As I mentioned after our last Sam’s Club Membership / Gift Card giveaway, we still have quite a few memberships left to give out. All of a sudden I’m in a bit more of a rush to give them out – for one good reason.

Starting tomorrow and continuing through November and December, the Wife and I are participating in some very cool Sam’s Club Holiday campaigns and each one includes gift-card giveaways (and multiple cards per giveaway). All in all, between now and Christmas, we will be giving away about $1,500 worth of Sam’s Club gift cards. Not too bad right? This doesn’t even include all of the other giveaways that the Wife has been working hard to put together with many of the the other companies we have worked with. You’ll be hearing a lot more about all of these campaigns very soon.

Today, I’m giving away four Sam’s Club Advantage Plus Memberships / Gift-Cards. Like I’ve said many times before, these memberships are each worth $100 and if you already have a membership, you can use this as a gift-card. You can find all of the details in the official rules below. We’ve had a great response with these giveaways so far and we’re glad to be able to keep them going.

For one reason or another, I always feel obligated to have a “theme” for the giveaway. I like to see what people have to say when we ask them to come up with some sort of creative comment. It beats the heck out of a few hundred comments that say “Enter me.”

Since we’re about to kick-off our holiday campaigns, I thought it would be interesting to have a theme about gifts. Namely, what was the best Christmas, Hanukkah or <insert name of preferred gift-giving holiday here> present that you’ve ever received? So when you leave your main comment, that will serve as your entry to the contest, we’d really like to hear about your favorite gift. To get you going, I’ll tell you about mine.

While I was growing up, “Santa” took pretty damn good care of my little brother, sister and I. It would be hard to think of a Christmas where we didn’t get pretty much everything we asked for. No question about it, we were extremely lucky (and probably took that good fortune completely for granted). But because of that, it would be hard to pick a “favorite” childhood gift, so I have to move to something more recent. In this case, what made the gift “great” wasn’t so much the object itself (although it is awesome), but instead it was the thought that the Wife put into it.

Shortly after I graduated from college and started my first “real” job, I purchased a pretty expensive item. It was a Takamine EF341SC Takamine EF341SCacoustic/electric guitar. This guitar was my prized possession, not only because it was the first “big” thing I bought myself, but also because I loved playing it. The problem was that about a year after I bought it, I went through a pretty rough few months (that I may discuss in a later post that I would title something like “How to Avoid Letting a Girlfriend/Breakup Mess Up Your Whole Damn Life”). Needless to say, I somehow ended up leaving my job and ending up broke in Chicago living with some friends from college. As a result, my Dad sold my Takamine so I could have money to pay for rent.

Early on in our relationship, the Wife must have noticed how much I missed that guitar because I talked about it all the time and how annoyed I was that I let myself get into a situation where I had to sell it. As a result, it was a real surprise when during our first Christmas together I opened up a rather large and unwieldy box to discover an absolutely identical, Takamine EF341SC. I couldn’t possibly have been more surprised. I didn’t realize she had been paying attention when I talked about it so it really blew me away that she figured out the model (without me ever actually mentioning it) and managed to find a mint condition model that was made at about the same time as my original.

I think about how thoughtful that was every time I play the guitar (which I wish was more these days). I know one thing – the new guitar is Anna and I Playing Guitarsmore of a prized possession than the old one ever was, because of all the effort she put into finding it. No matter what happens in my life, there is no way in hell that thing is ever being sold again. I’ve already started teaching Anna to play her own guitar and when I happen to kick-the-bucket someday, the Takamine will be hers (along with a bunch of other cool stuff – like our credit card debt).

So there you go. Best present I’ve ever received. What’s your story? To make it worth your while to be creative about it, three of the memberships will be given out using the usual random comment method. The fourth winner will be chosen by me, based on what I think was the best “present receiving” story. This will be completely subjective and totally at my discretion. Whatever I think is the coolest story will win. Simple as that.

Good luck & keep an eye out for all of the other contests that we’ll have starting up over the next week.

Official Rules:
1. You must already be, or become a subscriber to this site in order to participate in this contest.
2. To enter, leave a comment describing the best holiday present you’ve ever received. You don’t necessarily have to be honest (how will I ever find out if the present was real or not), but you do have to be creative – the best story will win a membership.
3. Four winners will receive a Sam’s Club Advantage Plus – Gift of Membership card. If you already have a Sam’s Club membership, you can use the remaining balance of the card as a standard Sam’s Club gift card.
4. The first three winners will be selected using random.org, based on the number of your comment.
5. The fourth winner will be chosen by me based on the entry that I consider the best and most creative.
6. This contest will end at 10pm on Friday, November 13th 2009.
7. Winners will be notified by email and posted to this site. Winners will have 48 hours from the time of notification to claim their prize. If the prize is not claimed within that time, another winner will be chosen.
8. Each comment represents a single entry. Those entitled to multiple entries for performing “extra credit” must add a comment for each entry.
9. You must answer the question regarding the “present” topic in order to participate. You don’t have to write a long paragraph, a simple sentence will do. If you ignore this request and comment with “Cool contest, enter me”, your comment will be deleted.

Extra Credit:
1. Follow me using the Google Friend Connect widget – 1 extra entry
2. Follow on Twitter and Tweet about this contest – 1 extra entry per day (include link to Tweet in your comment)
3. Blog about this contest – 3 extra entries (include a link to the post in your comment)
4. Enter any of the giveaways in progress on www.theartofbeingmom.com – 3 extra entries (include name of contest and your comment # )
5. Post a comment on any of the other posts on this site (from the past month) – 1 extra entry per post (leave post name and comment #)

(remember, you have to leave a comment for EACH ENTRY when you do extra credit. We pick winners based on a drawing using the comment number. If you put 5 entries into a single comment, you defeat the whole purpose of the extra credit, since you aren’t increasing your chances of winning. No, I am not going to go through each entry and make sure that you’ve entered correctly, that is up to you.)

FTC Disclosures:
This post is part of the Sam’s Club – Sharing the Savings Blogger Program. I have received compensation from Sam’s Club in the form of a complimentary Sam’s Club membership. I have also been provided with membership gift/cards to giveaway to our readers. Regardless of compensation, all views and opinions expressed are my own.