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 most vivid (not sure it counts as a favorite) holiday memory is the Christmas when my older sister spoiled Santa for me. She knocked on my door late Christmas Eve and we snuck out to the top of the staircase and spied on my parents putting the presents under the tree. I don’t remember being all that upset– just a little confused by the ruse, I suppose!
The entire season is about family and friends. Magic and wonder. Old traditions and discovering new ones. But, my favorite thing is the day after Thanksgiving- getting our Christmas tree, taking out the decorations and just that anticipation of the start of something. It’s the best- it was when I was a kid and it is now, as an adult and mom.
One year, my siblings (sister and brother) and I asked for a Nintendo for Christmas. We all asked for it from Santa. During the day, we were home alone. Me, being the oldest decided to search for the Nintendo. I must have been around 15. So, I searched and searched and searched. Finally, I see it. A box. Wrapped. Hidden under sheets at the top of my parents’ closet. I must have debated about one second before getting the step stool, climbing to the top and retrieving the box. I brought it down the floor and screamed for my sister and brother. They came running. We sat, surrounding the box. I finally made the decision to carefully unwrap the box, just enough to see if it was our new Nintendo. I opened just the end, but I couldn’t tell. So, I opened it a little more, then more. Until, there is was. It was our Nintendo. Yay! We jumped and screamed with excitement. Shortly after, I realized that the gift was now unwrapped and none of us really knew how to wrap gifts. Horror. So, I did my best to follow the creases and return the re-wrapped gift to its hiding place. I think our parents realized what has happened later that same day. We got in so much trouble. We were grounded from the Nintendo before we ever got to open it at Christmas.
We used to sneak out of our room to look at our stockings at like 3 or 4am. We’d sneak them back to our room being careful to hold the bell on my sister’s stocking still so it wouldn’t ring and give us away and then we’d look at everything, have 1-2 pieces of candy and then put it all back in the stocking and sneak it back. Then when the first light showed in the sky, we’d wake everyone up and go through it all again!
Every winter holiday is typically the same, where my family goes to my aunt’s house to have dinner together and then exchange gifts. One of the few times it was different was when my sister and I traveled across the state to another aunt’s house by car, with the aunt’s family that I first mentioned–it took a couple days. Needless to say, that trip was full of awkward sleeping positions, sketchy rest stops, quick fast food funs, but it was nice to bond with my cousins. Namely, I watched my first Korean drama ever (shout out to Full House) and from there on began my Kdrama addiction…
As for the holiday itself that year, I don’t actually remember much, but ‘since I have a million cousins down there, I spent a lot of time playing board games with them, and I swear, every second someone would accuse someone else of cheating. It was fun, and now our family has a tradition of calling each other cheaters, but I’m glad I got to spend one Christmas differently.
Fav memory?! There are so many!! Let’s go with last year though – my husband’s parents dog peed on the Christmas tree. It was so flipping funny!!
Hahaha, I’m pretty sure I did something similar as a child, although mine was with gummy bears, not chocolate. As for a favorite holiday memory… I always liked giving more than receiving, even as a kid (I mean, I loved getting gifts, don’t get me wrong, but I LOVE loved coming up with / making / wrapping / getting to see the look on other people’s faces when I gave them things). One year my older brother had this fancy decorative sward that I thought was the coolest thing ever, so I decided to make a fancy decorative sheath for it using the cardboard tube from an empty roll of wrapping paper (okay, I was like, five, I thought it was a good idea). So I cut one end to a point, smooshed it down, taped the pointed end, and then painted it black with gold stars all over it like the night sky. I was so. freaking. proud of this thing. Then I wrapped it and put it under the tree, and I’m pretty sure my brother knew the whole time what it was because I was terrible at keeping anything a secret, but I remember bouncing up and down with excitement on Christmas day because I couldn’t wait for him to open it. He was a very sweet older brother and acted very surprised and appreciative of the gift, but that excitement I had just to give it to him is pretty much the ONLY thing I remember from that year, and to this day it makes me smile just to think of it. :)
My favorite holiday memory is getting home from college right after the first semester Freshman year. I had just finished driving the 10 someodd hours home and when I entered the house, my whole extended family was in the kitchen cooking. I was completely taken aback and elated to see everyone after being gone so long. That surprise has held up over the years and I look back on it fondly.
My favorite winter holiday memory is making potato latkes and baking up a storm with my mother and grandmother…and then eating and opening presents with my extended family. We always played games and had loads of fun together. We have extended those same traditions into the next generation. This year, I had the pleasure of making potato latkes and baking up a storm with my daughters and loads of cousins. Being with family, laughing, giving gifts, cooking and baking fill me with so much pleasure and gratitude!
my favorite is decorating christmas cookies!