Give-Away Update

This is a crispina ffrench pixelated heart throw blanket. LOVE. But I don't want to trick you, like with the cat: I am not giving away this blanket.  Just trying to represent the vast and multiple feelings in my own heart.

My darlings, how I do love you. I am just dying to give everybody what they want. I am in love with so many of the comments, and the comments on the comments, and with Elizabeth McKinney's idea that we all give each other stuff. . . Still not sure how I'm going to do this one. Sigh. So many warm and generous and fun and excellent and heartbreaking wishes are there. (A practical note: your local library may be a better resource for movies than you think.)

In the meantime, I have so much to share! The fact that I am trying to do this, for example. (I know. Welcome to the club, because I can't believe it either. Who am I?) Or that I'm reading this. And that I wrote this over at the NYT Motherlode blog. Or that I have some lovely new recipes to post. More soon. Because really, I'm just popping in here today to add this to the contest, from our own beloved Charlotte, whom you may know better as SeeTryFly:

"I'd like to donate a $25 Kiva chartable gift card to one of your readers, and a $25 donation on someone's behalf for Watsi.org. " A beautiful offer, which she followed up with this note:

"I just remember a few years back when my consulting business went kaput and we went from a dual income to just-barely-keeping-the-house and Christmas was a whole lot of handmade held together with love, and we weren't able to donate to charity for a while.  And it sucked to know that we live in the richest country in the history of the world, and there were people a lot worse off than me, but still, I didn't want to lose my house or skip dinner.  So we didn't give.  Now that we're on more solid footing, I thought maybe there were some other folks that not only didn't get what they had hoped for, but also would like to do a little more good in the world as well.  With Kiva, the person can re-lend and help others escape poverty over and over, even without using any of their own money.  And Watsi, well, it just breaks my heart that good people suffer and die because they don't have a couple hundred bucks to pay for medical treatment.  I hope for the day that Watsi isn't needed because healthcare is considered a human right and everyone has access to the care they need.  I figured with your platform and a bit of cash, we could spread the word about two cool organizations and allow someone to give that maybe couldn't do as much as they would have liked this year."

So enter in the comments here, and win the opportunity to make a charitable donation! (Love you Charlotte, whom I don't know in person.) All results will be posted on Friday.