Last month, in the midst of the chaos that was year-end projects at work, finals season for school, and packing for the AgChat Cultivate & Connect Conference in Kansas City, I had the awesome opportunity to connect with other ag bloggers through The Country Christmas Connection.
I was sooo excited when I found out that I was the Secret Blogger for Hannah Neuenschwander of Texan Meets Midwest. We “met” via Twitter about a year ago as #AgChat participants and I was finally able to meet her in person (albeit briefly) at the AgChat conference in early December. Hannah and I are both cat lovers and both work in the soybean industry (she works in soybean production with Monsanto and I work on communications projects for the soy checkoff). You can read more over on her blog about the gift I sent her– I was happy for an excuse to do some holiday baking. 🙂
My Secret Blogger was Amanda Spoo, who blogs over at The Good Stuff.
I’ll be honest here for a second. I had never seen her blog before. I didn’t even follow her on Twitter. But that’s the point of The Country Christmas Connection, right? I’m excited to have another blog to read and someone else to connect with online!
Amanda is an ag communicator, too, and clearly discovered my love for cats (dunno how she figured that one out…) and got me this awesome cat pen, complete with a noisy bell on the collar– just like a real cat! This pen has already made it’s way to my desk at work and goes great with my notebook.
Something else we have in common? Coffee. [Two thumbs up!]
And just in case that wasn’t enough caffeine: Chocolate covered coffee beans. [A-maz-ing!]
There were also festive cupcake liners to satisfy my holiday baking needs, a really cool light to turn an empty wine bottle into a lamp, and a Sephora face mask for a “treat yo’ self day” after a long day of travel. Even though I generally travel quite a bit with my job, I fortunately don’t have to endure the long plane rides like Amanda does going from Washington, D.C. all the way across the country to Oregon when she goes home for the holidays. But I do think it’s pretty cool that she gets to live and work in our nation’s capital. D.C. is probably my favorite city and I actually just had the chance to visit for a week of vacation last fall.
Last, but not least, I inherited the lump of coal, which means I am for sure going to participate in the 2017 Country Christmas Connection. How cool that I get to add my name to this list of ag bloggers from TCCCs past!
Check out posts from other bloggers who participated in The Country Christmas Connection 2016 here.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and an excellent start to 2017!
I love that you’ve made a new connection, that’s what this is all about! What a perfect well thought out package Amanda sent your way! Especially love the pen, nothing beats a good pen! So glad you joined us this year Gracie and look forward to having you participate again!
Happy New Year!
~Darleen
Thanks for allowing me to join! It was fun and I’m already excited for next year. 🙂
How fun to send your Country Christmas Connection package to a blogger you’ve met in person! Looks like Hannah sent you some fun items. Coffee! It seems to be a common thread between farm and ranch wives. How exciting to have several different flavors to try. The lump of coal and cat notebook look fun.
Yay, the lump of coal lives! ??? Sadly, I didn’t have time to participate this year, but hoping to get back into it next year. It’s always so fun to see all the gift exhanges and connections being made! Take good care of that coal! ?