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 holiday memory is when all my family members on my mom’s side would have Christmas eve dinner at our place. After dinner, Santa would make an appearance, jiggle his belly and hand out all the gifts to everyone. I knew it was my dad (because Santa wore the same glasses as my dad). We had such a fun time.
My favorite holiday memory is baking cookies with my mom. From starting off barely able to help, to now being in my thirties and taking over most of the responsibilities, it’s still one of my favorite holiday activities.
Back when brothers and I were young, there was one year where my dad was in between jobs. He had a rough time at his old company and quit, which ruined a lot of financial stability that he had built up over the 10+ years working there. That being said, we didn’t ask for anything for christmas. Come christmas morning, boxes mysteriously showed up under the tree as every year. We were instructed to open them; and we each got brand new cellphones. Mind you, this was a few years behind the emergence of the smart phone, and a teenager having a cell phone was a huge deal. My dad started crying, he said he felt so guilty that he wasn’t able to provide the extravagant christmas presents because of the financial troubles. We all were blown away, because we didn’t realize how much pressure he had on him to provide. We all sat there and cried together, feeling pretty silly that we were all caught up and totally lost sight of what the holidays were all about. Gift giving and recieving is nice, but really feeling the love of your family and those close to you is the true meaning of the holidays. That year reminded me just how much I love my family and how I should cherish every single day with them, not just the holidays
My favorite holiday memory is waking up when I was little and thinking that Santa had really come. Christmas is a little more magical when you’re a little kid. Now my favorite memories usually consist of baking sugar cookies and other holiday goodies!
My favorite holiday memory is making candies with my grandmother and grandfather. I would make buckeyes with my grandmother a fudge with my grandfather. I carry on this tradition with my children and will continue it with my grandchildren when they come along as well.
My favorite holiday memory is the from the year Santa left snowy boot prints from the chimney all the way to the tree! In reality, our amazing dad had made them with powdered sugar, but to my brother, sister, and I as little ones, it was completely magical!
Making Christmas cookies a few days before December 25th has always been my favorite memory. My mother would patiently prepare the different cookie batters and my brothers, sister, and I would set forth cutting out and decorating tray after tray of cookies. Braiding the butter cookie mix ( 1/2 cream colored and 1/2 red colored) into candy cane shapes was always mesmerizing! Of course we always had to eat the broken cookies because you could not serve them to guests! My mom has always been the Best “chief Mom.” Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone.
My favorite memory was when I moved from Scotland to Texas as a child. After having grand traditional Christmases in the UK, I was so excited for our first “American” Christmas. So I woke up Christmas morning, before anyone was awake and snuck in to see what Santa had left. I found a giant black garbage bag with random toys my parents bought from garage sales around the neighborhoods. SANTA was written on a tag in my dad’s handwriting. I guess that was my most “American Christmas” ever, and definitely the one that I remember the most.
Favorite holiday memory has to be the nerf dart fights the cousins had after Christmas dinner. One of the aunts would always bring little nerf dart guns and BAGS of darts for us. We always had so much fun chasing each other around (and looking back, it was probably a way to burn off any excess energy we had!)
My favourite memories are of putting up the tree when I was young. We always had a live tree, which my sister & I would pick out from the tree lot (we lived in the city). We tried to pick a tree that my mum would approve of, & most of the time we succeeded. She would fuss about the best side for ages, & we’d string lights onto it. There was always a bickering, especially whe we couldn’t figure out why the %#*!& lights wouldn’t work, and sometimes my sister & I would fight about where ornaments were supposed to go. At the time, it was annoying & frustrating, but as time goes on, & my sister’s kids are the ones putting on the ornaments, I realise how lucky I am to have such a good family, bickering & all. I’m following you on Instagram, too!