Christmas Album Giveaway Winner!

Happy Monday, y'all! As promised, I'm here today to announce the winner of Little Blue Sailboat's first-ever giveaway! In the spirit of the season, I'm giving away a copy of Dave Barnes' Christmas album, A December to Remember, one of my most favorite Christmas albums ever! 

And now, without further ado, the lucky winner is:

Dottie Millwater of Dottie Millwater Photography!

(winner chosen using a random number generator)

Dottie and I have been pals for the past 7-ish years. In fact, the first time I met her was when she invited Victor and I to her company Christmas party in 2008, a very fancy affair (Victor and I had only been dating for a little over a month!). The rest, as they say, is history! She's been a great friend and an awesome supporter of Little Blue Sailboat from day one. She takes all of our family photos, as well, and is a very talented photographer!

Here's Dottie, myself, and our sweet families last May

Dottie and I just spent most of last Saturday together. We went up to the vintage barn together to find a dresser for her house (I also scored a gorgeous mirror for our dining room!). Later that afternoon, we piled our families into our SUV and headed down to Old Town Alexandria, VA for the Holiday Boat Parade of Lights. We were so stoked for such a cool experience, but the 30-minute drive ended up taking an hour and a half, and by the time we got to the parking garage (where Dottie had pre-paid the parking fee), the lot was completely full. In fact, pretty much all of the traffic in Alexandria was due to the streets being backed up with cars waiting to find parking in the garage! We abandoned our hopes to see all the boats on the river and headed up the hill to find parking close to where we had dinner reservations. Even though we didn't get to see the boats, we still had a great time at dinner and walking around Old Town beneath the lighted trees. We took zero pictures, but we made great memories!

Thanks to all who entered!

Reminder: Christmas Album Giveaway!

Hi all! I hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving and safe travels if you ventured away from home! We returned home from Cincinnati, Ohio Sunday evening, and we've taken our time to get back in the swing of things, hence the lack of posting from me. I'm working on getting our house decorated for Christmas, but that's proving difficult since I have to rethink the placement of a lot of things because...toddlers. I also need to do a Thanksgiving recap/photo dump.

But more importantly, I need to remind you of the GIVEAWAY that ends TOMORROW! I'm giving away a copy of Dave Barnes' Christmas album, A December to Remember.

I love every single song on this album. It features old favorites like "White Christmas," "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas;" as well as original tunes like "So, Santa," "Peace on Earth," and the incredibly beautiful "When Love Was Born." If you enjoy fun and beautiful Christmas music, you are sure to love this album, so get entered!

Here's a silly "infomercial" that Dave recorded to promote this album when he released it a few years ago. I think he's hilarious. You can hear some of the album's songs play in the background, too, so it's like a little preview!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment stating something you love about Christmas.  You can comment here on the blog in the comments section, under the link to this post on the Little Blue Sailboat Facebook page, under the link to this post on my personal Facebook page, or send me an email at littlebluesailboatblog@gmail.com. You only have to comment one way to be entered, but I have to be able to contact you afterward if you win, so don't comment anonymously!  Good luck!

Please submit your entry by midnight on the evening of Friday, December 4, 2015 (that's tomorrow!). I will announce the winner on Monday, December 7, 2015! Happy entering!

Giveaway! | A Warm and Cozy Christmas Album

I know it's not quite Thanksgiving yet, but I've already started listening to Christmas music. If you read my post defending the "Christmas creep" a couple of weeks ago, you'll understand why I don't hesitate to spin the Christmas tunes before the Christmas season officially starts. Christmas gives me the warm-fuzzies!

I have a Christmas playlist on my iPhone, and I play it on shuffle non-stop in November/December. It's a great mix of upbeat/dance-worthy tunes and classic, snuggly songs. You can always bet I'm singing along with whichever song is playing at the moment, too. You can't squash my joy when Christmas music is playing.

Two of my very favorite albums on my playlist are by Dave Barnes. Have you heard of him? I mentioned a few of his songs in my post about choosing a first-dance wedding song earlier this year. He and I go way back; I saw Dave perform for the first time in uptown Oxford (home of Miami University, my alma mater) my junior year of college (2006) and I became an instant fan.

Fan-girling with other fan-girl pals

After I moved to Maryland, I continued to love his music and bought his new albums when they came out.  I also saw him perform live in Annapolis twice.

That's Milo, the class bear from the year I taught 2nd grade.  Yes, I took him to the concert with me.  And Dave was gracious enough to take a photo with us for Milo's Adventure Journal.

Dave is a very talented singer-songwriter from Nashville. He's released 8 albums, two of which are fantastic Christmas albums. While I prefer his own versions of his songs, it's worth noting that his song "God Gave Me You" (from his album What We Want, What We Get) was released by Blake Shelton and was nominated for a Grammy in 2012. He's also written songs for artists like Matt Wertz (whom he tours with occasionally), Tim McGraw, and Billy Currington, among others.

Dave doesn't get a lot of radio air time, from what I've noticed, but I do frequently hear his song "Little Lies" over the sound system at Home Depot (of all places!). He's a very goofy guy, too, and records some pretty silly videos. In my experience, he's performed in very small, intimate venues (like Rams Head in Annapolis, MD), which is why I have been so lucky to get photos with him.

Now that you have all the background deets, it's time to tell you about the Christmas Album giveaway! Since it's the season of giving, I am going to give away a copy of his Christmas album A December to Remember to one lucky blog reader!

source

I love every single song on this album. It features old favorites like "White Christmas," "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas;" as well as original tunes like "So, Santa," "Peace on Earth," and the incredibly beautiful "When Love Was Born." If you enjoy fun and beautiful Christmas music, you are sure to love this album, so get entered!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment stating something you love about Christmas.  You can comment here on the blog in the comments section, under the link to this post on the Little Blue Sailboat Facebook page, under the link to this post on my personal Facebook page, or send me an email at littlebluesailboatblog@gmail.com. You only have to comment one way to be entered, but I have to be able to contact you afterward if you win, so don't comment anonymously!  Good luck!

Please submit your entry by midnight on the evening of Friday, December 4, 2015. I will announce the winner on Monday, December 7, 2015! Happy entering!