Five. (A giveaway)

I sat down at my computer on October 1st, 2006 and wrote out my very first blog post with the title, "Life on the hyphen..." 

You're welcome to click over and read it. I lifted that post title from a book written by my friend, Gustavo Perez-Firmat, called Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-American Way. In that book, he brilliantly describes how we Cubans "straddle" the hyphen between being Cuban and American. That so resounded with me that I was inspired to write about my everyday life here in The O.C. as a Cuban-American wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend.

I've written about how I've homeschooled my kids, which is an odd proposition for someone with my history.

I often say that I'm 100% Cuban and 100% American. I'm quite proud of being a part of both of the cultures that have informed my life and personality and for the last five years, this blog.

I have been celebrating Cuban-American life here on this little corner of cyberspace for five years now. And I'm very proud of what I've created.

So, please, help me celebrate my Five Year Blogoversary. Five whole years, people! (I'm like Methuselah in the blogging world, but that's not important right now.)

Cuban Living Magazine Cover for MBFCF

I'm so grateful that I have had a place to share my stories and my kitchen and the cool stuff I get to do and the people who are so important to me. I'm humbled, too, by the constant and generous attention that you pay me.

I appreciate those of you who have been around since 2006 and have watched my children grow up on these pages. And I appreciate every member of my family who have been gracious enough to let me share their lives here. They are now used to having Mom pointing a camera at them and they're okay with seeing themselves in their fabulous goofiness. 

I am grateful to those of you who have just recently Googled a Cuban recipe and found yourselves here and have decided to continue coming back to visit. Please stay. My blog-casa is your blog-casa. ;-)

To celebrate this auspicious occasion, and as my way of saying thanks for reading my blog, I'm going to give away 5 (!) MBFCF items from my online shop, Cuba To GO! (because I can).

I'm giving away:

1) A MBFCF Mug:

MBFCF mug

2) A Cuban Spice Apron:

Cuban spice apron

3) and 4)  Two people will win an autographed copy of My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Cookbook:

Cookbook

5) And last, but certainly not least, an autographed copy of my friend, Gustavo Perez-Firmat's lastest and absolutely delicious book, The Havana Habit:

  Havana Habit

I thought it only fitting, since he was my inspiration for this whole thing. Gracias, Gustavo!

So, by now you know the drill...

To enter the drawing for a chance to win the above mentioned uber-cool MBFCF stuff, please leave a comment on this post and answer one or all of the following questions:

  • If you're a regular MBFCF reader, why do you keep coming back ? 
  • Do you also live "on the hyphen?"
  • Is it the recipes? 
  • The stories?
  • The giveaways?
  • Or is it like a bad habit you picked up that you can't break? ;-)

I'll do a random drawing on Monday, October 3rd at 12 noon Pacific Time.  

Happy 5th Blogoversary to me! 

*throws confetti*

3 Things

Wow!

Okay, three things...

  • I am amazed and grateful and a little overwhelmed at the generous outpouring of kindness and good wishes from all of you.
  • I am sad that I can't give something away to every single person.
  • I am excited to send stuff to three of you. =)

I made a list of all your names in order of comment and plugged that into Random.org List Randomizer. I hit the "randomize" button three times to give me three winners. (Yes, I suppose I could have just taken the first three names, but then I would have missed out on all the excitement of randomizing. In fact, I'm kind of a dork when I do these drawings. It's like a little ritual. I type all the names in and I wish you all good luck, and I press the button and then announce, "We have our first winner!" And....umm...so maybe that was all kind of an overshare?)  ;-)

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all of you for playing with me. You're the reason I love doing this so much.

Drum roll please.....

1) This beautiful MBFCF mug goes to (this totally cracked me up, but that's not important right now):

6a00d8341c89e653ef0120a5af508b970b

Amy Arnaz said...
I hope I win the mug!

xoxo Amy Arnaz

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2) The MBFCF BBQ Apron goes to:

6a00d8341c89e653ef0120a60628ac970c-320wi

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3) The MBFCF Cookbook goes to:

6a00d8341c89e653ef0120a6062ac1970c-320wi

Elizabeth said...

look at how you're loved! You are amazing! That's not a real cover? Shut up!

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To the winners: Shoot me an email that says HEY MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! in the subject line (so I don't accidentally delete you) along with your snail mail address so I can get your goodies out to you. And again, congratulations! I hope you enjoy your gifts!

Love you all.

Thank you for making all the hours I spend here worthwhile.

Besos,
Marta