Appleton Basket Company January Update

Our crazy, busy season ended a few days before Christmas and we spent an enjoyable holiday with our immediate family as well traveling to visit parents. The kids received far too many toys (as usual) but the look on their faces was priceless as they got their first look at the pile under the tree. We were able to visit Santa again successfully this year; our oldest may "know" or at least suspect but, if she does, she's keeping it close. It's so cool to be able to relive a little bit of our youth through the eyes of our children. We hope your Holidays were filled with similar memories.

After recovering from the Holiday crunch and cleaning up the shred and ribbon fragments that covered the shop floor, Cathy sat down a week ago to write yearly donation checks for all the different charities we support. There were over 85 checks sent to different charities!

After a few deep breaths, we are gearing up for Valentine's Day; it's hard to believe that the month of January is moving towards a close already.

Please tell your friends about us; write on our Facebook wall and/or send us a note that we can add to our testimonial page. We love what we do and your kind and supportive words are wonderful and appreciated.

Happy New Year to you! We hope this year brings better and brighter things your way!

the Holidays, they are a comin'

November in Maine has been relatively mild. The days are noticeably shorter and with daylight savings time now in effect, the afternoons seem to end quickly with the early advent of nightfall. By mid-afternoon, the sun sits low on the horizon and even before it sets, you can feel the air outside cool quickly. Many folks around us heat with wood and you can smell the scent of burning oak as the afternoon fades. Though the ground has yet to freeze, there is ice on the small ponds at daybreak. Sometimes it melts by afternoon and sometimes not. We awoke to four inches of partly cloudy on our front lawn three weeks ago but haven't seen a flake since. We know that it's just a matter of time before the trees will be painted white with snow and we can go sledding once again.

The Holiday Season also comes sneaking up on us filling us with both excitement and anticipation. It's also only a matter of time before we have to look forward first to Thanksgiving, then to the Holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa (my apologies if I have overlooked others). With the changes that continue to impact our lives daily, most of us continue to look a bit more carefully at how we live; I know that we do.

Cathy and I continue to run the Appleton Basket Company by doing business based on what we feel is right. We create our products with good things and try to make them functional and enjoyable. We believe in our customers and in providing great customer service. We believe in sharing our success with those less fortunate by contributing two dollars from each gift basket sale to different charities. We believe in making as small an environmental footprint as possible by using recycled and biodegradable products whenever we can. We do this because this is who we are. We write about this because you have a choice about who you do business with.

Thanksgiving is two days away, the kids will be out of school shortly, your turkey may already be out of the freezer thawing, maybe you will have a house full or you will be visiting others. The events we create and how we celebrate life make our Holidays meaningful. From our family to yours, we hope you have a warm and heartfelt Holiday season. If we can help you send a gift to someone special this Holiday Season, please let us know.

Jeff & Cathy Cleaveland
the Appleton Basket Company
www.AppletonBasketCompany.com

Blowin' in the wind.....

One of my favorite fall smells comes when folks begin to fire up their wood stoves. Their is a hint of burning oak in the air. It means that many of our nights are cold enough to push the mercury down to below freezing. Our days here in Maine have lost most of their red and orange hues as many of the leaves are now off of the trees. Those that remain are yellow. You can see the trees through the forest and soon we will be out Trick or Treating with the kids.

We've been plenty busy at the Appleton Basket Company. This is the time of year we create some fun new products to put online in our store. Yes, the Holidays are coming but we've been thinking about things since late August.

One new line of gifts we are excited about is our "Crates". We've taken many of the products from some of our favorite Gift Baskets and put them in wooden crates. Our crates are a bit more economically priced and made mostly by us as (it gives Jeff a chance to go play with his power tools). Here's a link to a few of the Gift Crates. We'll be getting more online in the next week.

Cathy has decided to take her love of Elvis seriously this Holiday season. She has found delicious flavored Cocoa packed in keepsake tins. Our favorite flavor? By far its the Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich. You Elvis fans will know what we are talking about. Here's a link to the Elvis Gift Box page.

There's more in the works as we still have to get a few more new products online. We hope your fall is as pleasant as ours here in Maine. Thanks for stopping by!