What I Got for Christmas 2013

I loved this post from Victoria over at Florence and Mary so here goes - my Christmas pressies from 2013.  I'll have to use stock photos for most of them as they are all put away - note to self:  take more pictures for blog next year!

Household first - After twenty years of marriage, I'm not the type of person to shriek in horror when I find a kitchen appliance under the tree.  In fact, this year I was thrilled to get exactly the appliance I had been hinting about for several months - two Crock Pot Hook Ups.

Crock Pot HOOK UP Connectable Entertaining System

This one has two 1-quart slow cookers - perfect for two dips - and the other one has one 2-quart slow cooker.  They connect to each other so you only have to use one electric outlet.  Can't wait for the next party to show them off.

Then there was some Le Creuset - mini-cocottes and a cookbook to go along with them.

Mini Cocottes in Cherry

Since we picked these up at the Le Creuset outlet in Williamsburg, I also added this book:

Perfect Pairings by Fiona Beckett, one of the UK's leading experts on food and drink matching and a wine columnist for the Guardian

Our Target shopping trip (we each make a list of things we'd like for Christmas on a trip to Target, exchange lists, and then wrap the packages and slip them under the tree - you get things you want, you just don't know which things on your list end up under the tree) - yielded yet another cookbook:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays (140 Step-by-Step Recipes for Simple, Scrumptious Celebrations

When they say step-by-step, they are not kidding.  The photographs are amazing!  There were also some Boots No. 7 Vanilla goodies - Boots Extracts Vanilla Body Wash and Sugar Scrub.

Sophia added two charms to my Pandora bracelet, Big Ben and a Cherry Blossom bead (to commemorate trips to Washington D.C.).

The biggest gift I received this year was an iPad Air!  Vic won an XBox One at the command Christmas party but we decided to return it as we already have a Wii.  We took a gift card in exchange until we could decide what to buy instead and he said he wanted to use it to buy me an iPad.  I debated for a week or so - I've been going back and forth between wanting an iPad or a Kindle or a Nook and not wanting any of them.  I wasn't sure I would really use one.  Well, let me tell you, it's the best gift ever and I use it every day, several times a day.  I don't know what took me so long to get one.

I hope your Christmas was merry and please share what Santa left under your tree!