HOLIDAY PRESENTS OH ELEVEN

chocolate
a shirt
more chocolate
a sweater
carcassonne
and also one garden centre voucher with which I'm gonna buy me a god damn pond

carcassonne?

I think the benefits of LC are the same as those of all enameled cast iron cookware. But some of the other available brands are clearly knock-offs of LC at lower price points, and after applying high heat, browning, washing, etc, the enamel gets damaged and cracks or flakes. LC, otoh, used to have a life-time warranty where you could return any piece with damaged enamel to them to be re-coated for free. (I imagine, like other luxury/top-quality products that have gone mass market, that the lifetime warranty is either invalid now or has some many limitations that it might as well be?)

http://www.irawoods.com/Le-Creuset-Warranty-Information

Staub is pretty good upmarket French cast iron cookware, too. My LC dutch oven is pretty old and as perfectly functional as ever. I've been in kitchens in France where some of the LC cookware dated back to the 50's or older.

carcassonne?

it's a board game sorta thing. think it's german? basically you have to lay tiles down to build roads and cities and stuff. looks simple enough to play with the kids but also looks like you can also get deep enough into strategy if you want to play more seriously

not the city in france then, ok

Jumper
Two scarfs
Loads of chocolate
Bodywash, face scrub, stuff like that (some nice, some meh)
Journal
Book with all the photos of Alfred Stieglitz and his Camera Work magazine from 1900-1920s (win)

why did they stop calling them dutch ovens?

they started making them in france

Don't they call them Dutch ovens in the US anymore?

whiney calls them british ovens

They do prepare blood sausages best tbh

I always thought "Dutch oven" was strictly US terminology.

It is, although wikipedia taught me tonight it was a British person in 1704 copying the Dutch pans and exporting them to America where they became known as Dutch ovens. Plus, "The name has lived on for more than 300 years".

sweater
chamois shirt
pizza stone (!!!)
mess o books - the singapore grip, my early years by churchill, letters of sacco & vanzetti, rashomon & other stories
tiny bottles of maker's mark & hennessy
socks

PS3 Skyrim
an Edna Crabapple + desk + accesories Simpsons toy (sort of an in joke)
set of coffee mugs that stack up to form a stylized geisha image down their sides
espresso glasses (man, I know I drink coffee but geez guys)
ABC Shop giftcard
small bar of Lush solid shampoo from Lush-employed friend
various bottles of wine, if bringing them to xmas eve party counts I guess

letters of sacco & vanzetti

Ohhh, great gift, great book!

black beret (!), paisley shirt, pair of grey cord trousers. couple belts. also a cookbook by "revolutionary" chef alice waters. and one of those vacuum-seal things for open wine bottles. all very practical and appreciated.

pizza stone (!!!)

Nice!