What Santa brought me...

Michelle, from The Vintage Apple, is hosting a link-up that I love the idea of! I was thinking about doing this post too, eventually, but this is what finally pushed me to doing it!

I will tell you that my two favorite gifts may not be what you think of as the best Santa gift. They aren't iPads, Kindles or engagement rings (I do already have the latter two of those!) They aren't a camera, or a weekend trip to Vegas. In fact, they are used, recycled, and old. And I love them.

The first one is a stuffed dragon named Bunsen.

Bunsen is from my grandmother, and I've always loved him. He is a small, wingless dragon whom I played with and made stories about every time I visited when I was younger. I actually collect dragons, most of which are from this particular grandmother, so Bunsen is a wonderful addition to my collection and I'm thrilled to have him. I have a lot of good memories of this little guy!

The other gift, also from my grandmother, is a darning egg. I've recently started darning my socks, and I really like doing it, especially because it has extended the lives of some of my favorite socks.

This particular darning egg is an antique. It was originally my great-great-great grandmother's, and has been used by every grandmother since. I have actually found myself searching for socks to darn, just to use it!

Though these are my two favorite gifts, I did get many other, wonderful gifts. I got a $50 gift card to Amazon for books for my Kindle (wonderful!), my mom bought us a card table and chairs when she was out here in August, and also sent, (don't laugh) some refills for our Food Saver. My family knows what I want! I also received another cookbook, three knitting books, a case for my Kindle (made with an upcycled book cover!) and a handmade journal with recycled pages.

You may look at my list of gifts and laugh, or mock, but that's OK, because this is who I am. I love used, I love practical and most of all, I love gifts that people know I will enjoy or use. Every gift I received fit this bill, and that made me very happy.

So what did you get?? Link up at The Vintage Apple and check out some of the other things everyone else got!