I feel like I write so many gift guides and check out so many “what I got X” videos, that it would be interesting to share what I did end up getting for Christmas. I do a lot of giving out gifts and have a big friendship circle – we actually had three different Christmas parties this year that we hosted along with our family Christmas too! I do not expect gifts or anything like that, but I am always excited when I do get one. I am a very easy person to shop for, as I very much love food and little treats, especially this time of year.
Cheese Basket
From Tom and Ryan, two video game people who come to our house for board game night and movie night every other week, I got a cheese basket! Dann got his own, completely separate gift, which meant this was just for me. This basket had three different cheeses, along with two jars of chutney and some oatcake crackers. I ended up making it into a cheese board that we had on Christmas and boxing day.
Scottish Shortbread Petticoat Tails
We always bring a few small things over to our neighbour, who does a fantastic job of grabbing our packages for us and always looking out for our family. They often send over a box of chocolates, but this year brought over some beautiful shortbread. I absolutely love shortbread and the tin it came in was SO cute. What a fun little treat for our whole family.
Prosecco and Chocolate Bundle
Molly and Husky, two of our friends from Pokemon Go, got us a Chocolate and Prosecco bundle, which included two very fancy chocolates and a bottle of prosecco! This was an extremely lovely and posh feeling gift. Dann and I particularly loved the salted caramels, which were so decadent.
Fudge
Matt, Dann’s cousin, made us a lovely box of fudge! There were five different flavors, which is fantastic. My absolute favorite was cookies and cream. Dann and I did share these with our kids, who also found them to be very delicious and quite sweet!
Biscuiteers Cookies
Our friend Claire got Dann and I a box of Biscuiteers cookies, which had so many more cookies in it then I expected! This box was metal, and quite fun in itself. There were a bunch of layers of these chocolate biscuits, which are all hand iced. This was another treat we shared with Kai and Robin, as Amelia doesn’t like chocolate cookies, who both enjoyed them very much. I really loved the little details in the icing as well.
Apricot Juice
Wendy and Josie, two video games friends, got me three bottles of my absolute favorite drink, which is Flo’s Marillen Nektar – a drink you can only get from a very specific farm in Austria. They don’t currently ship to England, so having three bottles to drink up over the holiday season is fantastic and I really appreciated them bringing them back for me. This is absolutely delicious – and I did share one of the bottles out with friends, so I am glad to have two for just me!
Boxes of Chocolates
Dann’s DnD group brought me a few different boxes of chocolates and chocolate bars, as little gifts, which was very thoughtful. We are well set for December now when it comes to chocolates and will have these open on the side for the next few weeks, to enjoy over the new year!
Popcorn Bundle
One of my jobs always gives us a little voucher for some snack bundles. This year, I picked out the popcorn bundle which includes a bunch of specialty popcorn from Joe and Seph’s! I have eaten quite a few of them and shared them with our kids. I am excited to try the caramel at some point, but need something fun to eat it with.
Hello Kitty and Friends Themed Gift
Our friends Emily and Liam got me a little themed gift – all full of Hello Kitty and friends! I have a bunch of Pokemon themed hair clips, so they got me a Kuromi themed one, a blind box that had the cutest Hello Kitty sleeping in bread for my blind box Sanrio shelf, three face masks (that I can share with Amelia and Robin for girl’s night) and a Cinnamon Roll bath bomb. This was such a lovely set of gifts!
Face Masks, Nose Rings, Glasses Stands and more
From Dann’s side of the family, I got a red scarf, an adorable Hello Kitty blind box that has Hello Kitty with a balloon animal, a nice nose ring, some face masks, a gin set and a glasses stand. The glasses stand was on my requests, so I am so excited to have this as I have so many pairs of glasses now. It even can hold rings on the bottom! I very much like the nose ring that was picked too, as it’s a more sophisticated ring then I have in my collection.
Gifts from Dann
Now, Dann and I don’t really do many Christmas gifts for each other. We purchase gifts throughout the year, when we see things we think each other would like, and focus more on our children when it comes to Christmas time. Dann got me lots of little gifts this year, with that in mind. I got a little LED Kuromi light, a Cinnamonroll LEGO set, two blind boxes from a series I am trying to get the whole collection of, three bags of my absolute favorite brand of very expensive Kimchi, and a box of Swiss Miss, which is a must around Christmas time! He also picked out five new pairs of nose rings, which I very much love.
Christmas isn’t about gifts – but it’s nice to be seen and known by my friends and family. We had a fantastic Christmas watching our kids open up gifts – Amelia got a new, bigger drum kit, the Nintendo Switch two, a pottery kit, and so many Pokemon cards, amongst other things. Kai got loads of gym stuff he picked out, posters, t-shirts, a new phone, and lots of treats that fit in with his diet. Robin got a new phone as well, a Switch two, and a bunch of toys as she is still in a toy stage. I got Dann a camera he had been eyeing – a Cannon mirrorless EOS RS7, along with some desk trinkets and a hot pot kit. I did end up giving him his camera early, so that he could take it on our trip and with him for light trails this holiday season. It’s so fun to see them open gifts and be grateful for what they get, but it was even more fun hanging out with family, playing Jackbox on the TV, and sharing stories of the year.