We picked up yesterday's mail, and inside it was a priority envelope. I noticed that the sender was our own Bromern Sal, so I figured that it contained the yearly Christmas card. As I opened it, I muttered to myself that I needed to get my own cards addressed.

I was right... sort of.

I knew that something was up when I pulled out the card, and saw a black and white version of our logo, with the caption "The Red Dragon Inn Christmas Cards" on it. The front bore the words, "For some things, there are no saving throws..." and a picture of a guy exclaiming at his computer screen with the message "$$ RDInn Bill $$".

The guy has red hair and a goatee, so clearly, he is meant to be me. Various monsters are peeking in the window, hding under the desk, or peering through the Christmas tree.

Inside, it says "For everything else, there's friends. Merry Christmas!"

It contains handwritten messages messages from eleven of our staff (plus Fantasy)... almost every single active staff member. That means that this card has been to four countries, two or three Canadian provinces, and three or four states.

Thank you all - I am touched. I was grinning from ear to ear for the rest of the evening.

Then, after I called Bromern, he let me know that you guys "passed the hat" for me - and that I would be sent enough cash via paypal to come pretty close to paying for the Inn's hosting fees for the next year.

Wow. Just wow. Thank you all so much. You are all amazing, and as I have said many times before, I may provide the site, but you make the Inn the great place that it is.

As soon as I can get access to a scanner, I will scan the card and post it for all to see.

See subject.

It was Big Al's idea, and Almerin deserves the credit for designing and drawing the card itself. Brom too for collecting the money. The rest of us just make a few trips to the post office and waived a pen.

And the final total was four countries, two provinces and 6 states including Bama.

There was one foul-up when it crossed the Canadian-US border back in July/August that had the card lost for almost a month, despite the tracking number. Luckily it finally made it stateside.

Glad you liked it Olan!

I have the original file, of course. I can send it to you. But I would still like to see a scan of the inside, since I never got to see the end result, with all the sigs on it. And I know I'm not the only member of the staff who would like a copy

Sounds fun all the same.

Yeah...wouldn't you know it, there seemed to be a hop skip and jump between me and Eol...took a good month and a half...we have no idea why. Glad you enjoyed it mate.

I didn't get to sign it so here's my "Happy Holidays" wish

It gave me great pleasure Olan to be one of the last two Staff to sign it and make sure it reached Bromern from Texas as the final stop before you.

Both Mom and I loved the art work and got a good laugh at the way the monsters and 'you' were portrayed.

Also I noticed a few posts about not being able to sign the card. To everyone who feels sorta left out don't feel bad as due to time constrants and distances needed to be travaled it was decided to be just a Staff member thing.

Maybe next year we can try an Inn member card and start it maybe earlier in the year.

For all of you who had to miss out, here's your chance to take a peek:

RDINN Christmas Card.

This was a staff idea and we briefly toyed with opening up to more but it would have been very hard to control and very very time consuming. Consider that even with a small group of people we almost lost the card once, and barely made it before christmas. So please don't feel left out - it was a spontantious (I only planned it for a month) idea that took wing and flew.

As well, there was the financial aspect that we didn't feel right asking for money from members.

So enjoy the card Olan. It was an adventure and worth the journey.

Considering the distance between Grugg and Eol is about 2 full days of driving, it's still a testament to government efficiency that it took the better part of 6 weeks.

And yea the idea was floated to ask some others to join in, but we felt bad asking for cash (felt bad enough asking the staff...) and also felt bad because we would pretty much have to restrict it to Americans and Canadians, since we have people from literally all over the world, and only had a few months to pull it off and it was tight enough with just one trans-Atlantic flight. So please don't feel left out. I'm sure big Al will come up with a global solution for next year

I did the math at one point during the lost card days and figured I could have walked down, hand delivered the card, stayed for a few days and walked home.

Would have saved money too.

All joking aside, I am official retired from the card moving business. Not making a tradition out of this.

Since he volunteered, I say we have Grugg do a walking tour collecting the hand print of members to give to Olan next year. He should start soon....

Give me an hour to stretch, I figure swimming to Holland to start things off is the most efficient.

If people are keen on making a group compilation card, then perhaps there should be thought put into making one where people to scan their signature and email it to a 'compiler' who sets it into a physical card and sends it to the recipient. Of course, people who aren't able to scan won't be able to add their signature unless the physical card is sent to them, and it's not as nice as having your own ink on the paper, but it would be easier to accomplish. At least, if a signature is lost through the email, it is far easier to resend