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!
So, this is one of favorite albeit not the most sentimental Christmas memory/story.
The first year I met my fiance, we had been dating for 5-6 months and he wanted to introduce me to his parents (typical right?). I drove to Santa Rosa, CA to meet The Bailey’s (and pissed off my parents by not spending Christmas with them. (And of course, being the strict asian parents, I totally lied to them about why.) Well, The Bailey’s are the perfect American’ parents; they hug, kiss, go by first name basis and share feelings. Lots of kindness, never a criticism (am I in Narnia?). Well, part of their Christmas tradition is to open presents after a lazy brunch and watch an indie flick. So we met up with The Pedgrifts, (their long time BFF’s and their kids. Lil’ fact, Mr Pedgrift is former Santa Rosa Mayor. Mr Pedgrift also likes to movie hop and bring a backpack full of snacks and drinks. Whoa.) Anyhow, we go to watch Brokeback Mountain. YES, I get we’re near SF and its Gay Capital back in 2005 when coming out wasn’t socially accepted. So that awkward sex scene was made 50x’s more awkward sitting next to future MIL as I kept turning and looking down away from the screen. I don’t even watch kissing scenes with my parents without fidgeting. Two men having sex with my first experience with the BF’s parents. Shoot.Me.Now.
So now we joke and laugh about it after I told them 5 years into the relationship. The tradition continues to watch an indie flick/potential oscar winner. Except nothing tops watching Brokeback Mountain after meeting your bf’s parents for the first time.
One winter, we flew to Taiwan to visit family. This was around the time I had some…. doubts about Santa’s identity. On our way out the door, I took one last peek under the Christmas tree to see if any presents had come early. Nothing there, I dutifully trooped out to the car while my parents finished loading our luggage. We had a wonderful trip in Taiwan, and came back a couple of days after Christmas. My brother and I ran into the house and, lo and behold, Christmas presents under the tree! My belief was sustained for another year, and now I enjoy trying to surprise loved one around Christmas too.
Some favorite holiday memories include my family going out each year to cut down a beautiful tree. I remember one year being especially cold and wintery as Iowa winters can be, but we always went without fail.
Also, just the anticipation of opening gifts on Christmas morning. My brothers and I would all be anxiously waiting on the stairs until we were given the go-ahead.
My favorite holiday memory is participating in a Dutch secret santa (Sinterklass) traditions with my best friend and her family. More emphasis is placed on creative packaging/delivery of the gift than the gift itself, and the gift is accompanied by a poem from Sinterklass, often related to the creative packaging. Both the poem and the packaging reflect something about the receiver’s personality or recent/upcoming life events. On Christmas Day we spent hours one by one reading our poems, opening the packaging and occasionally completing a challenge or game in order to receive our gift. It’s a great tradition that puts the emphasis on appreciating our friends and family rather than on the gifts themselves.
It was on Christmas Eve when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I wanted to do something to surprise my parents. So with streamers (the type that has a similar thickness and feel as tissue paper) and a long roll of tape, I stayed up past midnight crafting the letters that spelled “Merry Christmas” in a blockletter-esque font. One by one, in the middle of the night, I brought the letters in and stuck them into my parents’ closet, praying to God that the hinges wouldn’t squeak. I also thought it would be a nice little addition to tape streamers of various colors onto the door so that when my parents walked out of the room, they would walk into a nice little surprise as they left their room on Christmas morning.
Christmas morning, I found out that my dad had walked out of the bedroom in the middle of the night only to be confused by the streams of tissue paper that found their way into his mouth.
When I was in fourth grade, my parents got me a Suzuki Trail Hopper (motorcycle). I went with my dad to pick it out, so I knew what I was going to get. On Christmas Eve my parents made me go on a scavenger hunt to find it. I remember being told to look under the bed and in the shower. After each task I’d return to the living room. Finally, after the last task, there was my dad seated upon my bike. I still have it some 40 years later and my children even got to ride it.
I have wonderful memories of making Christmas cookies with my Grandma, we would look through magazines to find new recipes and bake all night.
My favorite holiday memory, one of them that is. Coming from a large family, going back home as adults for Christmas Eve. This was my parents wedding anniversary. So it made the excitement even more on this special Holiday. Having 8 siblings with their families made a recipe for fun, laughter, very loud and now a blessed memory.
The year I got a hamster in a cage was my FAVORITE memory! I was 7 years old and dearly loved animals. I was always the one they brought baby birds that had fallen out of their nests. I would get up all hours of the night to feed them with an eyedropper and finally help them learn to fly and off they’d go! But, I truely wanted a sweet little hamster to cuddle. I had 5 sisters and brothers and their was little chance of ever receiving that. But, one magic Christmas morning, there is was! Oh my, I sobbed and sobbed and I will never forget the warm, excited, loved, spoiled rotten feeling I had! The best Christmas ever!
I love browsing your website for my weekly menu planning!