Is anyone interested in doing a lighthouse holiday card exchange again this year? I don't remember who organized it last year, but I'll step up and volunteer. Let me know if you're interested and email me your address. Thanks!

I'm in! Had tons of fun last year!

Count me in Jen. Had loads of fun doing it last year.

Bert

This sounds like a lot of fun. Could you tell me how it works? I would love to do it.

Jen, count us in.

Hi Grace,

Basically, those that sign up will be exchanging a lighthouse Christmas card with others on the list; basically, like mailing cards out to your family and friends every year. I will have a finalized list around the end of the month and email it to everyone who signed up, and then you have until Christmas to send your cards! That's it!

For those that are interested, please email me privately with your postal mailing address so I may start a list going. Click on the little envelope at the top of this message. I am going to limit this to the first 25 that sign up or Thanksgiving, whichever comes first. For those who would like to look back at last year's post, here is the link:

2004 Holiday Card Exchange

Count me in Jen, #6 and thanks.

I would love to be #7!

Jen,

Add me to the list for this year.

Thanks!

I am in too! Please ...

Thanks, Jen! Now that I know what I'm doing, I am definitely in.

Up to nine participants already! I still need addresses emailed to me from: Grace, Greg, and MrsTLC.

Hi Jen
Count me in too.
Darlene

There you are, Ladybug. I'm glad you will be sending me a Christmas card! I've been talking about you in the "haunted lighthouses" thread.

Please excuse the ignorance of us Europeans, but when is Thanksgiving? :p

I am only asking because Jen, you said

This year it is Nov 24, Margret.

Thanks Dave! It is not a holiday here in England. In fact the fall is not blessed with many holidays here. Between the end of August and Christmas people have to work ... no days off

It's okay...you guys get Boxing Day, my favourite non-major holiday.

What DO you do on Boxing Day, anyway?

What do we do on boxing day?
Well these days, I guess we recover from the Christmas-Turkey. Christmas Day we traditionally eat too much, so we need the next day to recover and eat all the left-overs from the day before
Find out about the traditonal meaning of the day here: http://homepages.tesco.net/~derek.berger/holidays/boxingday.html

Don't you get two days for Christmas then?

I'm in, Jen. Just sent you my address.
Thanks for organizing it - not like you have time on your hands, for sure!

Judy

Jen,

Time has flown ... enjoyed this much last year ... please include me ... email has been sent.

Thanks,
Barry

I'd love to participate again! I'll send you my address, Jen.

Margret, I seem to recall that you all close down for a lot longer than Christmas and Boxing Days. I was disappointed that a few of the places I had hoped to see in London were closed. Greg, if I remember correctly, Boxing Day was the day when the lord of the manor visited the people who worked his lands and brought gifts. Am I right, Margret? Oops, I just realized you posted a website; I guess I should check it out.

Getting back to the cards, how many are we up to now, Jen?

Count me in, please. I'll email you my address.

I'm up to 14 participants. John, I will need your address, because I know you moved not too long ago and don't have your new residence.

That's great, Jen! Thanks.

Loved the website, Margret!

Thanks Grace, I enjoy doing the website, but it seems to go "on the back burner" during the summer. Still ... summer is definitely over...

And as for closing down over Christmas... the London-Attractions are notorious for closing in holidays season and on bank holidays. Not sure why.
Only the shops will open "between the years" as the Germans call the time between Christmas and New Year.

If it's not too late, Jen, I would like to sign up for this exchange. Let me know if you need my address.

Thanks,

Tammy

I would like to do it too. Can someone post a card from last year so I have a clue.

Fran, you buy or even make your own lighthouse Christmas cards to send to each of the people on the list. It is great to get so many different cards from so many different parts of the world. I sure hope some more people sign up so we have our 25 to send out.

Tammy and Fran, go ahead and send me your addresses and I will add you to the list. That makes us up to 16 participants!

I sent you mine, if you did not get it let me know. They call me Martha Stewart II so I guess I will be trying to make one.

Put me in too, Please!

This has been a GREAT card exchange for the last few years! And I look farward to doing it again.

Just been looking up the last posting dates for Christmas.
USPS is obviously quicker than our lame lot.

We have to post to the US by the 12th of December to have so called guaranteed delivery...

You can wait until the 14th for postage to this sinde of the big pond

Margret, they have their good days - last week I received a letter mailed in Detroit that took 5 days to get here (maybe 200 miles). I think they hand carried it the whole way. The same day I received an envelope mailed in Dallas that took only 3 days (maybe 1000 miles or so). Yesterday I received an envelope mailed in San Diego on Monday - just two days.

... and I had a letter here in England from San Diego, which took 3 days too ...

You just can't rely on the postal service, but none of the delivery services has a terrific track record either. I mailed an envelope first class Tuesday, Nov. 1. As of last night, it hadn't arrived. So we can't delay sending our Christmas cards out. I will probably send mine out the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Don't know if I'm too late to make the cut-off (25), but I'll add my name just in case.
JoanieO

What number are we up to? I will join in.

I think you are #19, Suzanne.

Thought I'd bring this back up to the top - we are up to 19 participants, so I have 6 spots left. I am going to finalize the list and get it out to all of you over the weekend, and if we have any last minute joiners, we can just add their addresses in. You can join up until 11/30.

Suzanne, I need your address again..

Looking forward to this ...

Since this will be my first time I would like to know if most of you make your own cards - I imagine those of you who are such terrific photographers do.

Believe it or not, Grace, there are Christmas cards out there that have lighthouses on them. I know that either last year or the year before both Stephanie and I found the same card at K-Mart (hard to believe...). Many do make their own cards, sometimes "holidaying up" the image, sometimes using a winter image, sometime just using an image they like. They are all nice, and their uniqueness makes them special. I know - I have a fairly large stack of cards from my lighthouse friends over the years.

I had no idea, Dave. I thought only Lighthouse Depot sold them. I have seen plain notecards such as of La Jument and Texas Lighthouses in some of the bookstores. Now I will look for Christmas lighthouses, too. Hu-m-m, just had a thought. Maybe there are commercial Christmas cards of lighthouses in states which have a lot of lighthouses; it will be interesting to see if I can find some in Houston.

Grace, I have made them, I have bought them and this year I bought cards with photo holder and will be putting my own pictures of lighthouses that I have taken in them. Just have fun with it.
And Dave, why haven't you signed up for this exchange yet???

Bah Humbug?????????

No luck finding lighthouses tonight; will keep you posted.

Every year I make some cards with a picture of a lighthouse we have visited. So this year I will make a few more, for the exchange.
I think it is one of the enjoyable aspects of these exchanges to see what everyone does and to get lots of different cards!

I like the idea of personalizing my cards. Since I may have very little time, though, I wanted a backup - so far, no luck. Of course, if I weren't trying to meet a challenge, I might have more time for a "real life"!

Grace, if you'd like a choice of some really nice Christmas lighthouse cards ready to go, check out Cape Annie\'s
That would leave you even more time to meet your goal.

Judy

Thanks, Judy, I checked out Cape Annie's and they have a very nice selection. I imagine I will order some since I have found zilch in Houston, thus far. Too much going on, I'm afraid.

Believe it or not, I have never seen a Christmas Card with a German lighthouse - so I am going to do my own Christmas cards for this wonderful exchange.

Grace - just discovered these cards from the National Historic Trust...

http://www.holidaycardcenter.org/2005/NT/main.asp

The Point Aux Barques one.

Thought I'd share....

Thanks, Greg! I love it when they identify the lighthouse. It's not always easy to tell which one it is - not for me anyway. We visited Pointe aux Barques on the pre-post reunion bus trip so it's great to see a holiday card of it.

I just looked at that card Greg sent a link to. really nice.

I'm up to 20 participants. I am also making my own cards - just ordered them today. I will have the list finalized after by the end of this week. We do have a couple internationals on the list this time around - I will have this list out and I would advise you send those going to Europe and Great Britian asap to make sure they arrive in time for Christmas.

Can't wait. Thanks for coordinating this for us, Jen. I know it will be a lot of fun!

Thanks for all your trouble Jen! Oh and by the way, even though a lot of English people might not like it, England IS part of Europe
Last posting day from the US to Europe is - I think - the 12th of December. Or was it the 14th ...

My cards are ready and I have been real goody goody ... all my Christmas cards just need posting...

Is it st 20 for this exchange? And do we include the two extra cards here too? Hope so!

I'm still at 20 participants. I will finalize the list up tomorrow - I've been out of town the last couple days and got home a bit ago. Two extra cards?

Jen - I believe the two extras are:

1. Bill & Nancy Younger
2. John Gaskill

Judy Castleberry or anyone? Do you have a mailing address for John now?

This may be the place, but I\'m not sure

Bill & Nancy and can addressed c/o Harbour Lights, 1000 Johnson Ave, El Cajon CA 92020

I'll see what I can find for John Gaskill. I think he may be in North Carolina for the holidays and maybe longer.

Judy

I'm probably committing a terrible faux pas here, so pardon my ignorance but who is John Gaskill?

John is the son of the last keeper of Bodie Island Light on the Outer Banks. For several years he has spent part of the summer at the Bodie Light helping to interpret the history to visitors.

A terrific guy. I first met him when he attended the 1998 Reunion in Providence and accompanied us on lighthouse bus tours.

Here's a photo taken by our own Judy Castleberry of John with Cheryl Shelton-Roberts on the porch at Bodie:

John Gaskill's address may have changed. I reeceived my last pce envelope returned to me with the address crossed out.

Probably the last published address we were using for John was the Navy home in Gulfport. Those folks were evacuated to the Navy home in DC, but John hasn't committed to that yet. He was in NC when Katrina hit the Gulf and is trying to find a way to remain. I will get us an address for John from Cheryl Roberts...I have two NC addresses for him and need to confirm which to use.

Btw, John joined us (OBLHS) at Bodie Island, Nov. 22, and it was great to see him, his smile and listen once again to his wonderful stories of his boyhood as the son of a keeper.
[img]http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5cf06b3127cce95287f53306c00000015108AZtWzNu2ZOH[/img]
That's John last month with Marilyn Mares who lived with her parents in the assistent keeper's side at Bodie and was a childhood playmate of John's.

He has also returned to Gulfport last month with a friend and was able to retrieve many of his belongings there.

Judy

Of course! I didn't remember the name but knew exactly who you were talking about as soon as you mentioned Bodie Island. I remember the story in Lighthouse Families - I love the stories of the lighthouse kids. John and his siblings did some pretty scary things - like climb over the railing and walk on the narrow ledge! And stand on the ventilator ball!! That's one of the unforgettable stories in that book. I'm glad you include him in the Xmas card exchange and hope one of you is able to find his address. Thanks for posting pictures of John, too.

JOHN GASKILL'S ADDRESS:

Cheryl Roberts writes...

Jen, would you please add John's new address to the list you send for the card exchange?

Thanks!

Judy

Does anybody stay in touch with any other keeper family members? I think it's great that you have included John and wish there were more of these great folks to whom we could send some Christmas cheer.

Whoops! I just sent out the list and didn't log in to see the messages about adding the Youngers and John to the list. Follow-up email to come shortly. Let me know if you did not get my email with all the addresses and if anyone has any questions. Thanks!!

Thread needs to be closed out. Sorry about all the emails gang - please delete the first two I sent.

Friends, even if you are NOT in the Christmas Card exchange, please try to send John a card for the upcoming holidays. I'm sure he will enjoy hearing from his many friends -- and some new ones too.

John Gaskill is a national treasure! Thanks Judy for the more recent photo and update on his move to the Washington DC home.

As Cheryl noted, John felt obligated to reply to every card -- so let him know it's not necessary. Just the kind of up-bringing he had there at the lighthouse.

Thanks.