The prompt this month is to talk about the best Christmas gift we ever got.
First, how about a bit of Christmas Gifting Music? And nobody recites a Christmas List better than Eartha Kitt!
Now, I could spend some time talking about the puppy my sister and I got one year. Mitzi, the Miniature Schnauzer. I remember getting up in the middle of the night and discovering her under the tree. I also remember her not going back to sleep and getting in loads of trouble for getting up in the middle of the night!
Miss Mitzi… The Christmas Pup all grown up! You’ll notice she is ever alert…listening… ready to let loose with all the barky-ness she could muster! And boy could she muster the barky-ness!
Perhaps I could talk about the sledding saucer I got as a child… gosh, I loved it and it got lots of use, until I was ‘too old for saucer sledding.’ Although, after sitting lonely for years in the garage a desire to go saucer-ing returned in 1978 thanks to the blizzard of the century (or at least in my limited memory! lol) Anyway, while the saucer did not work well, it indeed did see some trips down the dune…more than enough for me to enjoy the volumes of snow we got that year!
Me, on my way to the ‘sledding dune’ through the deep, deep snow… happy that saucer was still around!
But instead I am going to fast forward a couple of decades to Christmas 1994. It has been a very rough autumn into winter…we had been having a Step-Throat-A-Rama in my house. As in, Rachel, Heidi, and Sam all had constant strep throat… or should I say Constant Stages of Strep… one getting better kid, one super sick kid, and one coming down with strep kid. It was riotous fun…not. And all this strep exposure made me super sick… multiple times super sick and by December that year I had pleurisy. (Which was not the best Christmas Gift ever!)
Now why would I remember all of this, you must be asking yourself. I mean weren’t a new puppy or a sledding saucer much better memories?
Not really, because you see that year…
“Santa put a mixer under the tree… for me!!“
Yes, it was the year that I got my KitchenAid mixer (this is the closest I could find to what mine looks like!) I remember being entirely awestruck at such a wondrous gift! (and if it had not been the greyest, rainiest, darkest week ever in Pittsburgh, I would have a photo to share of my Much Loved Mixer!)
That mixer has helped bake an endless number of cookies. It has mixed countless batches of bread dough. It has whipped egg whites, whipping cream, and even made more than her fair share of homemade marshmallows!
She is the mixer that keeps on mixing… yes, still going strong 28 years later! I have an inkling that she just might outlast me! And so, I look forward to continuing to use her for years to come! And that, gentle readers, makes that mixer one of the best gifts I have ever received!
A huge thanks to Kym for inspiring all our memories! But inquiring minds want to know… what was your best Christmas Gift?
Mitzy looks adorable!! Aren’t Kitchen Aid mixers the BEST? I bought mine some time ago at Bed, Bath & Beyond…it had been mis-marked and the store manager made the cashier give it to me for the price marked – if I remember correctly I only paid around $100 for it! Amazing.
I love how you included Mitzi and the snow saucer (great photos!) and I completely get your love for your KitchenAid mixer. Mine is one of the few appliances that always sits out on my kitchen counter because I use it several times each week. Mine was also a Christmas gift (about 20 years ago). I try to keep her clean and well-maintained and I’ve thought about jazzing her up with some racing stripe decals, but she’s perfect the way she is. I hope you and your mixer enjoy many more years together!
well Santa sure got his money’s worth with that gift!! Loved seeing your schnauzer, what a cutie!!
I have the same mixer . . . probably from about that same year. (Love it still; it’s easily my favorite appliance.) Thanks for sharing your stories of great gifts, Kat! I so love seeing you in all that snow with your saucer. I don’t think there is any better sledding than sledding in Holland (Michigan, that is). Here’s to happy memories! XO
Love this post and getting to know you better. I still have my sledge, just think how old that is. Dad kept so my sons could use it, should the weather allow, and now it’s in my garage! Absolutely loved sledging as a child.
I suspect we’d all have very different answers about what our best gift was if you asked us at different stages of life. The older I get, the more I appreciate gifts that don’t seem terribly exciting but are things that I can use and enjoy for many years.
Funny enough, on my run this morning, I listened to an episode of Hidden Brain that’s all about the psychology of gift giving that was a really interesting listen: https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/the-secret-to-gift-giving/
28 years!!?! Now THAT’S a workhorse.
Gosh, this is a question I’ve never given a thought to. I’d say, I’m not sure about ‘best.’ But my most surprising gift was about 10 years ago. Troy and I had taken a long hiatus from giving gifts (b/c we just didn’t have extra spending money…and then, we just got in the not-gifting habit. But we reinstated a few years ago). Anyway, I had found a piece of beach glass on Lake Erie shaped in a heart. I wanted to ask a local jeweler (the man who also made my engagement ring) to put it on a wide hammered silver band. The quote was a few hundred dollars–so I said I’d wait. I tucked the glass away. It was NOT a priority. That Christmas, I found the ring hanging on our tree as an ‘ornament’ on Christmas morning. I don’t think any gift has ever surprised me more. Every summer when we’d come to Lake Erie for the season, I’d leave my ‘regular’ wedding rings in the fire proof box in our basement and wear my ‘summer wedding ring’ during lake season.
Fun question.
(And adorable Mitzi!!)
I also have a similar KitchenAide. It’s the one appliance that doesn’t conk out every five years – knock on wood. The puppy is a pretty darn good gift too. I don’t know if this is the best gift but the one that stands out is the year my husband bought me an engagement ring in early December. I was in the middle of my graduate program four hours away from him. We picked it out as I was on my way home so we could tell my parents about our engagement at Christmas.
Dale bought me a Kitchen Aid for our first Christmas together in 1996. I had wanted one for ages but couldn’t afford it. I thought it was too much considering we were only dating at the time but he assured me that he saw it as an investment in his future. He was right!
I got my KitchenAid stand mixer when I was in the nesting phase of being pregnant with Elder Son… who is now 38. Both he and the mixer are still going strong!