by La Belle Toile, Lollipop Book Club, Dyson DC25 Vacuum, LA Plates Cookies for Santa, Black box by Little Black Box, Innerlight Belt by Koshas, Pair of Earrings by JAC Jewerly, My Bag by Kushies, BottleWise Carrier by BottleWise, Scentsy Plug w/ three bars, $20 GC from This and That, Mia Cameron Clutch by FeeFiFoto, Didj Gaming System by LeapFrog, Soda Machine by The Soda Club, Mimsi-Bags purse/bag, Huddy Buddy, SillyMonkeez shirt, Pair of Sunglasses by Ice Cream Shades
The last year and half has held a lot of changes for my son and I. On April 7, 2007, I was putting my son (he was 4 at the time)to bed and he made a mad dash to the living room to say goodnight to daddy one more time. I heard him go out and say “Daddy…Daddy….Daddy wake up…Daddy wake up!!”. Now my husband was a notoriously sound sleeper. However, he also had a heart problem, and said he had been feeling fluish all day. He had assured me throughout the day it was just a cold/flu not anything more serious, and he would be fine if he could just sleep it off. When I heard my son trying to wake him I rushed out to the living room, and instantly knew something was very wrong.
I won’t go into all the details here, I’ll just say after trying to resuscitate my husband myself, and realizing I needed to get my son out of there, I called 911. The paramedics came and worked on my husband for a while, then came outside to talk to me. They really didn’t need to tell me anything, because I knew from the moment I entered the living room, that at the age of 32 my husband was gone.
The next week was a whirlwind of funeral planning, meeting my mother-in-law for the first time in person, recounting that night to countless people who were shocked by the news, and trying to explain the unexplainable to a 4 year old. My husband was a stay at home dad and I worked full-time, and my primary concern was for my son and how losing the person my son spent every day of his four years with would affect him.
At the time we lived in a mobile home I owned prior to getting married. I never went back for any length of time after that nigh. We moved in my parent’s house the night my husband passed away. I only went back to my house to grab a few things here and there. By and large I left everything I owned, except for things that had sentimental value (and even some of those were left behind). I didn’t want anything to do with that home, or what was in it. They were just things and I had no use for them. I lowered the price of the home for the person who was buying it and had them take care of disposing of all my stuff.
Lots of tears were shed during the next year, and lots of healing happened as well. We had been preparing to move out on our own for most of the time we were with my folks. I am forever thankful to them for letting us stay with them, but I knew we needed to get out and start our lives anew. We lived with my parents until May 1st of 2008, when we finally moved into our own apartment.
My son has done amazingly well since his father’s death. He is bright, funny, and loving. He always just seemed to get it. He would be sad, express it, and move on and continue playing. He started kindergarten this fall. All of his milestones are bittersweet for me. It’s wonderful to see him grow and mature, but I can’t help to get a more than a little choked up when I think about how his dad would have given anything to be here with him now.
This will be the first Christmas in our new home. The first one where it will be just the two of us on Christmas morning. I want it to be the most special Christmas ever! Of course any prizes that would not apply to us, such as baby items we would donate to a local organization that would make sure the items got to a family in need
Prizes below were generously donated by the Grand Prize winner back into the pot for us to give out to other needy families.
2nd Winner Runner Up: Tracye & Tracyes Husband
Prizes Awarded: Value Approx: $450
Uncommonly Cute Baby Shirt, Kuster High Chair, Natitys Design baby cart cover, Mutsy grow up chair, Lets Go Strolling JuJuBe Diaper Bag, DaBib 1 bib, Sassy Baby baby toy, Organic Blankees Snuggle Blankee, Georgie Tees Maternity Shirt of Choice
3rd Winner Runner Up: Colleen- We hope you take these items to the hospital that your daughter was at and let her pass them out to the kids. Please feel free to take pictures and share back with us so we can post about it.
Prizes Awarded: Value Approx: $130
1 pair of Kidz Sunglasses, Appledonia Shirt for babies, DaBib 1 bib, Baby Legs Holiday Set, Shi Shu Style Baby Blanket, Sassy Baby baby toy
Angela G (200)
tiffany (94)
Darci (25)
Nancy (19)
shawn (12)
26 Comments
Congrats everyone! You all deserve it.
Congratulations! They deserve to win. I hope this will help them get through this holiday a little better.
Take Care!
Vicky
Congratulations to you all and wishing you a very Merry Christmas!
What a story! I hope they have a wonderful Christmas that is more than their dreams could imagine! They truly deserve it!!!
That made me cry! Thank you so much for sharing that story with us!
Warm Blessings to all the winners!
Thanks Mom Dot!!
Congrats! Well deserved!
Congratulations!! Your letter touched me, I pray this is a blessed Christmas for you and your little one!! Congrats to the other winners too!! I couldn’t imagine having to choose a winner!!
Congratulations!!!! I get goosebumps thinking of your 1st Christmas morning in your new place. We will be thinking of you!!!
So happy for Lisa and the other winners I knew it would be a dream come true!
Congrats to all the winners. Enjoy them.
Congratulations everyone!!!
I am sitting here in tears. I am so glad all of these prizes will go to people who really need them.
Congratulations to each of you. May you have a wonderful Christmas!
Congratulations to the Winners…
WOW! Congratulations! Tricia, that must have been hard to choose but I think you did well. My thoughts and prayers go out to Lisa and her son. Congrats everyone!
I saw this about an hour ago, I guess. I saw my name, but didn’t really comprehend what I was reading. It just couldn’t really mean what I thought it meant. I yelled for my husband to come and read it to me. I’ve been sitting here, in tears, just trying to come up with something coherent to say. I still can’t believe it.
I just cannot express how thankful and grateful I am to have been chosen. There aren’t words enough to tell you what this means to us.
Trisha, I can’t imagine having to choose someone. I read some of those letters, and they were definitely all deserving. I know you had a super-difficult time doing this. Thank you so much for choosing us.
Lisa, thank you so much. Your letter tore my heart out. I just can’t imagine going through that. Thank you for being so generous to give back to others.
Colleen, I read your letter, too, and many posts on your blog. You’re a strong mom, and I hope this year’s Christmas is the best your family has ever had.
Congratulations to both of you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you MomDot!!!
Congrats to all.
Merry Christmas
Thank you very much for choosing us as a runnerup! I was in tears reading everyones stories and then again when I saw I won some of these prizes. I got really choked up when I called my Mom and told her. I cant wait to share these prizes! I cant wait to share some pics here of my daughter sharing in the joy! Thank you!!!!
Congratulations ladies, may your Christmas be a little brighter! And thank you mom dot for hosting this fantastic contest, you are wonderful!
Congratulations to the winner, Merry Christmas to all of you!!
Congrats to the winners!
I’m absolutely speechless!! Thank you so much for choosing us, you have truly made this the best Christmas ever! I don’t even have the words to begin to tell you how much this means to me.
I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult the decision was for you, because everyone was so deserving. As soon as I read your decision this morning I cried tears of joy, and have been calling and texting everyone I know!
Congratulations to the other winners, I’m so glad the baby items went to others who entered the contest.
Lisa
Congrats to the winners!
Congratulations ladies!!!
Congrats Ladies!
CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE!!!
I went through much of the same thing on Thanksgiving when I couldn’t find one single place to bring my turkey and box of side dishes to donate to, hoping to find a family in need to give it to. I was actually turned away at a homeless shelter! (They already had enough they told me). So I had to post it on Freecycle, and then had to go through all of the countless emails I received from people who deserved it, all coming in at once, all similar stories. It was heartbreaking to have to choose. I definitely don’t envy you ladies in the least with your decisions.
I do believe whomever you chose as the winner has a beautiful heart to allow you to split it up like this. Definitely worthy of being the winner.
You ladies are a blessing. Whomever gets these goodies, however they get them, will be blessed indeed. It swells my heart knowing that.