In this issue:

Blog
Soap of the Month
New Store Locator
Bonus Points
After-Christmas Clearance Sale
January Clearance Sale
Seconds
Alabu Farm
Featured Feedback

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and made lots of happy family memories and are on your way to a bright and promising New Year! We hope you have had some time to reflect on the past year, savor the sweet memories and think about things you would like to accomplish this year.

One of the things at the top of our list is to finish the construction project in the soap shop. I think the guys are almost done and we will be able to get everything put back together and have some pictures next month.

We had an enjoyable week between Christmas and New Years, which started with an extended visit with our daughter Nell and her husband Matt who surprised us by arriving at 3 am on December 26th. They had hoped to sneak in, but our dog sniffed under our bedroom door and realized that her best friend, Echo (Nell and Matt's Portuguese water dog) was here, so she scratched on the door and jumped up on the bed until we opened the door (we thought she needed to go out), but of course she made a b-line to their bedroom door and greeted everyone and wanted to play with Echo. We said hello and told Chia it really was time to go back to bed. She did quiet down but ended up sleeping by the door instead of her bed.

We had plenty of time to relax and recharge and the kids didn't mind helping to pack orders and take an end of the year inventory with us. But the next weekend was the highlight of thier visit. The kids were able to talk us into going on our annual Christmas camping trip, which we had stopped for a few years. This year our backpacking trek took us to Murphy Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. It was a lot of fun and I'm still limping to prove it (our bones just don't take to sleeping on the ground like they used to). It was in interesting night with a new camper: Hal's girlfriend, and all five of us and two dogs were all in one tent. We made lots of memories but I think the dogs had the most fun. We also had time for visiting with extended family and playing games and doing puzzles. Nell and Matt stayed until New Year's Day, and drove home in the middle of a snow storm (that left about a foot of snow here and maybe more in Main where they live) which extended their six hour trip to almost 12 hours. It was wonderful to have the whole family together. Now it's time to get back to work.

We hope you enjoy the newsletter this month.

Alabu Blog

Our son Hal has started a new blog on his experiences in the family soap making adventure. You can check it out here.

Soap of the Month

We have had many requests to have a soap of the month sale, giving folks an opportunity to try a featured soap at a reduced price. This month we are featuring Eucalyptus. This special soap contains eucalyptus oil, known for its medicinal properties. Eucalyptus is a calming; soothing oil with is suitable for irritated or sensitive skin, restoring calm and balance. It gives your skin a feeling of freshness and makes it feel oh so clean. The unique soap is mildly scented with the aroma of the Australian bush: it is distinctive and pleasant. NOTE: Coupons and special offers do not apply to Soap of the Month items.

Bonus Points - What are they and how do you use them?

We have a Bonus Point program for our customers that place orders over the internet. Customers collect 1 bonus point for each dollar in product ordered. So a purchase of $50.00 worth of Alabu products will earn you 50 points. The redemption value of 20 points is $1.00. That is, for every 20 points you have, you can redeem them for $1.00 off of your order. A 100 point redemption would equal $5.00 off of your order. The bonus points are roughly equal to a 5% discount on each order once you have redeemed them.

How do you redeem your points? I am glad you asked. To redeem your points, first login to your Alabu account. After you are logged in, click on "Bonus Points" in the "Your Cart" section of the page. This will take you to the Bonus Points page. Read through the directions to gain a complete understanding of how the program works but in short, you click on the "Convert to a Gift Certificate" and convert your Bonus Points into a Gift Certificate that either you can use when checking out yourself or you can send it on as a gift to a family member or friend.

After-Christmas Clearance Sale
Even though the guys have totally renovated our workshop we are still running out of room for all the different soaps we offer. This month we are putting all of our seasonal Christmas fragrances on sale (Frankincense, Gingerbread, Maggie’s Christmas, Myrrh and Winter Wonderland) Bath Bars and Guest Bars will be on sale until we run out.

January Clearance Sale
We are still offering our discontinued scent Paradise Retreat at a reduced price. We are truly sorry if we are discontinuing your favorite scent, but as we develop new products, we need to make room for them. The good news is at least you can stock up now at a discounted price. We will be making some fragrances available on a seasonal basis. NOTE: Coupons and special offers do not apply to clearance sale items.

Seconds
We still have some seconds this month on our seconds sale page. We have increased production on our most popular soaps, and now have a limited supply of seconds which we are going to offer on our web page while supplies last. Our soap seconds are the same as our regular soap, but are made by taking the ends from the soap log and molding them to form a regular size bar. The only difference is that they do not look as pretty. We wrap seconds with a tissue paper band around the middle and seal it with our label. They are about the same weight and size as regular bars. The price will be $3.00 a bar, a substantial savings from our regular bath bars. NOTE: Coupons and special offers do not apply to Soap Seconds.

Alabu Farm
Some pictures from the farm and camping.

Click on a picture to see a larger version.

Featured Feedback
We love hearing from our customers. We get a lot of notes each month and many we put up in our Testimonial section. We do not alter the notes that we get (other than the occasional spelling error or miss-placed word). We thought it might be helpful to highlight one each month that we found particularly interesting.

Dear Alabu: I ran out of Alabu, and so I thought that I would run to the mall and pick-up something fancy. My son and I went to a place that sold dead sea salt soap. I figured, the soap is clear, it must be good. We talked to the lady and I bought some. The one thing that my son said as we were walking out was, "Why would anyone want to use soap that can only be used on the body and not the face?" Well, we used it for a couple of weeks and my son's itchy skin came back. We realized that we needed to go back to the Alabu soap. I got my shipment in no time and my son ran upstairs and literally threw the other soap in the trash.
Cynthia — Houston, TX

A reminder, we do offer free shipping on orders over $60.

We truly enjoy the notes and visits from you all, and yes, if you're ever in the neighborhood stop in and say hello

We thank you for all your support over the past year and hope you all have a safe and Happy 2008.

Sincerely,

Maryclaire, Dean, & Hal

New Store Locator on webpage

We are pleased to announce that more stores are now carrying Alabu Products. We encourage you to buy Alabu's All-Natural products from a store near you. This helps support your local economy, and it's better for the environment (less shipping means lower fuel consumption and less packaging). If you don't find a store near you, please feel free to give our contact information to your favorite place to shop, or if you'd like you can just send us a note and we'll contact them for you!

Featured Products
Tahitian Vanilla Soap
Soap Of The Month
Olive Soap
Foot Care Spa
Green Tea

Gift Items
Gift Baskets
Gift Packs
Baby Gifts
All Gift Items
Shaving Soap
Mug & Brush
Deluxe Mug & Brush
Moisturizer
Lotion Sticks
All Products

Coupon Reminder

When redeeming your coupon be sure to enter the entire code including the word

"COUPON-"

All Alabu coupon codes are in the form

COUPON-xxxx-##

See Alabu news-letters from previous months.