Christmas Gifts!

Since my presents are coming in from Beijing this year, I got them early... I, uh, totally didnt open my wrapped gift early to find a pretty rad Ramones tee, but my stocking was pretty rad.

A spice set from Thailand:



Spices from Thailand! I dig it!




The first unfolds into the second. Seems GREAT for shopping, to just keep in the purse in case it fills up!

Oh, that is cool! and I love the colors.


why are your presents coming from China? parents still there?

Super cool! Now you have to cook rather than eating pizza all the time. :p:

Lucky you!
All gorge.

Although is that Rapunzel's hair in the top pic?
Or Challah?

(yes I know it's a long time since I made it, but I like to squeeze it in from time to time...)

bought myself some thoroughly nerdy swag 'cuz all i'm getting from my folks besides that box is ikea, and i need to treat myself a bit.

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2" Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake figures

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Cake plushie

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Marceline the [strike]Vampire[/strike] Hipster Queen t-shirt

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Marceline keychain

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Portal earrings

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River Song's diary/notebook

Cool. I like the earings and the notebook!

Yeah. The portal earings and the River Song notebook are teh awesome.


Love that foldaway purse/totebag from your folks! Really lovely colours.

Cool stuff indeed.

Lola Bunny;842442 wrote:

Super cool! Now you have to cook rather than eating pizza all the time. :p:

No, just have lots of spicy pizzas. :)


Is there a difference between saffron and saffran?

Spelling?

I like those figurines. Those are supah cool.

Yeah, the Marceline t-shirt and keychain are pretty cool too.

I got a new stove! Unintentionally. Our old one broke right in between Big Family Meal #1 and #2 on Christmas Eve. For real.

So Mr. Clod and I ran out to Lowe's, picked out a floor model, loaded it in the minivan, and got it hooked up with a whole hour to spare before the duck needed to go in. We're going to be bad people and return the appliance dolly we also had to purchase in order to get it in the house, but it's only a small percentage of the sale they made off us so I don't feel very bad about it.

And since we had to buy a new one anyway, and the oven is something I use for a minimum of 3-4 hours most days (probably how I burned that sucker out in the first place,) we decided to invest in a nice one. It has TWO ovens. And the inside enamel is blue! I adore it.

Also got a travel tea mug with the infuser built in, the book "Far From the Tree" (Griff you would probably like this one if you haven't heard of it already,) the Book of Mormon musical soundtrack, a new piece of wall art for the office, some music CDs, and a few random shirts.

What did everyone else get?

I got a pretty pashmina, a lovely necklace, a leather jewellery tray, some Russian Christmas music, a book of patterns for tiny tiny knitted toys and a £20 amazon voucher. More swag will be collected when we visit the in laws on Friday ;-)

Sent by thought transference.

Hooray for the new range, Clod!

I got several books I wanted, including The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling and The Burning House; Brave on Blu-Ray; Epic Mickey 2; and not one but two bottles of the Stonehouse Olive Oil I was raving about in another thread. I also got a new shiny red bicycle to replace the one I've been riding since I was 11. (Haven't really grown much since then...)

Clodfobble;845294 wrote:

the book "Far From the Tree" (Griff you would probably like this one if you haven't heard of it already,)

Looks interesting.

I got a model Da Vinci catapult, a new hat, a stack of used books, and a matchbox '64 Cooper. :D

Keurig machine
Shower curtain, rod, hooks, liner
Towels
Big beer mugs
Pilsner glasses
17 oz beer glasses
Victory brewing gift cards
Bed bath beyond gift card
2 copies of Celebration Day
Cutlery
Cleaning supplies


Pretty good haul.

My great-aunt gave me some of her old jewelry she didn't want anymore:[ATTACH]42265[/ATTACH]

Ohhhh, those are pretty!

I got Mrs. Z a Pandora charm for her bracelet and an Apple Magic Mouse which she was surprisingly happy about. Although that might have just been spillover from the charm.

She got me the PS Vita/Call of Duty bundle. I helped her out by standing in line for it.

Hmm. No smilies in tapatalk?

Regular smilies will display properly if you type in the code by hand, but the animated ones don't work no matter what. At least not on my phone.

Pete Zicato;845604 wrote:

I got Mrs. Z a Pandora charm for her bracelet and an Apple Magic Mouse which she was surprisingly happy about. Although that might have just been spillover from the charm.

NICE!

Clodfobble;845612 wrote:

Regular smilies will display properly if you type in the code by hand, but the animated ones don't work no matter what. At least not on my phone.

Yups, same here. I only remember one or two so normally, not much smilie used when I post from my phone.

Very good Christmas for me!!

I had passed on all gifts for Valentines/Anniversary, Mother's Day, and Birthday (basically every gift occasion for the year) with the intent to request (buy myself) one very nice present for Christmas. I wanted either an Ipad or a good DSLR camera.

Then, in October and November, we had several unplanned-for car repairs to my my partner's car, including the transmission, which we still have not repaired to the tune of nearly $2k. In any case, my partner chose to take the city bus to work for the time being. It actually works out pretty good, he can sit and drink coffee and read for 55 minutes instead of fight traffic for 45 minutes. Pick up and drop off within 1 block of home/work. So then, he scraped up funds and bought me my Ipad anyway. And my son got some sort of really good deal and bought me a Sony a230 DSLR for Christmas. And on top of that, I got a nice bonus and bought a couple of accessories for the Ipad/camera and a shirt or two (putting most of the bonus aside for the transmission).

So I'm happy...Ipad, camera, clothes, happy partner and almost enough saved to fix the transmission without going into dept or borrowing retirement/down payment savings.

Excellent! If it were me, I'd keep riding the bus, even after the car is fixed. That sounds very convenient, and much cheaper.

I got a new car

Well, it's just a model car, but it looks just like mine. :D

Stormiweather: Very good Christmas for you indeed! :thumb2:

Infinite: Great car!

As for me, I got a fountain pen, decorating tool, coffee, a flashlight, a Ghirardelli tower and a nice coat. :D

:)
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cool stuff! those copier thingy's are really cool and your car is adorable, Infini.

I got a Druzy ring and a knock-off (Kohl's) faux pandora bracelet with three charms.

I asked the two sons to get me some rocks but they didn't even do that!

sons....they're not like daughters. (me and my two sisters got my mom diamond earrings-----see the difference?)

glatt;845842 wrote:

Excellent! If it were me, I'd keep riding the bus, even after the car is fixed. That sounds very convenient, and much cheaper.

It is much cheaper and he is leaning in that direction as well. Only drawback is standing in the heat/rain waiting for the bus and it's difficult to accommodate employer extra hours demands.

What's a Druzy ring?

Cute car, does the big one have a name?

Love the fountain pen, Lola!

Clod, I almost went with the bike instead of the camera! What kind of bike is it?

You must mean someone else, no bikes here...

Clodfobble;846041 wrote:

You must mean someone else, no bikes here...

Chocolatl;845315 wrote:

I also got a new shiny red bicycle to replace the one I've been riding since I was 11. (Haven't really grown much since then...)

A druzy ring is a ring made from the habitat quartz grows in(i think so anyway) it is pretty but not exactly rare or $$$$ but i love it. It goes different colors when you move your hand : blue pink purple green.

Stormieweather;845995 wrote:

Cute car, does the big one have a name?

Yes. Daisy-Head Mayzie. Daisy for short. ;)

I always name my cars...well except my Astra that was smooshed after two weeks of ownership...and the car before that was POS.

I got a bunch of stuff for Christmas. My favorite two things are kind of boring, but I just love them. A fleece-lined flannel shirt that is so soft and warm and good looking. And another fleece sweatshirt thing. My old ones were getting threadbare and lost their warmth. I'm so much warmer now around the house!

I also got a torque wrench and some jack stands, and a bunch of little stuff.

Oh and a neat little gadget. It's a cordless screwdriver that turns on when you hold it, and when you turn it slightly one way or the other, it starts automatically driving the bit in that direction. It's got some sort of built in accelerometers in it. Pretty neat. We all kept trying it out by taking the coffee table apart and putting it back together.

I love the little things. My fuzzy blanky is almost TOO warm. Hard to get out of bed. I got a cute calendar/planner called "Do It Later: A 2013 Planner (or Non-Planner) for the Creative Procrastinator. And a gift cert for the bookstore. Yay.

I also love my set of 3 flameless candles. They have a REMOTE. No kidding. Imma take it to UT's pawn shop. It's got a REMOTE!

infinite monkey;846081 wrote:

I also love my set of 3 flameless candles. They have a REMOTE. No kidding. Imma take it to UT's pawn shop. It's got a REMOTE!

COOL! Where'd you get those?

My momma got it. So either Kohls, Elder Beerman, or QVC. :)

I wanty!

eta: I always light candles first thing in the morning then drink coffee with them and wander into my computer room forgetting that candles are burning and hoping my house doesn't burn down before I remember they're there.

They're great. I have them 'burning' in the bedroom, then I just push the off button to turn them off one by one. I love candles but I typically stick with tealights since they don't burn all night if I fall asleep.

Stormieweather;845995 wrote:

What kind of bike is it?

It's a Magna Ruby from Target. It's a cheap one-speed cruiser, just for relaxing rides around the neighborhood. My previous bike was a Trek mountain bike which I absolutely adored, but it doesn't fit me as I've grown -- but not much -- since I first got it when I was 12.

At 5', it's surprisingly difficult for me to find a bike -- most frames fit under 4'8" or over 5'4". A few years ago when I went shopping for a new Trek, the guy told me I could have one custom built... for a four digit price tag. :eek: I'm pretty sure that's not the case, and someday down the road I'd like to get a new Trek, but the Ruby works for now.

In a previous life, I worked in a shop that sold Terry Bikes which are designed towards women's proportions. The prices were a little inflated but their sales rep was super cute so we carried a lot of product.:facepalm:

http://www.terrybicycles.com/Bikes_2

Some surprising frontrunner gifts this year... First off, Minifob immediately recognized the marble run I painted as a digestive tract, and loved it. He also was quite pleased with a little stocking stuffer card game called "Get Bit."

Minifobette was predictably thrilled with "Just Dance 4" for the PS3, but even more enchanted with this butterfly-in-a-jar thing I got from ThinkGeek.com. She declared, "Oh, I have a pet now," named it after her cousin, and has been carrying it around since.

Me, I freaking love the ant farm they got. I went out and dug up 4 ants for it from the front yard before I got too cold, and already that little team has got a couple inches' worth of tunnels going. So fascinating to watch.

Many thanks go to Limey again this year for her repeated thoughtfulness and kindness to my son Daniel. This year she sent us these beautiful handcrafted sea glass ornaments from her beautiful Isle. Daniel is so thrilled with them that he basically rearranged all the "other" ornaments on the tree so these could be displayed front an center. They are just to the left of his other ornament which she knitted for him with his name on it. Thank you so very much, limey.

classicman;887533 wrote:

Many thanks go to Limey again this year for her repeated thoughtfulness and kindness to my son Daniel. This year she sent us these beautiful handcrafted sea glass ornaments from her beautiful Isle. Daniel is so thrilled with them that he basically rearranged all the "other" ornaments on the tree so these could be displayed front an center. They are just to the left of his other ornament which she knitted for him with his name on it. Thank you so very much, limey.

So glad they arrived! I was just now grousing that I sent four gifts to the States and none had got there. You and Dan are an inspiration to me for how to cope with the unexpected, and learn from the most difficult of circumstances. I wish you, Classic, and your family all the very best in 2014. X


Sent by thought transference

I love how the hooks are incorporated into the ornaments. Very cool!

Those are great!

Those sea glass ornaments are beautiful!

The 'win' gifts at our house this year were a reading glasses holder that looks like an Easter Island statue (my oldest son bought it for my husband, who constantly misplaces his glasses) and a clear bottle with resealable top that's easy to drink from, for my husband to put his chocolate soy milk in. Why was this a win? My husband pours his soy milk into a clean, opaque 2-qt milk jug because he likes to drink out of the jug (yes, he's the only one that drinks it). On Christmas Eve as we were mashing potatoes, one of my sons grabbed a milk jug out of the fridge and poured a good swat into the potato pot - only to see chocolate soy milk soak the potatoes. My daughter went straight out to Walmart and bought the clear jug. :thumb:

my favorite gift was a "dream catcher" I got from my mother.. I'll get a picture of it when I get a chance..

[ATTACH]46394[/ATTACH] my other Cellar Christmas booty! Thanks Dana, Sundae and Ali! I made rum balls myself this year and we ate them all (there were hundred!) before I could photo them, but they turned out just like yours, Ali!


Sent by thought transference

Heheh, Limey got cock for Xmas! Way to go, Limey!!!

These are the ones that I liked.

A clock in a wheel/tire, and the Nook HD+:

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A better pic of the clock:

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What dust?

What crack-in-the-wall?

What clock?

Gravdigr;888249 wrote:

Heheh, Limey got cock for Xmas! Way to go, Limey!!!

Sundae traditionally gives cock at Christmas ;)


Sent by thought transference

One of the radio stations in Nashville years ago had an on-air character named Black Elvis (who was a black, Elvis-impersonator). The dj asked him "Black Elvis, what did you give Black Priscilla for Christmas?" To which Black Elvis replied (in a very deep, very stereotypically 'black' voice) "What'd I give her? I give her root. That's what I give her."

I'll remember that forever, I almost drove off the road laughing.

[Size=1]Root = cock, FYI[/Size]

This Christmas I received a wonderful box of home-made comestibles from Aliantha.
When Mum went to Australia, she discovered dark chocolate covered dates, and adored them. I asked Ali whether she could track some down and send them to me - to be reimbursed of course.

Instead, Ali made some.
And sent them with rum-balls, Christmas tree biscuits, two types of cookies (I think) and I might even be missing something off.

The cookies went pretty much as soon as the gift box was opened.
I seem to remember one kind being very much chocolate based, but the ones I had were minty.
I didn't even get a sniff after that, as Mum and Dad hoovered them up.
Not literally.

Mum was very impressed by the dates, she still suspects you bought them because they looked so professional.
Not so much the rum balls; she took against the coconut. But made me laugh when she reported back to me about sitting there late at night trying to ease the coconut off the outside, only to find it ran all the way through. The idea of her hunched over when the rest of the house was sleeping, scraping off the coating, is either really funny or really sad.

I'm going with funny.
Anyway her loss is our gain; Limey and I scoffed the lot. Very quickly. They were ever so good - really rummy.
The dates lasted slightly longer, as did the biscuits. But only by a matter of hours.
The air on Arran seemed to make them dissolve. Or at least that's the official story.

Om nom nom nom.
Nom nom nom.
Nom nom.
Nom.

Thanks hon.

Glad it all went over well. I really did make the dates. Well, bought them naked then choc coated them. It was easy. :)

I think there was some chocolate fudge in there too.

limey;888345 wrote:

Sundae traditionally gives cock at Christmas ;)


Sent by thought transference

It's not really Christmas til the cock comes out.

Darling if there was chocolate fudge, it was gommed down with the rest of the gorgeous sweeties.

I held back because it's not really my bag (except those minty cookies - shockingly good) but when I got to Arran I think the air got to me. It turns out I have two hands for a reason, and you provided enough for more than two hands.

People who enjoyed Aliantha's Christmas box:
Cherry
Cherry's Mum
Cherry's Dad
Dani
Limey
Mr Limey

Hearts and minds and stomachs touched, and thankee for it (sai)
In fact it's better you didn't get the PM, as it was only about me & Mum.
Now you know how many people more nommed down on your treats :yum:

Actually, you were lucky to get an of the cookies. I made five trays of them, and one of our regular extras took a liking to them. lol. They are just my usual recipe, but with tiny pepermint candy canes in the dough for a christmas theme.

Glad i brought a few smiles about.

Tree Fae got me a single cup Keurig brewer for my office, to spare me of the trauma of having to walk upstairs to our office kitchen to get coffee. It is tres decadent.

My late father in law was a very, very serious collector of militariana, as well as autographs. From his collection, my mother in law gifted me a beautifully framed original artwork of General Chuck Yeager that included his signature on a matted card, and a Life Magazine cover featuring General James Stewart, autographed by him to Dale, my father in law. Pretty damn special.

Lucky you, Elspode!!