We finished up the “From Your Town to Any Town” giveaway last week, and we couldn’t be happier for our soon-to-be-wed winners. We hope they’re planning great trips with their JetBlue gift cards!

Though two brides-to-be took home the prize, users came to xtra xtra to post moments and milestones from a variety of categories. We had engagements and birthdays, weddings and professional achievements, and many other postings from all corners of the country. It was a great success, and we appreciate all of your entries and enthusiasm!

In honor of the impending new year, we’re taking a look back at a few of our favorite entries from this fantastic giveaway event.

Bailey posted a birthday announcement of this adorable toddler. Birthday posts are a great way to acknowledge someone's special day and share it with the community.

Marianthi shared her boyfriend's exciting professional announcement. Mark's show debuted earlier this month, and we're glad she shared his success at xtra xtra.

Jennifer created a holiday announcement to share news from her vacation and updates on the family. We love this colorful, "newsy" posting.

Eric created a Clubs & Hobbies post to update donors and supporters of his team's success in the Pan-Mass Challenge. We're glad they were so successful and wish them luck in 2011.

Caitlin and David were engaged over Thanksgiving, and we're glad they couldn't wait to share the news on xtra xtra! Congrats and best wishes to them in their marriage!

Jason finished his last semester of law school--quite an achievement!--and shared it on xtra xtra. We wish him the best of luck with the bar and in starting his career as an attorney.

We had some fantastic submissions in our “From Your Town to Any Town” giveaway. Throughout December, you posted intriguing events, colorful holiday announcements, professional news, birthdays and babies, and a wealth of other postings on the site. When all of the entries were recorded—including tweets and Facebook postings–we used Random.org to select two entries from the mix, and as fate would have it, two lucky brides-to-be won our contest!

Here are the winning entries…

The first comes from Aimee and Jason in Newburyport, MA…

The second comes from John and Kestrel in Columbia, MO…

Congratulations to our winners, and thanks again to everyone who participated in this fun contest. We hope you’ll continue to visit xtraxtra.com to share all of life’s milestones and memories with your favorite communities!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered our “From Your Town To Any Town” giveaway. We had lots of fantastic entries from all corners of the country, and it’s great to see so many people who have something to celebrate! We’re in the process of confirming our winners, but we’ll be sure to post the winning milestones here at the xtra xtra blog.

Best,
The xtra xtra team

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for further news and details about the contest!

In the spirit of the holiday season, we’re giving a special prize to two lucky people. If you create an xtra xtra milestone between December 1 and December 20, you’ll be eligible to win one of two $300 Jet Blue gift cards! Ring in the New Year on the beaches of Aruba. Head down to Disney or go ice skating in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza. Wherever you want to go, we’ll help you get there!

It’s easy to enter this contest. Obviously we encourage you to share all of your important milestones on the site, but only one will count as your entry to the contest. That doesn’t mean you only get one chance to win, though! Each user can earn up to three entries for the contest, just by sharing your milestone on your favorite social networks.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN EARN YOUR THREE ENTRIES…

1. Post a Valid Milestone at xtra xtra (Required)—Celebrate and commemorate important events- like anniversaries, birthdays, engagements, and more- by posting a milestone. Check out all of our categories, then visit xtra xtra and click “Create a Milestone” to post your milestone in five easy steps. Your posting must be at least 3 sentences in length to be included in the contest. This tutorial can assist you with our posting process. Can’t think of anything to post at the moment? Create a holiday card to send out to friends and family. Everyone has something to post at xtra xtra!
2. Tweet It— Share a link to your posting on Twitter and mention @xtraxtrawebsite in the tweet to gain another entry in the contest. After all, the best news is the kind you share with friends and followers!
3. Share It On Facebook—Become friends with Xtraxtra Milestone, then share a link to your posting on your Facebook wall. Everyone loves finding news from friends on Facebook, so this is a great way to ensure more people see your posting. *You must friend our Xtraxtra Milestone account so we can verify and count this entry, so don’t miss that vital step! If you are already our friend, just send us a message that you have added the link.

Click here to get started!

PRIZE

Two (2) winners will be selected at random and will be notified by email.

Each winner will receive one (1) $300 JetBlue Gift Card

*Entries will be accepted until 11:59 PM on December 20.

WHAT MAKES A VALID MILESTONE?

Our site is all about sharing your milestones and community news. People want to stay connected to their friends, family, neighbors and communities- so that they can join them in commemorating important milestones. So please make sure your posts are:

• TIMELY- Posts must be current and timely. For example, if you got engaged in November, an ongoing engagement would be timely- whereas a wedding that happened two years ago would not. Make sure that posts do not contain outdated information.
• RELEVANT- Each posting must contain real people and events that are associated with actual schools and pertinent towns/zip codes. Your posting must be relevant to the milestone category and written in the spirit of hometown news and community announcements.
• DETAILED/SPECIFIC- Use details and full names to give your readers the full experience of your posting. Each posting must be at least three (3) sentences in length to be considered admissible, and it should include the details you would normally find in an article in your local newspaper. Please view the samples if you are unsure.

For examples of valid milestones: check out these posts from other users: Sample Engagement Posting, Sample Birthday Posting, Sample Holiday Event Posting

RULES

Read these carefully, as failure to comply will make you ineligible for the contest!

• You must be 18 years or older to participate.
• You must be legal resident of the United States. (Sorry Canada! We love you. Hopefully we will be up there soon.)
• Each individual can earn a maximum of three (3) entries in the contest. One (1) for a valid posting, one (1) for sharing that posting on twitter and one (1) for sharing the posting on Facebook. Read more

On Wednesday, we’ll be kicking off an exciting contest to give two lucky xtra xtra users a $300 gift card to JetBlue Airlines. From December 1 to December 20, you can enter the “From Your Town to Any Town” giveaway by creating milestones at xtra xtra. More details will be available here on the blog on December 1, but for now we invite you to think about where you’d go if you won! Visit JetBlue’s website to see where they fly!

As we’re hosting the contest, members of the xtra xtra team can’t win, but if we could, here’s where we’d go…

• Stephanie Burke, xtra xtra’s Operations Manager– If I won the JetBlue gift card giveaway, I would definitely use it to visit friends: Portland (to visit Kimmy); New Orleans for Mardi Gras; or California. As it gets colder, I am also thinking about a tropical getaway. JetBlue flies direct to Aruba, and that is sounding pretty tempting right now!
• Jamie Reddish, xtra xtra’s Graphic Designer–If I won the giveaway I would like to go to San Diego, California. I’ve never been to the West coast and I could really use some sun and beach time!!
• Cooley Horner, xtra xtra’s Marketing Coordinator—I would fly down to Jacksonville so I could visit Amelia Island, one of my favorite vacation spots. Fried shrimp, boiled peanuts, and Florida sunshine would make a fantastic wintertime getaway!

Start brainstorming ideas for where you’d like to jet away to, and get excited for our giveaway that kicks off on December 1!

Til next time,

The xtra xtra team