Dad's Santa 2008

Here he is in all his glory, just getting ready to slide down the chimney.  Check out his side-kick.  Dad carved six of these tiny snowmen a few years ago from some "left-over" wood from the big Santas.  We got two for one that year.  Mr. Snowman has real removable tiny twig arms.  Don't tell my Dad but I think he is my favorite.

...And I got a gift in the mail yesterday from the nice people at "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter".  My friend Barbara, from Barbara Bakes was a contestant in a ICBINB cooking contest in NYC.  There were eight finalists and all of them got to host a give-away sponsered by ICBINB for their readers based on the supplies needed to make their entry.  Barbara linked all of the blogs to her site and recommended that we visit all of them and enter their give-aways too.  So I did...and I won Liz' (Hoosier Homemade) giveaway.  

I got a professional 9 x 13-inch baking pan from Crate and Barrel, an OXO rubber-bottomed mixing bowl (I can say goodbye to towels wrapped around the bowl bottoms to keep them from wobbling), a beautiful cast iron Le Creuset platter that is oven and dishwasher proof, and last but not least a non-stick Calphalon saucepan, which I sorely need as my old Calphalon pan set is getting old.   Thanks Liz and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.   I Can't Wait To Use These.  There might just be some baking going on this weekend, finally.  I can hope, anyway.

See...it pays to enter give-aways.  Speaking of which, if you haven't yet entered my CSN give-away to win a $45.00 gift certificate, go here and enter before Dec.12th, next Sunday.