The best CF-y holiday gift you received

If you celebrate Xmas or Hanukkah, what was the best CF-y gift you received?

My DH and I are not religious but decorated one of the indoor hibiscus trees with the traditional Xmas balls and ornaments just for fun and had a gift exchange between each of us Xmas morning (I knew what all my gifts were, as I'd picked 'em out myself, LOL). It was fun.

My 2 best CF-y gifts were: a cookbook titled "400 Sauces," which was on the discount rack at the bookstore but which is amazing (spent the whole day reading it), and a cast iron pan with lid from the thrift store which you could drive a bulldozer over--if you didn't mind damaging your bulldozer, heh.

They are CF-y in my eyes because the sauces book is chock full of many exquisite and wonderful recipes and techniques that would probably not sit well with the chicken-nugget demographic, and the pan is antithetical to the bizzy mommies nuking some processed glop in the microwave as "cooking." Or so I smugly tell myself. I scrubbed the dickens out of my "new" pan with salt, washed it, oiled it, and baked it in the oven to properly season it--the oil fuses with the iron and makes a ceramic-like coating which is non-stick. Then I cooked some carbonara (from sauces book) in it and (thanks to the good recipe) it was amazingly, mouth-wateringly good--raves from DH.

It is funny because almost all of our gifts to each other were food-related; I also got 6 ramekins and some goumet garlic-stuffed olives in wine, and gave DH a book called "Drink," about the social history of alcohol, and some cool Indonesian wooden spoons. It will be very fun to explore the "sauces" book further (gnocchi is next on the list), armed with my pan. Luckily as a CF I have the luxury of time to improve my cooking skills and try new things!

I bought myself some nice jewelry. Years ago, I had to sell good stuff for pennies on the dollar to survive. Long story! It was nice to be able to treat myself. Many moms will forgo getting themselves something nice in lieu of spending too much $ on kiddie junk which is broken by New Year's. My husband got me some nice gopi dresses but it is nice to have money that is mine where I can buy something for ME. I do not consider myself materialistic 'cause I do look for sales and stuff but, for a change, it is cool to think of myself. For many years, I always thought of my then-husband who gave nothing in return. It was like having a kid!

Although this gift might be popular among the parents who are looking for a new way to kill their kyds "accidentally", my favorite gift was a freezer that my inlaws gave us. I have never had one before, but now that I live in an isolated rural area, it will come in handy. It has no kiddie safety latches, but the manufacturer's book had two pages of "child safety" information and warnings. I will have to pay close attention to Baby Chew A-lot, one of my little dustmop kitties, because she is VERY "appliance happy". Another gift I loved was some Georgia lottery tickets that my sister in Atlanta sent me, although she has informed me that if I win, that she feels entitled to half. I can't believe that she doesn't know to NEVER give a lottery ticket as a gift, without having purchased a duplicate for herself too. I also got some cash from my parents, and a bottle of home made blackberry wine from my grandfather in law. The greatest gift was knowing that he makes homemade wine and "such", because now I know who to be nicer to in the future. I didn't get anything that I didn't like this year, but I am not too difficult to please.

My award for the lifetime record of the most obnoxious gift though, still hasn't been broken. It would have to go to my first husband during the Christmas of 1986. He gave me a CASE of beef jerky because he saw me eat a couple of Slim Jims once and got the impression that I was a big fan of jerky, (NOT) Up until then, the worst Christmas gift in my life went to an ugly, gold plated pineapple locket necklace from Avon with some HORRIBLE smelling cologne inside that a boyfriend had given me. "The Golden Pineapple" held it's own for seven long years, only to lose it's crown to the jerk and his jerky,

Cool, Cambion! I love cookbooks...I got quite a few of them as wedding gifts.

Krishna, how nice to treat yourself. I did the same thing this year and got myself a few small, fun things... One of my favorites is a picture frame of real butterfly specimens. I love nature stuff like that. We didn't really do Christmas this year in terms of gifts. Hubby and I got each other a little something and that was it. I'm very excited about the gift cert to the saltwater fish store hubby got me...I'm gonna stock up on some corals!

my mum brought us goldclass movie tickets which i suppose is childfree because goldclass is for over 18 only.i got my partner a tiffany necklace and a bottle of gucci perfume.

Ironically... One of the presents my husband gave me for Giftmas was a wooden dollhouse kit. It's the kind you build from pre-cut pieces, not the shitty Fisher-Price piece of crap lazy breeders give to their brats. You have to glue, sand, paint, and decorate it yourself. I love miniatures, and I've always wanted to build my own dollhouse. I was VERY pleasantly surprised when I unwrapped that gift.

There is NO WAY that I would be able to build my little house with a fucking brat buzzing around wanting to "help" or to play with it. New hobby FTW thanks to Childfreedom. :yeah

Mine looks similar to this one: http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/dollhouse-kits/arthur-dollhouse-kit.html

The dollhouse is very cool, and elegant. I remember researching rugs and finding out to my surprise that there are some people out there who make a living making miniature rugs for dollhouses, and other household linens: http://www.donthomasdesigns.com/

Quote
clematis
The dollhouse is very cool, and elegant. I remember researching rugs and finding out to my surprise that there are some people out there who make a living making miniature rugs for dollhouses, and other household linens: http://www.donthomasdesigns.com/

Oh wow! Those are amazing! I want some...

Seacreature, I haven't posted yet.

I got some neat gifts this year from my mom...a Ripley's Believe It Or Not book and the 2009 Guinness Book, a new dictionary (which means I can get rid of my other five), and a couple other random items. Funnily enough, my favorite gift is a child-oriented one...a Transformers winter hat and gloves set. I found it in the kids' section at KMart a few days ago and Mom said she'd wrap it up for me for GIftmas. My hands are tiny enough to fit into the gloves too.

My friend got me the entire series of Invader Zim on DVD. One of those evil Satanic goth shows, dontcha know.

My BF got me DDR X...I can't imagine trying to play DDR with a kid underfoot. I had my huge foam mat out in the living room and, of course, all the cats had to lay on it. Like there aren't eleventy billion other surfaces in the house for them to sleep on and they have to sprawl out on my dance mat while I'm using it.

A few accessories for my Glock Pistol, a case of beer, and a case of food poisoning (that'll likely mean I'll lose 10 pounds) from my idiot Aunt's cooking.