It’s giveaway time! It’s a massive one guys and I’m pretty excited! For the past week or so I’ve been featuring recipes using Staub, Shun, Cuttingboard.com, Finex, and Kitchen Aid and now’s the time to finally bundle everything up and give it all away. Well, not literally, because you’re actually going to win new items, so there’s no real bundling, just figurative bundling.
win this staub!
I hope you’ve been following along – so far I’ve made Slow Braised Japanese Chashu Pork, Mini Puff Pastry Roses, Caramel Corn and Rice Krispie Mix, and Mint Snowman Marshmallows, but with these giveaway items you can make pretty much anything, which is perfect for the holiday season.
win this shun knife and cuttingboard.com boo’s block!
I love food – as I’m sure you know – and one of my favorite Christmas memories is of me, my brother, and Christmas chocolates. As little kids, come the first of December, we would get chocolate advent calendars. I still see them around now: those thin cardboard drugstore boxes featuring a Christmas picture with tiny numbered windows and chocolates hiding behind them. My brother and I lived for that moment at the end of the day when we got to pry open the cardboard for our long awaited treat. Our eager fingers would melt the chocolate ever so slightly as we tried to eat our chocolates as slowly as possible.
win this finex cast iron pan!
One year, we got it in our heads that we didn’t want to wait. We snuck our calendars down to the basement – it was cold and dark down there and I didn’t like it but my brother convinced me it was the best place to hide – and ate every single chocolate. We ate the entire month of December. And the thing is, we did it in a gentle, artful way where we could close back the windows so that at a casual glance, you couldn’t tell that the calendar was ravaged.
win this kitchen aid!
Maybe it was the sugar-high making us crazy, but we totally thought we got away with it. That is, until it was time for our nightly ritual with our parents. Needless to say, there was no chocolate treat that night. Or the next night, or the next. But, it was okay, because come Christmas morning, there were still presents under the tree. Apparently, our chocolate binge didn’t leave us on Santa’s naughty list, which was a huge relief, because, presents.
These days I’m more into giving than receiving so I couldn’t resist putting together this giveaway for you! I wish I could send everyone a Christmas present but since I can’t, I thought I’d do the next best thing and giveaway some of my favorite things. So, let me know your favorite holiday memory and maybe you’ll be the lucky reader who wins! Good luck!
Giveaway: I’ve teamed up with some of my favorite brands to do a massive giveaway. One lucky reader will win:
Staub 4 Quart Round Cocotte
Shun 6-inch Dual Core Utility Knife
Cuttingboard.com Boos Block Walnut 20×15 Cutting Board
Finex 10-inch Cast Iron Pan
Kitchen Aid Artisan Design Series 5-Quart Stand Mixer w/Glass Bowl in Pearl Silver
To enter: Leave a comment on the blog with your favorite winter holiday memory. I want to hear ALL the details! I’ll randomly choose a winner and notify them through email. Open to US residents only. (Sorry international friends, only American companies agreed to this one!) If you’d like some extra entries use the widget below to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Contest ends December 21st at 12pm PST. Good luck!
The giveaway is closed! I’ll be announcing the winner in the next week or so after reading through all of the comments. Thank you everyone who entered! There are some beautiful memories here!
Update: Congrats Chelsea, you won! Look for an email from me shortly!
My favorite winter memory is making gingerbread houses with my mom…she would make miniature, kid-sized ones with us and then we would go nuts decorating them with all sorts of candy! Sometimes we made enough for a miniature village of houses. :-) So much fun! It’s especially meaningful since we really weren’t allowed sweets as a kid, but all of a sudden there were loads of every kind!
My favorite holiday memory is when we would make reindeer food! On christmas eve no matter where we were (military), my mom would get a bag and fill it with oats and glitter and shake it to mix it up. She would tell us that the reindeer could see the glitter from the sky and that’s how they would find our house! We would then throw it on the pavement, or make a trail from the mailbox down our driveway. Of course when we got older we would just give our mom the “really, are we still doing this” look, but now this is something I can’t wait to do with my future children:)
My favourite memory from Christmas?
Would have to be the last Christmas I spent with my dad before he passed away and after our mum left the family home :-)
I was 10 and our Dad, although kind, beautiful and loving (bless his soul) had no idea about wrapping presents! So all our presents that year were wrapped in a mix of fabric, newspaper and and electrical tape, and proudly placed beneath our sparsely decorated tree :-)
I have one photo of my sister and I standing happily next to our tree and in the back ground, you can see those gifts. That year, my daddy bought me my first camera, a little brownie that I took to school camps for many, many years. I still smile with that memory so thank you for again bringing it to mind x
My favorite holiday memory is my daughter’s 1st christmas in 2005. She was 8 months old and we were lucky to have both sets of grandparents around from India for the holidays. This was the last time we were all together. My daughter was showered was showered with so much love that day. And of all her presents she loved the big box her grandma pulled out of the garage to store all the saved wrapping paper from the day. Every time I bring that box out my eyes well up remembering the fond memories of the day!
I fell in an ice fishing hole!! It was hilarious looking back, but I remember being scared.
Christmas dinner! My family gets together to spend an entire day playing board games, hiking, cooking and enjoying the lovely dinner we would’ve cooked. It’s always nice to spend time with family! These memories will last forever. ?
My favorite holiday memory is quite recent within the last few years. My then boyfriend/fiancé/now hubby have created our own Christmas tradition. We would spend Xmas eve with his family and on Christmas morning I would make us a wonderful breakfast and then we would open up our gifts.
Him and I never had Christmas stockings as a kid so I started this tradition with Us few years ago. We would fill each other’s stockings with little gifts whether they were homemade or bought. It’s so exciting to see his face light up when he opens up his little stocking gifts. It’s the best feeling knowing that you put your heart and soul into the tiny gifts you’ve made or bought. It’s been such a great 5 years of us doing this together. Now that we have a lil baby, I can’t wait to start this tradition with him.
Our friendly chimney sweeper came every year to get our fireplace ready for action. The December I was six, he retrieved a patch of red felt from the chimney. I treasured that proof of Santa, and tucked it away in my stocking. It still makes me hopeful and jolly.
I think my favorite thing about Christmastime was shopping for the tree with my Dad, who wanted spectacular height and width. Once we drove far away and stopped at a lodge for hot cider. It’s a feeling I try to recreate for my son every year, not to mention my favorite way to remember my Dad!
I’m going to go with a recent holiday memory. For the last couple of years, I’ve bought crackers for Christmas dinner that included sheet music and whistles. Each person gets a whistle and the conductor helps coordinate some hilarious renditions of Christmas carols and other classic songs. We usually do this after plenty of food and wine. Here is the kind I bought last year: http://www.amazon.com/12-Luxury-Concerto-Christmas-Crackers/dp/B009E6C35Q