The [almost] 500 follower giveaway

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Ours was jam-packed, but so fun! Friday night was pretty low-key and Saturday night we went out in Arlington, VA with my family to celebrate the four birthdays we have during January. A family friend that lives in FL was in town to work the inauguration, so he was able to get together with all of us as well. We spent the majority of our Sunday at my in-laws' house watching football and spending time with a few other family friends that were in town. It was a super late night and I am a walking zombie at work today, but it was definitely worth it to see the Ravens barrel over the Patriots to make it to the SUPER BOWL! On the way home from watching the game (with our sleeping baby and sleepy doggy in the car), we stopped at Dick's to get some AFC Championship gear. (If the Raven's won, Dick's was opening up special after the game.) My husband was like a kid in a candy store, and I definitely earned honors in the wife hall-of-fame for doing that (as if I wasn't in there already...HA!).

These next few weeks are going to be so crazy in Charm City. Being originally from the northern VA area, I love, love, love my Redskins. Since I've lived here for almost 5 years now, I cheer for the Ravens (and have lots of Ravens gear thanks to the hubs) whenever they're not playing the Redskins. (In fact, my family [who are all die-hard Redskins fans] also cheer for the Ravens because of how important they are to Chris!) It is very cool to cheer on your new hometown team as they make it to the big show! It is BEYOND AMAZING how die-hard Baltimore fans are for their teams. I'm so excited for all of the festivities over the next few weeks. We're permitted to wear jeans at work for the next few weeks (and as much Ravens purple as possible!), there are Ravens decorations EVERYWHERE, and a big tailgate is being planned for the Friday before the game. So exciting! :)

So, onto the main reason for today's post. You can probably tell from the title and the number of followers on my blog, that I’m obviously not talking about me. My girl Allie was sooooo close to 500 followers and invited me (and a few other bloggers) to participate in a big group giveaway in celebration of her fabulousness (and as a big thank you to her readers, of course!).

Take it away, Allie… 

I've almost reached 500 GFC readers, which totally blows my mind. I'm so thankful to everyone who reads and comments, and I'm amazed by and grateful for the friendships I've developed along the way. 
  Some of my lovely blog friends have been generous enough to partner with me to provide a big giveaway to celebrate by giving one lucky reader a $100 gift card to the store of her {or his} choice! 

You can earn a TON of entries, and meet some really fabulous ladies in the process. I follow each of these blogs myself and I'm blown away by their talents on the daily.  I urge you to check them out and give them a follow and a comment if it tickles your fancy!    Here are the details: There will be one winner who will be given a $100 gift card to the store of their choice. The giveaway will be live from 8 am ET through next Sunday, January 27th. The winner will be announced on Monday {the winner's entry will be verified!}.    We all agreed that we aren't necessarily fans of giveaways that require us to follow a bunch of people you have no interest in following, so none of the entries are mandatory. I do encourage you to check out these blogs and follow along where you want to, and hopefully we can all find new blogs to read and people to connect with throughout the week! Good luck!  

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