Where do I begin?

Well, this is my first ever blog and post. I am excited to see where this will lead. I started the blog because my husband signed me up for something called the "Christmas Challenge 2009." I got an email tonight that told me the following:

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Congratulations! You have been nominated and selected as a participant in the 2009 Christmas Challenge.

Over the next 25 days, you will complete 25 daily challenges of varying difficulty. With every successful challenge, you will be one step closer to reaching the end. However, with every failed challenge will come both a replacement challenge and a penalty task, both of which will have to be completed to continue.

You are not competing against anyone else in the Christmas Challenge. Instead, your opponents will be the challenges themselves, and you will find that some (such as today's) are trivial, while others are far from it.

At the end of the Christmas Challenge, you will be evaluated and given a score. This score will be based on both objective and subjective factors such as accuracy, speed, creativity, obedience to the rules, etc. With this score you can judge how well you performed in this year's challenge, and, should you be selected for future challenges, gauge this year's performance against future challenges as well.

So, without further ado, let us begin.

**Rules**

First, we must establish a few rules:

-- All rules, once given, are in effect throughout the challenge unless otherwise stated.

-- You may not question anyone about the Christmas Challenge.

-- You may not question anyone about their or anyone else's involvement in or knowledge of the Christmas Challenge.

**Task #1**

Your first task is a simple one. You must sign-up for and create a blog.

All of your challenge-related activities must be documented in your blog. If it isn't documented, it does not count. Obviously, the more detail, the better.

Good luck, and congratulations again on beginning your journey!

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So--as you can see I had to start a blog in order to complete my first mission. It has taken me a while to get the blog started and now I am about to fall asleep so I am heading to bed. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings and what mission awaits me!! Until tomorrow this is the Black Lily signing off. (Black Lily is my code name for the missions :)