6th Annual Easter Basket Exchange

 

OK, ladies!  It is already that time again.  I guess it has been a whole year, but I'm still enjoying some of the fun things from my basket (the bling!), so it doesn't actually seem that long ago.  But Easter is in March this year, so we need to get on this!

The Short:  If you know how it all works, everything is the same.  Deadline to enter the exchange is Saturday, March 2 at midnight.  I will send out assignments that Sunday or Monday.  Enter by leaving comment here with your email address (if I don't have it), or email me directly at kyounc[at]yahoo[dot]com.

The Long:  If you are new to my blog, or the Easter Basket Exchange (EBX), this is something we've been doing for many years.  It began with women who put a lot of love into Easter baskets for their families, but never quite got the same treatment themselves.  The EBX is for anyone who wants to both create and receive something extra special for Easter.

Who Can Participate

1. You do not have to be a mother, married, female or Christian. You can fit pretty much any demographic as long as you qualify under #2 and #3. You can even be one of the poor unfortunates who knew about the exchange in past years and chose not to participate.

2. But you do have to live in the continental U.S. or have an APO address.

3.  I don't have to know you personally, but if I don't, please just email me a little about yourself so I can feel like you're a real person who won't flake out.  If I do know you already, all the better.

How It Works

1. Leave a comment to this post or email me directly (kyounc at yahoo dot com) to say you want to participate. Make sure I have your email address!!! The deadline to sign up is Saturday, March 2, which gives you almost two weeks to sign up (but don't wait!), three weeks to put your basket together, and a week to get it mailed.

2. I'll email you a questionnaire to fill out; this will be forwarded to your giver to give her a little info and direction. Around March 3 I will make the assignments and you can get started on your basket!

3. Based on your person's questionnaire answers, and your own awesomeness, put together the funnest, coolest, most amazing Easter basket ever for her. Make it her (or your) dream basket. Spending guideline is $30, not including shipping. The one requirement for everyone is that you must include quality chocolate, and I mean good quality chocolate. Other than that, run with it.

4. Put your basket/package together and mail it to your person so s/he will receive it by Easter. Please ship Priority Mail - this will insure it arriving within a week. I usually like to use a flat rate box, available in various sizes from the post office, so I'm not limited by weight.

5. Wake up Easter morning and have an awesome time opening your package! Email me a picture for the blog, and send your sender a thank you card.

That's it! Post a comment (with your email address) or shoot me an email to get started!

Check out our baskets from past years!
2012
2010
2009
2008

EBX Round-Up

 Alright.  For all you lurkers, who have waffled for years whether to join the Easter basket exchange, or for those that meant to but didn't, or even for those who did, here's a look at all the fun, love, and happiness it brought.

Easter morning, 2012.  Twenty-three women, mostly strangers to each other, sliced, ripped and tore into Easter care packages made just for them.  Customized to interests, tastes, allergies, location, and lifestyle, each basket brought giggles, smiles, and, in some cases, squeals to its recipient.  Which was exactly what it was supposed to do.  Here are just a few pictures of the happy faces and decadent fillings this year's Easter basket exchange brought, interspersed with quotes some of the women emailed me.

Michelle in Virginia

It was a fabulous basket.

Thank you for letting me participate in your Easter basket exchange, it made the day really special.  Heidi sent a perfectly lovely basket from Michigan, full of things that corresponded to my answers to your questionnaire. and including some wonderful chocolate, much in the shape of bunnies almost too cute to bite.  (Almost.)  
She must be an artist, it was like Ireland:  a hundred shades of green!

Cathy in Arizona

Kari, you have an amazing friend! This box is so perfect-- she shops so well for teachers-- cute hand sanitizer and pens, paper-- and have me tantalizing chocolate loves and a book to boot!

And I do believe that these Cake Bites are from the "Sweet Tooth Fairy Shop," which I happened to discover my last year at BYU and I know that these bites were featured on the Rachel Ray show.

Wow! What a perfect package to come home to! Sending her a thank-you is going to be superlative.

Celeste in Virginia

Tona in Massachusetts

All my favorite jellybeans and a wasabi ginger sesame dark choc bar (!!). Please note that my new nail polish is the EXACT shade of the blouse I wore on Sunday!! Cool gourmet salt and bath goodies, too. And car fresheners, yay!

Brooklyn in Utah

Thanks again!  I will definitely be doing this again next year!

Felicia in Virginia

Thanks for asking me to be apart of the Easter basket exchange!  I had a great time picking out things to send and was so excited to get my box in the mail.

Heidi in Michigan

Thanks again for organizing the EBX! I love participating every year.

Cherry in New York

I have to tell you I am glad I joined EBX this year, you assigned me to a very caring and charitable stranger! I love the basket she prepared and the letter she wrote.  I was so touched!

Jenny in South Carolina

Colleen in Virginia

This was so much fun!

Mia in Tennessee

I do love surprises and I loved this one. 

Katy in Maryland

Barbara in Georgia

The basket was AWESOME. I loved it. And I loved all the little notes and the nice card. You were so thoughtful in thinking about my life and what I need (or want!) right now.

Melanie in Oklahoma

Sydney in West Virginia 

Love my basket!

Emily in New York

Katy sent me this awesome basket with a plethora of awesome chocolate and a sweet charm for a necklace and even a reusable shopping bag for a basket.  It was great to participate again--thanks for organizing it!

Vanessa in Virginia

What fun the Easter basket exchange was!   I am in for next year.

And here's me, with my "SPRING BLING"-themed package (notice my rings and earrings, all part of the BLING.)

And since I can, here are some more detailed pics of my Easter basket contents.  Truly astounding and fabulous!

What is Speculoos, you ask?  She put a note about it saying she has no idea, but she bought it on a trip to New York and thought I would know what to do with it.  Then, at the next Dessert Club meeting, someone showed up with a Speculoos crust cheesecake!  It's a caramelized gingergread cookie spread, in the same family as peanut butter and Nutella. Belgian. Amazing.

And two homemade CD's - I had mentioned how badly I need new music - one is a mix of music that makes her happy, and one is Adele - I must be the only person on earth who still didn't have her CD.

I love getting music in my Easter basket - I request a homemade mix almost every year and usually get it.  I love hearing what other people like.

I also love every freaking thing I got in my package this year.  Those bar towels are awesome.  I got called "bling-y" at church at least three times, sporting my new rings, earrings and Vera Wang spring flips, a compliment I badly needed after a long drab winter.  I am carefully pacing (= hoarding) my chocolate, and some fancy sandals was JUST what the Easter bunny ordered.  I did think it was strange to get a text asking my shoe size, but I didn't question.  You don't question the EBX.  You just surrender to it.

5th Annual Easter Basket Exchange

 Hot dog!  It is already time for EBX!

Deadline to sign up is Saturday, March 10.  I will get the assignments out as soon as possible after that so you have almost a month to put them together and mail them.  Easter is April 8.  Leave a comment here or email me to get in on the action.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about - confused, yet...intrigued - see here for all the info.  Pretty much same rules apply.

4th Annual Easter Basket Exchange

It's that time again. I know it usually seems like the year has flown by, but this time, at least for me, it has been a looong year. And I'm ready for a great EBX.

A brief history: The last three years on DMTotW we did an Easter basket exchange because the truth is most husbands (or other loved ones) cannot be relied upon to do justice to the best candy holiday of the year. Not only do they stink at making, or remembering, or caring about, baskets; they also don't always appreciate the painstaking measures we go to to put together something awesome for them. So here we have the chance for a satisfying get-and-give basket experience

Who Can Participate

1. As with last year, you do not have to be a mother, married, female or Christian. You can fit pretty much any demographic as long as you qualify under #2 and #3. You can even be one of the poor unfortunates who knew about the exchange in past years and chose not to participate.

2. But you do have to live in the continental U.S. or have an APO address.

3. And I do have to know you personally or be connected to you through someone, somehow (like you are a friend/relative of my friend/relative. Or you know my kid's preschool teacher's neighbor's realtor. Or you love Johnny Depp. Or Mark Wahlberg.) Just include in your comment or email how I'm supposed to know you.

How It Works

Things will go similar to last year, with a few changes.

1. Leave a comment to this post or email me directly (kyounc at yahoo dot com) to say you want to participate. Make sure I have your email address!!! The deadline to sign up is Wednesday, March 30, which gives you plenty of time to sign up, two and a half weeks to put your basket together, and a week to get it to the recipient.

2. I'll email you a questionnaire to fill out; this will be forwarded to your giver to give her a little info and direction. On March 31 I will make the assignments and you can get started on your basket!

3. Based on your person's questionnaire answers, and your own awesomeness, put together the funnest, coolest, most amazing Easter basket ever for her. Make it her (or your) dream basket. Spending cap is $30, not including shipping. The one requirement for everyone is that you must include quality chocolate, and I mean good quality chocolate. Other than that, run with it.

4. Put your basket/package together and mail it to your person so s/he will receive it by Easter. Please ship Priority Mail - this will insure it arriving within a week. I usually like to use a flat rate box, available in various sizes from the post office, so I'm not limited by weight.

5. Wake up Easter morning and have an awesome time opening your package! Email me a picture for the blog, and send your sender a thank you card.

That's it! Post a comment (with your email address) or shoot me an email to get started!

Easter (finally)

So while I'm off at the hospital I thought it might be a good time to finally post an Easter follow-up.  Do not be confused.  I am not writing this from the hospital.  I'm not quite that dedicated a blogger.  I wrote it ahead of time and scheduled it to post.

First of all, the EBX10 was a huge success.  We had 27 participants this year, a record high, hailing from England, Virginia, Tennessee, Utah, Colorado, South Carolina, D.C., Alabama, Michigan, California, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Massachusetts.  We even had low-carb, gluten-free, and diabetic participants, all of whom got awesome baskets.  Personally, mine was perfect.  After all, can you ever really have too many Cadbury Cream Eggs?  Here's a slide show of some of the fun (kudos to those who put themselves in the pic - I think most of us were a little too freshly-woken to allow photographs):


As I mentioned before, Ed actually got a basket this year.  While preparing for a recent business trip, we realized he is lacking a stock of travel size toiletries, so I loaded him up with toothpaste, hair gel, shave cream, lint roller and a Tide stain-remover-on-the-go stick.  Also, his brown dress shoes have been sitting unworn for months simply for needing a polish, so I got him a brown polish kit, his favorite Trader Joe's licorice, a tiny chocolate bunny, and a box of ear plugs.  He thought they were for hunting (which isn't until October) but I'm even smarter than that.  With both past babies he has had a hard time sleeping through newborn squeaks and grunts, and has always worn ear plugs to bed for the first weeks.  Finally, I picked him up a book called Take a Hike Washington, D.C.: Hikes within Two Hours of the City.  Should come in handy this summer, when I want him to take the kids away, and when he starts training for hunting season.  I think he was pleased.

On Easter morning we woke up and opened our baskets, then had a decadent breakfast of Chocolate Sticky Buns (check today's VGP post - that's right, I coordinated posts.) 

It was such a beautiful morning we packed some snacks in a bag and went on a little family nature walk near a local park.  When I needed a break, we spread out a blanket, had a snack and read the Easter story from the Bible, followed by some simple discussion and testimony. 

In the afternoon we watched General Conference, then went to my sister's for dinner.  Overall a nice, fulfilling, relaxing day with family.  And a rockin' basket.

3rd Annual Easter Basket Exchange

Mhm, that's right. You know what that picture means. It's time for EBX10 (Easter Basket Exchange '10)! Easter this year is April 4 - that's only 5 1/2 weeks away - so if your interest is piqued, read on.

A brief history: The last two years on DMTotW we did an Easter basket exchange because the truth is most husbands (or other loved ones) cannot be relied upon to do justice to the best candy holiday of the year. Not only do they stink at making, or remembering, or caring about, baskets; they also don't always appreciate the painstaking measures we go to to put together something awesome for them. Hence the exchange. I was supremely satisfied in the baskets I have both given and received in past years and cannot wait to get going on the next one! (Actually, I already have...)

Who Can Participate

1. As with last year, you do not have to be a mother, married, female or Christian. You can fit pretty much any demographic as long as you qualify under #2 and #3. You can even be one of the poor unfortunates who knew about the exchange last year and chose not to participate.

2. But you do have to live in the continental U.S. or have an APO address.

3. And I do have to know you personally or be connected to you through someone (like you are a friend/relative of my friend/relative.) Just include in your comment or email how I'm supposed to know you.

How It Works

It worked great last year so we'll do it pretty much the same.

1. Leave a comment to this post or email me directly (kyounc at yahoo dot com) to say you want to participate. Make sure I have your email address!!! The deadline to sign up is Saturday, March 13, which gives you almost two weeks to sign up, two weeks to put your basket together, and a week to get it to the recipient. Once you sign up, I will email you a brief questionnaire to fill out that will be later forwarded to your assignee (again, make sure I have your email address.)

2. On March 14 I will mix up the names and email out the assignments; your personal information will not go up on the blog. I will also email you the questionnaire your recipient filled out and you can use it as much or as little as you want in your preparations.

3. This is the fun part. Once you have your assignment, and a little information about your person, put together the funnest, coolest, most amazing Easter basket ever for her. Make it her (or your) dream basket. Spending cap is $30, not including shipping. The one requirement for everyone is that you must include quality chocolate, and I mean good quality chocolate. Other than that, run with it. A few ideas include, but are not limited to: book, magazine, recipes, something you handmade, fizzy bath balls/salts/soap/lotion, other candy, gift cards, cd, socks, kitchen gadgets, a local specialty item from where you live, beauty products, jewelry, the list goes on and on. Seriously, if I had an unlimited budget I could put together 20 awesome baskets and no two would be the same.

4. Put your basket/package together and mail it to your person so s/he will receive it by Easter. NEW RULE: Please ship Priority Mail - this will insure it arriving within a week. I usually like to use a flat rate box, available in various sizes from the post office, so I'm not limited by weight.

5. Wake up Easter morning and have an awesome time opening your package! Email me a picture for the blog, and send your sender a thank you card.

6. Try not to be too sad it's another year until next Easter.

Let the fun begin!

EBX09 Follow-Up

It has been another unbelievably fun and successful Easter basket exchange. Not to say it wasn't without its...anecdotes.

Totally unpredictable mail service rushed some baskets and dragged others. (I think the key is to send Priority Mail; I'll mention that in the instructions next year.) My friend Margaret opted out this year due to gestational diabetes so I jumped at the chance to make TWO baskets, and the challenge of making one for her (nearly) candy-free. My beading friend Shanna went to painstaking measures to create a cherry-blossom-ish bookmark for my cousin Celeste who misses the East. Sydney emailed me for Erin's coloring to get her accessories just right.

And I think the best was when I got a frantic phone call the Friday afternoon before Easter. Gabe had driven from Culpeper to Leesburg, VA (over an hour each way) to hand deliver her basket to Marie just so it would get there by Easter. No one had been home so she'd left it in the bushes and called me to call Marie to make sure she got it. I told her, "You know hand delivery was not required, right Gabe?" She answered seriously, "I didn't want to risk the chance of being kicked out of next year's exchange! I know you have the power to do that." She knows me well...

One theme I picked up on, that many of you mentioned in letters and emails, was that you (we) made a much nicer basket for our person than we ever would have for ourselves. What a great chance to treat and be treated. What an awesome atmosphere of fun gifting this exchange created!

See for yourself:


As for me, I've got to tell you about the basket I received. I admit, I manipulated the assignments. I've been missing New York a little so I assigned myself to my friend Emily in Brooklyn, and happened to mention a few things I wanted from there. She came through and then some. Cadbury mini eggs and creme eggs, the only milk chocolate treats I like, check. Smoked almonds - lots of them - from the Turkish store on 5th Ave in Bay Ridge, check. Some awesome beads, check. Chocolate covered pretzels, almond bark, and turtle candies from another store on 5th, check. YUM! And on top of all that, THREE BOOKS I've never heard of or read! Which is good because I really need to pull myself out of the Twilight series and move on with my literary life. THREE BOOKS that all look awesome and that obviously took some time to pick out.

And all my stuff was packed in amNewYork newspaper and used-up metro cards; I loved that touch. And I almost - almost - cried when I turned one of the metro cards over and saw a magic marker "A" on the back. Emily's husband's name is Adam. Ed and I used to do the same thing to distinguish his metro card from mine in the drawer by the front door. It took me back. Emily, you're awesome.

But aren't we all? I was pretty proud of the package I sent Sydney, too. Egg timer (who doesn't need one?), Penzey's spices, Lake Champlain bunny, Trader Joe's chocolates, cookie cutters, dish towel, handmade earrings & bookmark, lip gloss, note cards, shopping tote, and my latest CD mix. Truly a package I would love to receive. What can I say?

Thanks again to everyone for participating. See you back here again next year for EBX10!

2nd Annual East Basket Exchange

Omigosh, can you believe it's that time again? Easter candy is in the stores so that means it has been a year since the most fun you've ever had. Easter this year is April 12, and if you want the kind of basket you deserve, read on.

A brief history: Last year on DMTotW we did an Easter basket exchange because the truth is most husbands cannot be relied upon to do justice to the best candy holiday of the year. Not only do they stink at making, or remembering, baskets, they also don't always appreciate the painstaking measures we go to to put together something awesome for them. Hence the exchange. I was supremely satisfied in both the baskets I gave and received last year and cannot wait to get going on the next one! (Actually, I already have...)

Who Can Participate

1. As with last year, you do not have to be a mother, married, female or Christian. You can be anyone, including my cousin Dan who should have participated last year or his brother Aaron who just mooched off the basket I sent Katy. You can also be one of the poor unfortunates who knew about the exchange last year and chose not to participate.

2. But you do have to live in the continental U.S. or have an APO address. And I do have to know you personally or through someone. Just include in your comment or email how I'm supposed to know you.

How It Works

It worked great last year so we'll do it pretty much the same.

1. Leave a comment to this post or email me directly (kyounc at yahoo dot come) to say you want to participate. If you think I don't know your email and mailing address, email those to me, too. The deadline to sign up is Tuesday, March 24. Once you sign up I will also email you a brief questionnaire; last year everyone wanted to know at least a little about the person they were sending to.

2. On March 25 I will mix up the names and email out the assignments; your personal information will not go up on the blog. I will also email you the questionnaire your assignee filled out and you can use it as much or as little as you want in your preparations.

3. This is the fun part. Once you have your assignment, and a little information about your person, put together the funnest, coolest, most amazing Easter basket ever for her. Make it her (or your) dream basket. Spending cap is $30, not including shipping. The one requirement for everyone is that you must include good chocolate, and I mean good chocolate. Other than that, run with it. A few ideas include, but are not limited to: book, magazine, recipes, something you hand made, fizzy bath balls/salts/soap/lotion, other candy, gift cards, cd, socks, kitchen gadgets, a local specialty item from where you live, beauty products, jewelry, the list goes on and on. Seriously, if I had an unlimited budget I could put together 20 awesome baskets and no two would be the same.

4. Put your basket/package together and mail it to your person in time for her to receive it by Easter. For most locations it takes less than a week.

5. Wake up Easter morning and have an awesome time opening your package! Email me a picture for the blog, and send your sender a thank you card.

6. Try not to be too sad it's another year until next Easter.

Let the fun begin!

The Great Exchange

What can I say? The Easter Basket Exchange was a rip-roaring success. My basket arrived on Monday but I was very disciplined and waited until this morning for the great satisfaction of getting an awesome Easter basket I didn't make, and opening it in my pajamas.

Mine came from my friend Melanie who I roomed with in the BYU Spanish House and traveled to Mexico and cross country with, but we haven't seen each other in many years. Nonetheless I know her to be fabulous and I was not disappointed. My basket included several kinds of awesome chocolate, a springy shade of nail polish, Mel's favorite lip gloss, a cool make-up case, handmade card set, an Easter dish towel, an actual basket, and an amazing handmade apron! Here are some of the other baskets that got passed around:

(I am still receiving pictures by email and will put them in the slide show as I get them.)

But it was equally about the baskets we gave as the baskets we got, wasn't it? I was collecting things for mine long before the names were assigned, and even before I wrote the original blog post announcing the exchange. At one point I had way over $25 worth of things I wanted to include (and I know I'm not the only one!), and worked very hard to pare it down, often laying things out, admiring, rearranging, etc...and I know I'm not the only one who did that, either! I did end up making small Easter baskets for my family, but my basket for the exchange was by far more fun and satisfying, making the whole experience more than worth it to me.

As the exchange "administrator" I had all the fun of hearing the cool and funny stories everyone had in the process. There was Tamara in NY who went to Enrichment one night where a girl in her ward came up and said, "My sister-in-law (Mia) in Tennessee has you for an Easter Basket Exchange!" There was Cherry in my ward who chased me down the hall at church to breathlessly gush over her new friend Jen in Colorado and how much they have in common, including the same birthday. There were several who emailed their giftee detailed surveys in order to perfectly personalize a dream basket. Everyone's emails to me seemed to carry a slightly giddy tone. And there was me, who excitedly unearthed my beading supplies to make Katy several pairs of earrings, only to discover she happens to have "crazy mad healing powers" and her pierced ears have closed up...thrice.

I hope everyone who participated will leave a note here, mentioning something about the experience and maybe the favorite things she got or gave. I hope everyone got as much enjoyment out of this as I did.

And I hope to see you all, and maybe more, back here next year for:

EBX '09!

Last Call for Easter Basket Exchange

Just a reminder that the Easter Basket Exchange is open for two more days. Thursday morning I will pull names out of a hat and email assignments. So far we have 24 fabulous participants, from Massachusetts to Texas to California. You know you've been thinking about it - if you want in on the fun, email me your address and chocolate preferences by Wednesday night!

SO FAR WE HAVE:
Kari
Tona
Melanie H
Ellie
Kat
Cherry
Melissa F
Margaret
Mia
Erin M
Shells!
Jill G
Jen A
Kelly
Katy C
Kristina
Jen C
Tamara
Amy M
Monica
Sara M
Portia!
Heather
Adrienne

1st Annual Mothers' Easter Basket Exchange

Us moms are sick of it - if we want an Easter basket, we have to make it ourselves...until now. Last year we talked about it and this year we're doing it: the 1st Annual Easter Basket Exchange.

Here's how it will work:

1. Easter is March 23, a month away. By March 5 (about 2 weeks from now) you must post in the comments here that you want to participate (see Eligibility below).
2. Make sure I have your email and mailing address. If you don't think I do, email it to me (kyounc at yahoo dot com.) I will take all the names, shuffle them, and make assignments. All the assignments will be made by email so no one's personal information will go on the blog. If I don't know you well, also email me basic stats - age, occupation, food allergies, whatever.
3. Compile an Easter basket/box for your assignee.
4. Spending cap is $25, not including shipping.
5. Your compilation must include good chocolate (doesn't have to be a bunny.)
6. The guideline is to make a package you would love to receive*. No waxy cheap chocolate or goofy useless fillers. It doesn't have to be extravagant, but it does have to make the recipient glad she participated. Quantity is not necessarily better than quality.
7. Put your package together and mail it out in time for your assignee to receive it by Easter. The entire point of this exercise is for each of us to have a wonderful Easter basket on Easter morning that we didn't have to make ourselves, so please be sure it will arrive on time.
8. Easter morning, open and enjoy your package that someone else made for you.
9. Follow up with a thank you note.

Eligibility

1. You do not have to be a Mom. You do not even have to be married, female or Christian. The exchange is so named because Moms in general get the shaft on Easter baskets and every other holiday they work so hard to make special for others. But anyone that meets #2 can participate.
2. I have to know you personally or through a reputable source (like you're a friend/relative of my friend/relative.) Even though it's a public blog and I sometimes get comments from strangers, no total strangers in the exchange. Include in your post how I'm supposed to know you.

I'm excited. I figure if at least one person is in, then I have someone to exchange with. If more than one is in, we have a full-blown success.

* Stuck on what to include? Here are some ideas (feel free to suggest others):
CHOCOLATE - gift card - seasonal candy - recipes - candle - lip gloss - kitchen gadgets - lotion - soap - gourmet food item (hot chocolate, soup or muffin mix, biscotti, etc.) - fizzy bath ball - manicure stuff - jewelry - socks - note cards - book - cd - local specialty item