I remember when I was 3yrs old, waking up on Christmas morning to what would soon become my most memorable Christmas.

As I came down the stairs there was a tent set up in the living room. As I approached the tent  a dinosaur came out on its own. It scared me enough that I peed all over the floor!

Then I heard my mother laughing from the kitchen. It turns out she had bought me a remote controlled inflatable dinosaur and thought it would be funny to have it come out of the tent on its own. I will never forget the Christmas the dinosaur attacked me!

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Jessica won a $100 Earth Fare gift card for being the winning entry! To find out how to enter this month’s “You tell us…” contest, pick up a copy of the January sales flyer at your local Earth Fare.

Congratulations to Jamison C. from Columbia who won the $50 Earth Fare gift card for answering the question: What are your 2011 highlights?

From Dennis W. (Chattanooga, TN)

From Jessica V. (Asheville, NC)

From the Malcolm Family (Johnson City, TN)

From Lizette T. (Huntersville, NC)

From Catherine S. (Charlotte, NC)

Thanks again to everyone who shared their holiday card with us!

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There will be more chances to win in 2012… What contest would you like to see from Earth Fare in the new year?

Flying cats. A cat in the box. A Christmas squirrel. Goofy hats. A crying baby. Oh…and we can’t forget to mention Alec Baldwin flying a sleigh! We literally could not stop laughing over this card.

Thank you to everyone for sharing their holiday cards with us. Check out Facebook for the other entries, and let us know your favorite. 

Tomorrow we’ll share a few of the other entries that gave us a good chuckle!

Thanks to everyone who entered our contest, and congratulations to our winners:
Lindsey R., Richard M., Marisa, Elyse G., and Christina G.

We particularly loved Elyse’s Fare-Y Tale and Marisa’s Poem (see below):

Earth Fare, I welcome you!
With a baby and a daughter who’s 2,
healthful meals are my goal,
but grocery shopping is getting old.
I look forward to your cafe the most
on busy weeknights it will let me coast.
We’ll come to you for our nutritious dinners
and in the end we’ll all be winners.
I can’t wait to shop at your Westgate store
For prepared foods, meats and produce galore!

Congratulations to the runners-up, who will receive a $100 American Express Gift Card: Krissy from Charlotte-South Park, Abby from Chattanooga, Kailey from Montgomery and Rachael from Boone!

The photos this year really set the bar high, so it was a close race between all the entries.  For more winners of our 2011 Take Your Tomato click here.

And now, we are off to open our next store in Huntersville, NC!

Thank you to everyone who voted and took part in this year’s contest! Keep an eye out for our Team Member winners later today.

We hope you had as much fun as we did…and we can’t WAIT to see what you come up with next year!

Now we need YOUR help to choose the winning Team Member photo!

Vote for your favorite in the comments section (use the entry number; one vote per email address). You have until Saturday, July 30^th at 11:59pm EST to cast your vote. The Team Member entry that receives the most votes/comments will win an iPod Touch!

(Click the photo to enlarge.)

Want to cast your ballot in other Take Your Tomato categories? Click here for more tomato voting!

Our third annual Take Your Tomato contest is here, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with this year!

To enter, take a photo of a tomato in a cool location, wearing a funky costume, or just looking juicy and delicious on the vine. We want you to get creative with your photos! Your tomato can come from Earth Fare or your garden.

Email your photo (JPEGs only, please!) to contests@earthfare.com before 11:59pm EST on 7/22/2011.

A jury of Earth Fare team members will sort photos into categories for Grand Prize contenders, Best Costume, and Best Location. Our jury will choose the top ten photos for each category, which will be posted on our website for voting Monday, 7/25 through Tuesday, 7/26.

Remember, this is a photography competition, NOT a Photoshop competition! Tomatoes are beautiful the way they are – photos should not be heavily edited or processed.

Once the photos are posted on our website, it’s up to YOU to decide our winners! Voting will close at 11:59pm EST on 7/26, and we’ll announce the winners on Friday, 7/29. You can encourage your friends to vote for your photo, and to sweeten the deal, we’ll be giving you a juicy coupon just for voting!

Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place in the Grand Prize category. One winner will be chosen for the Best Costume and Best Location categories.

Prizes

Grand Prize Category

1^st: $500 Earth Fare Gift Card

2^nd: $250 Earth Fare Gift Card

3^rd: $100 Earth Fare Gift Card

Best Costume

$200 Earth Fare Gift Card

Best Location

$200 Earth Fare Gift Card

Details

* No purchase necessary to enter Earth Fare’s Take our Tomato Contest. One entry per email address will be accepted. In the event that one email address submits more than one photo, the latest received photo will be counted as the entry for that email address. Contest candidate must be over the age of 18. In submitting a picture and/or acceptance of prize constitutes permission to use winner’s name and/or likeness and picture submitted for purposes of advertising and trade, worldwide in perpetuity, without future compensation. By submitting a photo, you verify that the artwork is your original property and does not belong to any other artist or photographer. By submitting your photo via email, you agree to have your email address added to Earth Fare’s weekly email list. You can unsubscribe at any time, and we will never sell or give your email to any other company or organization. Prize winners will be required to verify address prior to awarding the prize.