Our bakery is located in Phoenix, AZ and one of our neighbors is a construction and development company called Vivo. Recently, Vivo  volunteered for the holidays at a local shelter in the valley called St. Vincent De Paul. They asked Fairytale Brownies for a donation of brownies to go toward the shelter, and we were more than happy to help out. Here is a picture that some of the Vivo workers took passing out some of our Fairytale Brownies. Additionally, Fairytale Brownies continues to donate thousands of brownies toward St. Vincent De Paul on a year-round basis. Thank you Vivo for helping to make the world a sweeter place!

It rained a lot in Phoenix yesterday, and at least 150 volunteers experienced that rain first hand while building a playground for Riverbend Preparatory Academy in Laveen. Fairytale Brownies team members were there helping KaBOOM! and Home Depot provide a safe place to play for the elementary school students who attend Riverbend. Despite the wetness, the playground was finished by the afternoon.


Kurt Warner, quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, dropped by to help with the build as well. He worked on a rock climbing wall, mixed cement and planted flowers in the newly built planters.

Then he signed autographs for the volunteers in the school gym. Volunteers munched on Fairytale Brownies while waiting in line for their autographs.


Fairytale Brownies' co-owner Eileen Spitalny worked on the mulch crew with the mulch master (someone who's been on the mulching crew before), who is pictured above. In fact, this particular mulching master was a volunteer at the last Phoenix KaBOOM! build a few weeks ago but missed out on her gourmet brownie. We made sure she tried one this time. Below is a photo of Eileen in action.

See? I told you it was rainy!
After mulching, Eileen waited in line to visit with Kurt, too.

Kurt even signed Eileen's Fairytale Sprite!

That brownie won't be eaten any time soon...
Lian Mah was KaBOOM!'s project manager. She flew from Washington, D.C. hoping to have better weather than what she left.

Although the Phoenix weather disappointed her, she DID get to visit our Fairytale Brownies bakery and have a tour with Eileen.
By the way, I wasn't officially on the mulch crew this time. I got to be a cement worker and help lay the forms for the playground. I thought I was pretty sturdy until I tried to lift an 80 lb sack of cement. I really need to start lifting more brownie boxes!

While Christmas is just over a week away there is still plenty of time to find the perfect gift of Fairytale Brownies for your customers, employees, family and friends. Who wants to brave the malls in the cold and snow (well, rain here in Arizona) this time of the year? I know I don't. Let us do all the work for you! We have gifts to fit any budget so I'm sure we could find the perfect one! Especially for that last person on your list who has everything. Two of my favorite gifts this year are our Fairytale Truffles and our Winter Wonderland. Both of which are on sale right now! I sent the Truffles to my family, as a can't wait to see you soon gift, and my Dad hid the gift card and told my Mom they were just for him! My Dad is not a big sweets person but when the Fairytale Brownies arrive it's a different story! I'm sure by the time I get there next week there won't be a crumb left. I think I'll just have to surprise him with his very own box under the tree on Christmas morning! This Friday is the last day to order to ensure delivery for Christmas so order soon!

Ok, so I do consider myself to be somewhat of a blog lurker. I read tons of blogs on just about everything. Recently, I came upon a post that I enjoyed. This author was giving suggestions on ways to have some family fun online this season. Most of the sites listed I've seen before, but I thought it would be nice for me to share with your too. So, here are some of the suggested sites and a few that I threw in on my own:

Only 11 days, 18 hours, 47 minutes and 29 seconds left in the countdown to track Santa as he delivers gifts to children around the world!
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

Christmas caroling is a great way to spread cheer to friends and neighbors. At Emoticarolers site, you can create your own virtual Christmas carolers. You can pick up to 4 emoticons to use as the carolers, then select your songs and you are on your way!
http://emoticarolers.com/

Enjoy the joy and magic of Christmas in Santa's Secret Village. There are many free activities like writing letters to Santa, read stories, enjoy karaoke, send e-cards, find recipes, play games and puzzles, print stories to color, and many more!
http://www.northpole.com/

See the scenic Northwest area where your Christmas tree grew up! Make tree decorations, color, play games, match holiday shapes, and meet Ev'rett the friendly Evergreen tree and sing-along. Also, you can enter a decorated tree photo contest to win an Oregon's Mt. Hood Territory vacation package.
http://www.visitmytree.com/

Create your own Christmas story. Fill in the blanks (Mad-Libs style) to help write your own Christmas story. When you're done, read your story starring you!
http://www.blackdog.net/cgi-bin/story/xmas.cgi

Send Happy Holidays or Christmas ecards to your friends and family for free. 1000's of cards to choose from and there is no registration required.
http://www.free-ecards4u.com/

Make yourself, friends, family, and even your pets into dancing elves. This is pretty fun and is hilarious to watch the final product. Definitely do this for a good hearty laugh!
http://www.elfyourself.com/

Have fun, and have a happy and safe holiday season.
~ Hilary 

We've started a Daily Brownie Deal at brownies.com, and I wanted to share it with our blog readers.

Today's Daily Brownie Deal is the Christmas Tower, and it is 10% off plus Free Shipping today (12/10) only. This is a great gift that includes all 12 of our fudgy chocolate brownie flavors in an assortment of 3 Fairytale sizes (Brownies, Sprites and Magic Morsels) in a red and white Christmas tower. It's perfect if you want to send brownies to a group, as there's something for everyone inside.  

 

Stay tuned for future Daily Brownie Deals! Only 15 days till Christmas!

~Kari