…because it’s my last day of giveaways.
We’ve done 6. Each one has had a little theme. This one — no theme. Just a collection of some of my favorite things.
1. My absolute FAVORITE baking cookbook: Baking by Dorie Greenspan. Please, do not enter unless you WANT this. I can’t wait to give this away to someone who loves baking or who wants to learn. Either way, it’s a perfect book. Dorie’s straightforward explanations are easy to understand and even though some of her recipes are a bit complex, it is well worth it. Her pie dough is to die for, Bill’s Big Carrot Cake is a staple around my house and her Favorite Pecan Pie I’ve made once on Thanksgiving and once last week. My current favorite recipe in this book is her Cranberry Lime Galette (a yummy free-form pie). You should see my copy of this book: rumpled pages, chocolate smears, dogeared corners and sticky notes splayed out on all sides. It is loved like the Velveteen Rabbit.
2. NeedtoBreathe “The Outsiders” is my favorite go-to playlist lately. In fact, click HERE and HERE to watch Chad and Chris doing a couple covers. I love this album. I mean, I really love this album. Its actually a little embarrassing. I made my husband and his musical friends learn two of the songs for my birthday party later in the week. Hopefully you will love them too.
3. My favorite lip gloss. I keep a tube in my purse at all times: Burt’s Bees Super Shiny Natural Lip Gloss in Zesty Red. It does not come out red (don’t worry) but more of a wine-tint. Perfect and it smells good too.
4. And my favorites will come with a reusable canvas shopping bag from Whole Foods. I’m partial to Trader Joes but either way, the bag is awesome. I use the bags not just for groceries, but for trips to the beach, clothes for the girls for overnights with my mom, books to take back to the library. Seriously an all purpose (cute) bag.
So there you have it. My Favorite Things: Six Weeks of Free Stuff has come to an end [sigh].
But one of you will win all this awesome stuff. Leave a comment before 9pm on Tuesday night telling me about your favorite thing that happened over Christmas (favorite gift, favorite dessert, favorite song your kid sang, favorite joke someone told over the Christmas ham at the dinner table). You get the idea.
My mom and I have had a very sour relationship for YEARS. For the past 2 years, we’ve really been trying to move forward, and learn to to just appreciate each other for our differences. I recently sent my mom a very heartfelt email…words I just couldn’t say in person…as it was hard enough to see the monitor through my tears as I typed. At any rate, we went to my parents house on Christmas this year, and for the first time, it was a pleasant experience….but my favorite part was the hug she gave me when I walked in. She hasn’t hugged me like that since I was a little girl. It was the best Christmas gift ever.
I would so love to have the cook book. I love baking!! I lost 55 pounds this year on Jenny Craig and still love to bake so it would be so fun to have. I planned a day with my girls and 2 grandkids to make Christmas cookies this year and that was one of my fun memories and the other favorite thing was having 4 out of 5 kids home for Christmas. The other son was in Texas with new wife’s family and I missed him! It was fun with the other kids and 4 grandkids. Never a dull moment.
Have a wonderful, safe and Happy New Year!
Laura T
My favorite thing over Christmas was when my (almost) 5-year old told everyone that “Mommy was a bad girl. She didn’t get anything in her stocking.” So funny how their little minds work! I am learning to slow down and enjoy these crazy busy days with our 3 young boys!
I “adopted” a family for Christmas…my favorite thing was shopping for them and getting a better sense of what the spirit of Christmas is.
My sweet husband bought me a camera that I’ve been pining over for 2 years. I would have been fine without it, and I never expected to get it. We don’t make many big purchases and it meant so much to me that he got it for me. Very sweet.
Spending our daughter’s first Christmas day at home with just me, my hubby, my baby girl and my pug was definitely my favorite thing. We opened presents, relaxed and shared the traditions we’ve had for the past few years with our very own daughter! And to add to the fun, our newest little baby was also with us – growing inside of me.
My favorite thing was being at home with my husband and kids alone. We just spent the day with each other. No phones or visits. Just all of us together. Merry Christmas!
My favorite thing that happened over Christmas…my baby sister that I love like crazy but haven’t spoken to in nearly a year (I don’t know why she hasn’t talked to me) came to my house Christmas morning and stayed for a couple of hours. It was as if the last year of silence had never been there. My heart was full. And thinking about it now makes me cry all over again with happiness.
This year my husband and I decided to not give gifts to eachother. Instead, we are donating our money to an orphanage in Mexico where I did a short mission trip. Our girls didn’t quite understand why they were getting gifts and not us so we also decided to let the girls go shopping to buy something small for us and we will still fill eachother stockings.
I loved the idea and I loved filling my husband’s stocking with heartfelt gifts.
I love dragonflies… my husband surprised me with a beautiful dragonfly necklace in my stocking. The wings are made from opal (my birthstone) and the body was amythest (my mom’s birthstone). It was so beautiful for me because I don’t have my mom anymore. I don’t think he knew the stones and their significance until I pointed it out. He looked at me with misty eyes and said “it was meant to be”.
That is my favorite CHRISTmas memory of 2009.
Happy Blessed New Year… Christine
My favorite Christmas gift was a new camera given to me by my husband. The last camera I had was from 9 years ago! Yikes! I love my new Kodak and have thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures of my sugarplums! My favorite Christmas moment was of course Christmas with my family. Everyone goes to my mom and dad’s on Christmas Eve and it is so wonderful to be with them!
“Same Kind of Different as Me” An awesome book given to me by my neighbor. My husband and I are traveling across country, I just finished reading it to him. We both were crying, I so hard I could hardly read. I recommend it to all. A beautiful true story.
I was home sick this Christmas, couldn’t go anywhere, and was feeling pretty down and disenchanted with the season. While I was lying in bed feeling sorry for myself, I went through my Bible (which I’d neglected while sick) and read and thought and prayed and felt some peace – and remembered how much better I feel when I am disciplined and begin my day with the Bible.
So I think the best thing that happened this Christmas was that I found my day-to-day faith again – that and the bag of chocolate my sister brought home for me
Don’t be sad, Sarah! You give great stuff away every time you blog! Well I really want to win that cookbook, so here’s my story. There were so many sweet moments from this Christmas, but one really moved me to happy tears and filled my heart with warmth. My 16-year-old half-sister, also Sarah, came to spend the week with us and we were flying her home on Christmas day, so she could be with her mom. Thanks to the blizzard that hit Oklahoma, her flight was changed from 6am to 3:30pm. As that flight kept getting pushed later and later, I realized she didn’t have any money to get something to eat. Then her flight in Dallas was also delayed by 2 hours, so it was 9pm and she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. After hours of worrying and racking my brain on how to get her food or money, I thought to call a restaurant in the terminal and see if they’d take my credit card. TGIF was the closest, so I called and talked to an angel. She said she couldn’t take my card over the phone but to send my sister down and ask for her and she’d take care of her. What a blessing that a total stranger made possible this Christmas!
It must have been all the supported sitting while opening her presents, but my four (almost five) month-old learned how to sit by herself over this Christmas! Best Christmas present, and my most favorite holiday thing…
Oh, and Zesty Red is my favorite lip gloss as well.
Happy New Year!
In His Hands,
Kristen
I have 4 children between the ages of 18 and 26. We were all together for a few days during Christmas and I decided that each day a different child would decide on an activity we could do together as a family. We went bowling, toured a historic home, went geo caching and play frisbee golf. We had so much fun together. To top things off, each child was responsible for one family dinner. I loved it and did not feel like I spent all of my time in the kitchen preparing meals.
Aside from being with family, having snow on Christmas eve was the best. It’s so unlikely in Dallas!
still taking comments… my funniest thing happened tonight when my son (5) was asked what santa brought mommy and he said “undies” and then what did santa bring daddy and he answered “a date card.” When asked more about who will daddy be taking on this date, my son then says to this nice stranger lady, “my mommy or some other lady, we don’t really know.” We were very clear tonight that daddy only dates mommy, period!