[JBCool]

Eleanor's right: Baker is good! (Just a hint to my elf that will probably be lost before they're assigned.)

[big_red_ottb]

Once we close to new entries, the elves sequester themselves at an undisclosed location, order in copius amounts of Candy Canes, peppermint mocha coffee and cookies of every variety as they mix-n-match each entry into their seperate spending-limit & country-shipping category.

Match announcements are then privately e-mailed out within 72 hours!

I see! So presumably sometime after/around October 26th? Such wonderful and hard working elves...enjoy that peppermint mocha coffee...best stuff on earth!

[Polydor]

Application sent in! Pretty much same as last year.

Now the very long wait til we get our names/info in October!

P.

[WildandWickedWarmbloods]

We warmbloods are already shopping for Eleanor. Plaid and blue and scottish breakfast tea, not necessarily in the same item.

We won't be eating peppermints and drinking hot chocolate though. We will be drinking beer and mulled wine. So wrapping may look a little rough, depending on the amount that we imbibe. imbibe? We warmbloods drink a lot. And not tea or coffee.

Eleanor wants something indigenous to our area, did we spell that right? So we cannot catch a possum, we don't way to get sick. Maybe a gator or a possum-on-the-half-shell aka armadillo, or maybe about 1 million of our love bugs? No wait, this is not halloween, it's for secret santa. Off to find something nice around here. We could mail her a yankee, lots of them down here, LOL.

[alittlegray]

I think for the first time I am going to indulge myself and play this year! After such a crappy year it will be fun to think of someone else for a while!

[WildandWickedWarmbloods]

We've never played secret santa before so we are just going to have fun.

And we googled, yes warmbloods can google, and found out that yikes, ups and fedex do charge a delivery fee to deliver to recipients in Canada. Like $50 or more a package mailed from the USA, so we'll have to rely on usps to deliver from the states to Canada. We'll give the postal service a map! We wonder if that extra charge is because the delivery men have t o dodge Meese up there? (Is that $50 Canadian dollars or American dollars?) Fortunately the post office is right down the road from our barn. But we still whinny each time the ups guy drives up to our barn. Ha ha auto-correct changed whinny to whiney.

Everyone be careful not to grinch anyone. Christmas is for giving, not for grinching. Although one barn owner said one of us (wb #1) should have gotten a lump of coal in his stocking. (Eat your heart out ex-BO, you just wanted one like us without the uh, inquisitive feature.)

We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,

We're Canadian warmbloods,
We're big, We're bad,
We're looking for your plaid.

[DottieHQ]

WooHoo! I love secret santa! Just sent my email

[ChocoMare]

Wow, 23 entries so far! That's the most in such a short time I've ever seen. Keep 'em coming!!!!

[talkofthetown]

I would really love to do SS this year (been gone from COTH for a while...) but financial problems have forced me to sell my boy and get out of horses for a while. Anyone else do SS that doesn't actually ride or have horses? Do you still enjoy it?

[SunkenMeadow]

Secret Santa Virgin here...sent in my email

[WildandWickedWarmbloods]

Oh oh, is the secret santa for virgins only? If so, we have problems.

We're the "Canadian warmbloods,"
We're grey, we're bay,
We sent our agent shopping today.

We got English breakfast tea, and irish breakfast tea, and a tea grown right up the coast from us. Still have to find Scottish tea. maybe we could pour some Bell's 20 yr old Scotch on some tea bags? We also got Eleanor 3 items from our local area. One of the items goes with tea, the other will be for breakfast as well. The third can be eaten all day, with tea of course.

What's black and white and red all over? Warmblood #1's rump in the sun!

Off to order the plaid item and have it sent to us. Shipping to Canada is a pain. We can see why the USA invaders lost the battle of Quebec. The supply trains were overtaxed at the border.

[ChocoMare]

I would really love to do SS this year (been gone from COTH for a while...) but financial problems have forced me to sell my boy and get out of horses for a while. Anyone else do SS that doesn't actually ride or have horses? Do you still enjoy it?

We have lotsa horsie folks that are currently horseless. Play anyway!

[BigBayHanoMare]

Just sent my email off as well--I'm both new to COTH as well as a SS COTH virgin so this is going to be LOTS of fun!

[kdow]

I have my email almost ready to go, but the 'tell us about yourself' bit always stumps me. I feel like I'm either saying way too much or way too little. (I tend to be very wordy. It's a style thing. )

Anyone have an example of what they might say there that they want to share so I can use it as a guide and finish up my email?

[Sannois]

Apples are red,
You will be glad,
One of your horses,
Is gonna wear plaid.

Uh, you'd better sign up, Eleanor. We (it takes 2 warmbloods to be your "elf") have already gotten chocosanta's permission to be your elf.

Is all your info the same as on your signup last year? Like the address, and mailing issues, and the sizes of those meese?

Ok now we warmbloods aren't signing up to get gifts, just to be Eleanor's "elf" this year. So if you don't sign up, Eleanor, we warmbloods are gonna look uh dumb. And you should know that warmbloods are not dumb bloods.

Eleanor is the biggest Sweetie, She sent me a mug on another board last year cause, well, I did not get any gifts for christmas. And I cannot imagine anyone grinching her, or anyone for that matter. Gee, I might have to sign up, I dont do presents and this would be so fun to get a horsey person to spoil.

[Sannois]

I would really love to do SS this year (been gone from COTH for a while...) but financial problems have forced me to sell my boy and get out of horses for a while. Anyone else do SS that doesn't actually ride or have horses? Do you still enjoy it?

You do not have to have a horse, or even ride, Just tell Chocomare all your likes and hobbies and other critters etc.
I no longer have a horse, but still ride my students, And wow, well I guess I am signing up!

[AliCat518]

Ohh im SO EXCITED!! Had so much fun doing this last year! I love the gifts I received, and had a ball shopping for another COTHer. I dont know what is more fun--shopping and arranging your SS's package, or waiting for the package from your elf!

Will be sending my e-mail in a few

[dressagetraks]

Please don't let lack of a current horse stop anybody. There are all sorts of possibilities. Just to name a few:

Horsey books (check ABEbooks.com for some of the older ones people talk about on those old horse books I read when a kid threads).

Horsey T-shirts.

Home-made nibbles. My SS last year made awesome nibbles, especially the lemon bars.

There's a company that sells long-stemmed chocolate horses, for those who think horses are even better than roses.


Lots of potential horsey gifts have nothing to do with tack. Come on in and join us!

[AppendixQHLover]

I signed up....

[Clear sailing]

Im IN! Very excited about it!