JOY Swap

I'm not sure what the time frame is, exactly, on the Sisters' Shoebox Swap events that are hosted by Carrie (the other one!) and Monica, but I do know that they are an awful lot of fun and I've really enjoyed participating in them. When I saw that they were doing a Christmas swap with "JOY" being the theme, I knew I wanted to join in!

This year I said I'd be happy to swap with a Canadian and if you need more than one guess as to why, well then, you don't know me very well now, do you? (Come back in January!) I was ecstatic to be matched with Ellie from Honeysuckle Hollow who lives in Nova Scotia. Furthermore, when I was given her blog link as an introduction I hopped over and she had just posted about her love for Road to Avonlea. A kindred spirit? Ya think? (Plus, she admitted to liking moose which I do also so it was all good.)

I felt bad for her because I was already fascinated with her just because of her location and expressed love of Avonlea. Throw in the fact that she's crafty (and I'm not) and I've tried to tone myself down a bit. She's very charming though. And crafty. If you want to see what wonders Ellie has done to refurbishing pieces of furniture just check out this post. It's incredible!

Anyway, we exchanged likes and dislikes and sent our packages off to one another and this is what I received . . .

You'll recognize this Joy Snowman perhaps from my picture earlier this week which I posted along with a Christmas tour of my home. He has a prominent place by my front door. I love him!


Ellie made me a set of homemade greeting cards and envelopes which I think are fantastic! I love how unique and creative they are.


And here is the whole shoebox full of things like chocolate and stuffed reindeer that flew out of the box and into the hands of two young boys I know. (They were also big fans of the Joy jingle bell!
Ellie, thank you so much for the thought you put into this box and for your time and energies to create lovely homemade things for my home! I've hung the bell and the joy ornaments on the tree. The snowman is by my front door. The chocolate is gone. The cards are awaiting use and if anyone is wondering about the little black bag of rocks....? Sea glass from the shores of Nova Scotia. It's now sitting by my collection of all things Anne and I thought that was incredibly creative and fun, given the fact that she figured out pretty quickly that I'm in love with the Eastern shores of Canada.

Thank you, thank you!

Other Sister Shoebox Swappers are linking up over on *Carrie's* blog today if you'd like to see some more swaps.

Thank you, Carrie and Monica for hosting. Thank you, Ellie for getting to know me and allowing me to get to know you. I hope you have a wonderfully happy Christmas celebration and I look forward to seeing all the ways that God will choose to grow and bless you this coming year!

Merry Christmas!