Package Swap!!!

I did the Cook.Vegan.Lover package swap this year. If you haven't done a swap before, I highly reccomend doing one. Shopping and receiving gifts are fun, but the best part is getting to know somebody new via email.

My partner was Liz from Vegan Food Rocks, an awesome lady from the east coast. Email revealed that we have a lot in common. The package I sent was sort of caramel centric. The package I received was really yummy and I almost forgot to take pics. What can I say... when I get a package filled with treats, I want to try them right away :)

Here are the goods...
a really cool note & some cranberry floss. I'm thinking elves dip the floss in the cranberry bogs all so I can keep my teeth cran sparkly (which I do). PS. what do you think of the color of my kitchen wall? It helps brighten up those gloomy winter days in Seattle.
mmm... onto the chocolate! The pistachio is my fave, though the others are close behind.

Just in time for tea & toast season. Cocoa & toast season doesn't happen until January. Plus some granola for topping off oatmeal. Ha! Who am I kidding, I eat it straight from the container.

Now for the best raw macaroons ever! They were spicy hot and I mowed them down right away. & Liz Lovely cookies from the awesome state that I grew up in, VT. w00t! Wait wait, Liz Lovely cookies from the lovely Liz!

Thank you Thank you Thank you, Liz! Thank you, Lindsay, for hosting!

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Now introducing 2 new additions to my furry family... for some reason I don't have any action pics, just the lazy kind. Tubs is trying to train them, but he admits it will take a while.

Lady Fiona Stardust - Lady + Fiona from Burn Notice + Stardust, a book & movie that I love.
Harry Potter - His track name had Harry in it, and as soon as I saw that, Harry Potter stuck in my head.

Package swaperino

Package swap time. Just what I need to lift my spirits out of this sickness funk I've been in. I got my package from Vegannifer last night. Woohoo! I love getting packages, especially when I don't know what will be inside. It's like getting a birthday present.

Thanks Vegannnifer for all of the great goodies! I'm saving the food for later when I'm all better and my taste buds are working again. Normally, I would try everything right away because I have no control around tasty treats :).

I also want to thank Lindsay for organizing the swap.

Here's what the package contained:

Cat magnet. Very cool. How'd you know I loved cats? It is too true that they think everything belongs to them.

Fancy bird ornament. This is going on my living room wall. I put all xmas decorations (and other things) there and they stay up all year long.

Chocolate covered gogi berries. mmmm... chocolate.

Vegan fudge. Yummy. I haven't had fudge in years. I see it all the time and read the ingredients, but alas it's never vegan (why do I try?).

Vegan chocolate. I love really high cacao content. It also has cayenne, maple sugar, maca, vanilla, salt and lucuma. I've never had maca or lucuma before. I'm looking forward to this.

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Here's Tubs and Peepa sitting on the cinderblock stairs that lead from the cat cage into the house. Super fancy! (not). All of the cats like to sit at the top step and block other cats from going outside on a nice day. If the weather is bad, they sit inside and block each other from coming in. These fights are the reason we go through way too many replacement flaps on the cat door (which is actually a small dog door).

Sometimes Kobie needs to stay in the cat cage. This is how he lets us know he wants to come inside.