MY Holiday Gift Giving (receiving) Guide!

So I’ve been seeing all these websites with Holiday Gift Giving Guides and thought that I should make one of my own.  You know…just for fun.  Or in case anyone wants to buy me a Christmas present.  Just kidding!  Here are a 12 of my favorite things or things that I think would be favorites if I owned them!

1.  The Polar Loop – Candied Jansen got me one of these back at the beginning of the summer, and I love it!  There have only been a few days when I haven’t worn it since then!  I love that it tells me how many steps I’ve taken as well as a calorie burn count and an activity level marker.  It also tells time!  The best part though is to spend the night at Candied Jansen’s house and to almost be at my activity level goal and then to just go to bed and not worry that I didn’t meet the preset goal.  It drives her crazy knowing that if I would just run for 2 minutes, the loop would shoot fireworks and sing my praises, and I still get in bed. HeeHee!

2.  A Kitchenaid Mixer – this is the old standby.  I still don’t own one despite my complete lust over them for years.  I just drool over them on a regular basis and pull out my red Oster handheld which works remarkably well!

3.  A Raclette – I seriously need one of these!  A party centered around cooking food??  YES!  And this could totally be healthy as well!  And here is where I will add that Candied Jansen has concluded that I am a “scrap” eater.  I eat small portions of lots of things.  She basically says that what I eat amounts to the scraps leftover from what others have eaten.  While I don’t completely agree with her scrap assessment, the raclette totally fits in with eating lots of different little things!  SOLD!

4.  This handy dandy drill and circular saw combo set!  Because we can all use some power tools in our lives!  And because I have two wooden pallets that I keep saying I’m going to do something creative with, but I don’t have a saw or any tools really so one is leaning against the fence and the other is in my garage.  That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.

5.  These stackable holiday blocks – I have 2 sets of these and they are super cute!  I got the reversible ones so I have a Halloween/Fall set and a Valentines/St. Patrick’s Day set.

6.  A firepit table.  I honestly need two of these…one wood burning that things can be thrown into for fun and one gas lit one that looks pretty!  I don’t even need to put  a link here, because you can google fire pit tables and click on images and see them all!

7.  One of these Erin Condren life planners!  Have you ever seen anything so amazingly cute and functional all at the same time??  I must have one so I can be the envy of all my teacher friends!

8.  An iPod –  I am one of those people who likes my music separate from my phone.  I’ll probably still have music on my phone, but I LOVED my old iPod classic.  I loved plugging it into some speakers I had in my kitchen and jamming to music while I cooked.  I bought a refurbished one in 2009 and it died this year.  That’s 5 years of use which  I guess is forever in technological terms.  I was tempted to buy another refurbished classic, but they are outrageously priced now because apparently there are many of us out there who don’t embrace change!  Sadly, my cooking is often done in silence these days because I don’t think to use my phone or computer.

9.  A Carhartt jacket.  I’ve been eyeing a couple…this one and this one!  Ok…I guess I’ll go with one of each!!

10.  This nightshirt!  And as far as I’m concerned this is unisex!  I think it looks amazingly comfortable!

11.  A rice cooker.  Way back in 1991, my ex-husband and I received a rice cooker for a wedding present.  I don’t remember what kind it was or how good it was because we never used the thing.  Not one time.  The person who gave it to us said it was the most used appliance in their kitchen.  I couldn’t believe it.  We got rid of it at some point and I didn’t think about a rice cooker again until 2009.  I had just gotten my own apartment and was strolling the aisles at Walgreens while I waited on a prescription to be filled.  I saw that their small appliances were on sale for the holidays and there was a little Kitchen Gourmet rice cooker for $7.  All of a sudden I thought I needed a rice cooker.  I would use a rice cooker.  So I bought it.  Five years later, I am still using that little $7 rice cooker.  And, yes, it is probably the most used appliance in my kitchen!

Here’s a video I found of my exact rice cooker in action!  

12.  The Try The World food boxes!  Wow!  Every other month you receive a box delivered to your door with gourmet foods from a particular city around the world.  Each box costs $39 and has 7-10 items in it. First month is Paris, second is Tokyo, third is Rio.  I looked at their website and see that there is also a Rome box and an Istanbul box!  I think I might be in love!  International Scrap Food for the win!!

I guess I should stop this post and do some shopping for my kids who would probably not appreciate any of these gift items!