Bloggy Giveaway Bonanza

**updated 10-30-08 to add a picture **

The Fall 2008 Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Giveaway Carnival is up and running, and has been for 3 days (ack!). This is the first time I’ve taken part but there are A LOT (I think I’m number 1299) of people giving stuff away, and there is a ton of really cool stuff up for grabs. All you have to do is click through to the Bloggy Giveaway site, visit the different sites and leave comments.

I have 4 brand new Paddington Bear books for my prize. I loved Paddington as a child and, for my 10th birthday, all I wanted was a stuffed version of him. I woke up to find him sitting at the bottom of my bed with his suitcase which was full of clothes my mom had made for him to change into. His coat and hat were in his suitcase also because he was dressed in his Halloween costume, which was a miniature version of the Jester suit I was wearing that year. I still have my original Paddington, minus some stuffing. He came to college with me, allowed me to cry into his fur when I lost my grandparents and numerous cats, and has been a part of my life for many, many years. When I got my first Kindergarten position, brother #2 (who was 17 at the time) got me a new Paddington to have in my classroom because he felt that I needed moral support and he knew the original would never make it through a year of 5 year olds.

But not only does Paddington have a lot of special memories for me, the books are really good reads, for bear lovers of all ages. Since I’m late to the party, I’m going to leave the comments open for a week (until 5PM Wednesday November 5th) and I’ll pick one winner to receive these four books. If you’re interested, just leave me a comment and I’ll contact the winner next Wednesday for your address. Anyone can comment – I don’t mind shipping overseas. And be sure to check out all the other great prizes you can win over at Bloggy Giveaways, but you have to hurry up because a lot of them are closing on Friday, October 31st. So shoo!