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