We Have a Winner

Congrats to Amanda, over at the blog Queso Suizo, for winning a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family: 101 Incredible Stories about our Funny, Quirky, Lovable & "Dysfunctional" Families. The book will be mailed to her this week.

In order to win a copy of this book that features two essays by yours truly, Amanda wrote this short story about her crazy family and posted it in the comments section of the post from Shameless Self-Promotion Day:

For the last several years, the oldies in our family have requested that my cousins and I begin to add babies to the clan to make Thanksgiving more entertaining. To buy some time, we have had to come up with alternative forms of entertainment. First, we asked our then-preteen cousin to serenade us with Gwen Stefani singles. Once we realized she would never be an American Idol finalist, it occurred to my sister and me that we should take it upon ourselves to entertain the family at holiday gatherings. We now tell "arm stories" in which one sister sits in a chair and tells an embarrassing story about another family member (in the first person) while the other sister "does the arms.” Hair twirling and other gestures I shan't mention are often involved, revealing the truth to surprised parents for five years and counting!

Congrats to Amanda and be sure to check out her blog, Queso Suizo.

And if you haven't done so already, pick up a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family: 101 Incredible Stories about our Funny, Quirky, Lovable & "Dysfunctional" Families,which is already in its second printing.

Shameless Self Promotion Day

Hello and welcome to Shameless Self Promotion Day. It's just a brief departure from our discussion of Switzerland to let you know that I'm excited (well who am I kidding, I'm practically peeing my pants) that not just one, but two of my essays are out in bookstores across the United States today in one of the best-selling Chicken Soup anthologies, Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family: 101 Incredible Stories about our Funny, Quirky, Lovable & "Dysfunctional" Families.

I don't know what having multiple essays in a book about dysfunctional families says about my family, but I want to take a moment to thank them for providing endless inspiration.

The first story (which is actually the first one in the book--you can read it by clicking on the "see inside this book" button) is about how my father wraps everything (including plastic lawn chairs) in plastic (oh, and happy birthday today, dad...you know what you're getting for the big day).

The second essay is about the DNA I've inherited from multiple family members that just makes me want to steal those butter packets from the table at Denny's (and also the DNA that makes living in Switzerland so difficult because of the lack of these kind of things to take.)

To make Shameless Self-Promotion Day slightly less shameful, I'm giving away a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family: 101 Incredible Stories about our Funny, Quirky, Lovable & "Dysfunctional" Families. All you have to do to win is leave a comment on this post about something crazy your family does from now until November 3. Craziest family story (in my opinion, of course) wins. You'll get the book and your story will be posted on my blog in a future post along with a link to your blog or website. Please keep stories to 150 words or less.