Monday, November 29, 2010

2010 Preparedness Stocking Stuffer Swap

Welcome to the 2010 Preparedness Stocking Stuffer Swap!

You all know Christmas is coming.  If your house is anything like mine, you've got stockings to fill, and usually Santa is a little more sparse on the grown-ups stockings.  Do you stuff your own? Use a sticky note to remind your Santa not to forget the stocking?  End up with stuff in there that you really don't want or need?  Well, we've got the solution for your stocking this year.

We're having some stocking stuffer fun with the preparedness stocking stuffer swap here at Adventures in Self Reliance. If you are interested in giving and receiving some fun preparedness/self reliance related stocking stuffers this year, please join in the fun.  Here's the basics: I will assign each participant a new friend for whom they will prepare and ship a stocking full of prep related goodies. And another new friend will be shipping goodies to you.  How fun is that?

Here's the important details:
  1. Sign up to participate by sending me an e-mail here. Please include your ship-to adress and your blog address if you have one. The deadline to sign up is Tuesday, Dec. 7th.  Please only sign up if you are for sure going to participate, we don't want anybody left out.

  2. I will e-mail you the info for the person to whom you will be sending stocking stuffers. I should be able to get all this information out by Dec. 10th at the latest, probably before.  Get to know them, read their blog if they have one, and get some ideas.  Think preparedness and self reliance . . . things like cooking or canning supplies, items for an emergency kit, flashlights, candles, you get the idea.

  3. Choose gifts. Be sure to include preparedness type items--that's the point here--have fun and get better prepared. I would encourage you to use your imagination rather than your wallet.  Be creative.  There are quite a few preparedness items that are cheap or free or you can make yourself.  You probably already have a few extra items around your place you could use in the swap.  I don't want to have a dollar limit, but I also don't want anyone to feel they got shorted, so I am recommending about $20 total. And they should all fit into a standard size stocking, which you will NOT need to provide.  (No Mom, not the ginormous stocking you made sweet husband, a STANDARD size stocking.)  You all do have your own stocking, right?

  4. Ship your stuffers by Wednesday, Dec. 15th so everyone will have them by Christmas.  Mark on the box something like "stocking swap" so the receiver won't open it on accident thinking it is something they ebayed.

  5. When you receive the package, you can let someone else stuff it in your stocking so you're actually surprised on Christmas morning, or not. :)
Need some more stuffer ideas? Check this post at The Survivalist Blog.  Some of these ideas from Preparedness Pro could fit in a stocking also. Of course we want our TOTAL to be around $20 so don't get too carried away :)

I really hope a bunch of you join in on the fun here, but even if only a few want to participate it will still be fun. Please feel free to invite a friend, or post about this stocking swap, or grab my stocking swap button my sweet friend made me.  Just copy the text in the box and paste it on your blog.  Men, you're invited too of course!

<a href="http://selfrelianceadventures.blogspot.com/2010/11/2010-preparedness-stocking-stuffer-swap.html"><img src="http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/ff340/apaskett/stockingswap.jpg"/></a>

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thanksgiving and Some Christmas Fun Coming

I'm taking the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving.  I was planning on making the whole meal, but then some friends invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner and when the grandma of the family insisted to sweet husband that we were coming over to eat, plans changed and now we'll be eating with our friends.  He knows enough not to turn down a grandma.

Of course over this holiday we like to remember some of the things we are thankful for, so don't forget to make that part of your day or weekend.  Spend a little time contemplating the blessings in your life.  No focusing on the things you want and don't have or whatever bad stuff is going on in your world.  Just count your blessings, however small you may think they are.  I know my family is amazingly blessed even though we don't have a huge house or nice cars or fancy furniture.  We have each other and an income and good friends and family.  May we all gain a greater appreciation for the blessings in our lives.

And now for the heads up on the Christmas fun.  I'll be running the Preparedness Stocking Stuffer Swap again this year.  We had a blast with it last year and hope all you who participated did also.  The guidelines/rules/explanation will be forthcoming after the Thanksgiving holiday, so stay tuned and be ready to play along!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Friday, November 19, 2010

Please, Do Something

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Basic Firearms Part 4: Proper Sight Alignment or Sight Picture

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Monday, November 15, 2010

Friday, November 12, 2010

Emergency School Backpack Survival Kit Thoughts

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Monday, November 8, 2010

A Trip to the Range with the Kids

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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Chioggia Beets

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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Go Vote! And Some Fun Stuff from the Garden

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Monday, November 1, 2010

Be Prepared . . . To Help Others

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