Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Blogging by mail

(alleen in het engels)

We've been wrapping and packing a lot of gifts lately, because 5 December we celebrate "Sinterklaas" here in Holland (let's say the European predecessor of Santa Claus). But that was not all! I also participated for the first time in the Blogging by Mail event, organised by Stephanie "Dispensing Happiness". Really a fun idea to ship someone 5 indulgences and receive a package yourself from another blogger. I was very glad that my package arrived save and sound at its destination and was full of anticipation to find out what would be in mine. Then I found a note from the postman that there was a package for me. YES!! I just love getting packages, even though most of the time I know what's in them, but this time it would be a totall surprise and I had no clue who it was from either, cause they just wrote "from: ABROAD" (well in dutch obviously) on the note. And as I wasn't at home, I had to wait two days to finally get my hands on it.

But there it was, first take a picture of course, after all I'm a blogger who knows what comes first :). And then UNPACK!! My package was send all the way from the United States by Melody from "Trap Door". She wrote a lovely letter about her choices and I found it so stunning that she just picked all the right things.

First of all without unpacking anything I smelled the first indulgence: wonderful fragrant and fat vanilla beans (nectar of the gods as she referred to them), how wonderful and for a baking girl like me spot on. I had two kids leaning over to sniff this wonderful scent.

"Peeps" I never heard of, but marshmellows we know where as well and I with my sweet tooth love them. Almost too cute to eat these little snowmen according to our youngest, though that didn't withhold him to try one. Real fun for the holiday season too.

And then a real cookbook,WOW!!! I am a cookbook addict and this one is about baking, which is even better and no I didn't have this one yet. So thrilled to get this, and I already bookmarked several recipes.

And then a DVD with a very romantic movie. I love to watch a feel good movie like that, just gets you our of the routine of the day and it just perfect to watch these coming holidays. A wonderful gift.

And then there was this tin with chili. That is just so fun. When I go shopping abroad I tend to come home with all kind of unusual tins, packages with surprising things in it, out of curiousity, love to try out different things. Thanks for the wonderful recipe to go with it Melody, I'll buy some on cream cheese, so I'll certainly give it a go soon. I want to thank Melody so much for putting together this wonderful package, I love everything in it and it was the best first Blogging By Mail experience I could have!!
And of course a big thank you Stephanie for organising all of this.

7 comments:

Melody said...

I am glad it arrived safely and that you are enjoying the contents. Happy Holidays!

Marleen said...

Dit is een leuk verassings/kerstpakket en wat een enorme vanillepeulen zijn dit!
Gezellige initiatieven vaak bij de foodbloggers:-)
Dat wordt lekker wegzwijmelen bij deze DVD;-)))

Nupur said...

What a great package! The vanilla beans are such a special treat.

Esme said...

What a fun package-Stephanie did a great job of organizing-aside from chocolate what is typical Dutch?

Lien said...

@ a very happy holiday season to you too, Thanks again Melody.

@ Marl1, zelden zulke sappige vanillepeulen gezien en joekels inderdaad.

@ Nupur, yes Melody picked real great stuff, wish you could have smelled them!

@ Esme, Lots of typical dutch things: all kinds of cheeses of course, stroopwafels (thin wafers glued together with syrup), liquorice of all kinds, salted herring with onions, rolmops (pickled herring with gurkin inside), butterballs (candy) etc. etc.

Sam said...

what a fun package!! Those vanilla beans look delicious - what will you make with them!!?

Astrid (…and the kitties too) said...

Oh what a wonderful package!
I am still waiting for mine to come and also have no notice yet if the one I sent made it there.
Sometimes having patience is a hard thing *hehe*