Sunday, September 26, 2021, at 8:30am, in the lounge at Smittys in Spruce Grove!
UPDATE!
Please read carefully. Smitty's Restaurant is participating in the Restrictions Exemption Program, which means we can still meet and eat, but must follow their rules.
- Age 12 and over: please bring along a copy of your covid vaccination record to show to the staff; on your phone is okay too. You must have had your first dose of a covid-19 vaccine on or before Sept 12, 2021, in order to dine in at Smitty's.
- Age 18 and over: bring photo ID to show with your vaccine record.
- We all must wear masks at all times except when seated at a table. This means if you are moving to visit with another table, you must wear your mask while moving.
We do really like meeting here, so please follow Smitty's instructions perfectly, because we really want to come back.
If you are not vaccinated for covid-19, or are less than two weeks since your first dose, you are still welcome to participate in the gift exchange, you just cannot enter the restaurant. Please arrive by 9:20am, message sirIyeH or GeoGuider (or any geocacher inside) to come get your coordinates; we will exchage them all at 9:30am and bring you your new coordinates to collect your gift. We can visit with you outside!
If you have a medical exemption, please contact Smitty's directly to check if they are accepting exemptions at this time.
Original Description:
Celebrating Christmas in warm weather can be lots of fun! Since traditionally the 25th is a family centred day, we've chosen to meet on September Boxing Day. We will meet in the lounge, have breakfast (no buffet available, sorry). We'll jabber a bit together and during this time those who are participating in the gift exchange will exchange coordinates to the gifts! Kids under age 18 are welcome in the lounge until 10:00am.
Everyone is welcome to attend, but if you want to participate in the gift exchange you will need to follow the guidelines below.
**As of publication, the restrictions in effect as of August 26 allow us to meet together in groups, however if this changes, we will follow all current restrictions in place at the time which may include not eating together, wearing masks, gathering limits and more. An announcement will be made if changes occur.
Not-Christmas gift exchange guidelines:
1) One container per gift exchange participant. If you share a geocaching name, each person can still bring a gift to exchange. You must hide a "gift-cache" (don't publish it to geocaching!) and bring the waypoint to the event in order to participate.
2) Prior to coming to the event, you must hide a gift (the Not-Christmas cache) to be exchanged with another geocacher somewhere within 10 kilometers of Smittys. Do not publish the gift on geocaching! This is not an official geocache! The gift can be whatever you like, such gift cards, unactivated geocoins, TB dog tags, swag items, cookies, books... Please use your own judgement in selecting your gift items, remembering that children may participate as well. Place your gift items in a typical cache container (ie tupperware, lock n lock, Christmas tin, and so on, although we have found balls of Saran Wrap) and hide it to be found later that day. Since your container will be found later the same day, you may include food or scented items, which are normally absolutely forbidden. Don't forget to write down a waypoint for your hidden gift. As an unpublished cache, there are no distance restrictions from another cache. (Contact sirIyeH or GeoGuider for help if you don't know how to get a waypoint.)
3) Gift value: $20.
4) Bring your waypoint (coordinates) to the event. This can be written a card, box, small geocache, a nano, a potato masher, or anything that can hold the coordinates of your gift cache. In addition, it would be a good idea to write your geocaching name and cell phone number on the paper just in case your recipient needs assistance. Your cache can be a puzzle, multi-stage, or whatever adventure cache you want to make. As all levels of geocachers are participating, consider the difficulty of finding or accessing your gift cache.
5) At the event, the coordinates will be exchanged randomly.
6) After the coordinate exchange, go find your gift cache. Remember... the entire cache is yours to keep including the container so make sure you take everything with you after the hunt. These containers are not to be left behind.
7) When you log the event as attended, please thank the cacher who hid your Not-Christmas Cache for the gift if you also participated in the exchange. You may share what your gift cache contained if you like and feel free to post pictures, even a picture of the hiding spot.
Instuctions too long?
1) Hide a present somewhere around Spruce Grove area.
2) Mark a waypoint.
3) Bring waypoint to the event on a September 26th.
4) Receive a waypoint and go find a present someone hid for you.
5) Log as attended and thank your gift giver.