I recently adopted onethousandblooms (Adopt a Newbie). She was ever so grateful and appreciative after I sent her a bubbler of seeds. She sent me a wonderful thank you....a box full of Glad bulbs, California Hyacinth, Freescia and Kangaroo Paw rhizomes. It was so unnecesary but so appreciated. She is an absolute pleasure to talk to and so excited about gardening....what a delight. She is a great communicator as well!!! And she packages a nice box. I look forward to swapping and trading with Emmylou in the very near future....Thanks so much!!! A big thumbs up for onethousandblooms!!!!! Annie

When I returned from delivering the mail today, a package was waiting at my case for me, and what a package! Lorraine (paradisa) sent a wonderful package to me! So nice, that I had to take pictures so I could share them with you all! When I opened up my box, I found another box wrapped in blue tissue with a white bow. Once I had that open, there were a lot of smaller packages, all wrapped up in blue tissue with white ribbons. One of my co-workers watched while I opened up everything, and she kept saying how good of a time SHE was having, just watching me open up everything! Well, here are a couple of pictures of the box, which Lorraine sent for me to keep seeds in... and here's a picture of everything with the box opened up... And now, let me tell you what was inside this wonderful box! First, Lorraine sent a lot of stuff, including the see box, which had a wolf theme. I love wolves, consider them my totem, and love what she sent! Now, here's what was inside this box! a CD by Jim Gaffigan, a comedian, so I can relax and have a few laughs. I've already listened to some of this CD, and it really is funny! a peacock feather (don't know why, but very cool!) a wonderful card package of 25 plant labels dehydrated tomatoes (I'll use these in my cooking) homemade strawberry jam 2 packs of seed envelopes a small wolf notebook wolf-themed calendar/checkbook cover wolf bookmark medium-sized wolf-themed notebook 11 different types of tomato seeds nasturtium mix double-click cosmos white brown-eyed susan vine chinese lanterns yellow clasping coneflower cosmos - bright lights cosmos - orange fluted cosmos - tall yellow cosmos - picotee calendula toothache plant geum trifloreum morning glories nemophilia - penny black rose seeds (I've been wanting to try to grow roses from seeds!) gomphrena hardy pink hibiscus (from Lorraine's hibiscus) blue sweet peas fan fare gallardia this box was incredible! THANK YOU LORRAINE!!! (and to think that she was worried I wouldn't like what she sent. how could I NOT like it???) now, all you other e.g.s, aren't you just jealous? hehehe ***heading off to bed now*** -Dan

LOL... one word... CATNIP! Lots of it! I think I've contacted everyone that I needed to today. If not, someone drop me a note. We're forecast for severe thunderstorms today through tomorrow night, so my computer time may be limited. I don't like being on when there's lightening even though we have cable internet. Fran, please let me know ASAP whether you hear from Carrie. That will be the deciding factor in what I set up for Joan. By the way, Jamie emailed me and is still trying to get in touch with Kim. I let her know that officially, I'd dropped them from the swap, but if they complete it, both of them, and send me DCNs and post contents, it will have them clear for the group with the condition that they will have to send first in the next MNF swap they join. I felt this was the most fair way to deal with it, if they both complete the swap. I invite her to hang about and get to know folks and she's assured me that she will :) I'm very happy about that! Oh, and I called the company I ordered from and they're putting a rush on the order, and I found out that it's always best to call the order in and request a rush. Have a really nice conversation with the young lady I spoke with. We discussed my theme gardens and she's going to be checking into GW. She's interested in seeing my Gargoyle bed and Naughty Garden and I'd bet she'd be interested in seeing some of the other Goth type beds and any of the themed beds. She was really interested in the possibilities of those. I told her she'd need to check back in a couple months to see pics of mine since they're still pretty dormant at the moment and it will take some time for the kids and DH to get everything tended to, especially in the new beds that we just started working on. Anyway, she was a really sweet young lady and we had a nice conversation and she tried to see if there was more she could do to get my order here quickly. The rush was all she could do, but I should have my order here sometime late next week or early the following week. So I'll be able to have Nikki's box to mail out then. Everything else is ready and packed. Or ready to be packed :) Though the longer I have to wait to mail it off, the more seeds I find to tuck in ... for cushioning, ya know? Kathy

Hello Vicky, Please don't feel badly about mistakes being made; none of us are perfect and I think I can speak for everyone here that we really appreciate your efforts to get this Secret Santa off the ground and organized for this year. We're all big girls and boys, we'll soldier on and it will be great. Thank you again for all of your efforts. Odessa