I'll have to exercise my arms some other way...

I was getting close to saying Christmas was a dud. Very close. Two canceled flights to California, one cat that had to be put down and a sad husband-to-be who felt gypped on presents from his family made me wish for it to be over as soon as possible. We had barely made it home from the in-laws house and snuggled into our couch before H2B said "So can we exchange gifts now?"

I trudged back out into the snow and went to fetch his present from the store it was delivered to, picking up some dinner on the way home. We sat down, ripped open our presents to each other (me: cookbooks, score! him: snowboard bag and mechanics gloves) and reveled in being home. "I have one more thing for you," he said, "go in the kitchen." And there on our tiny counter this shone like a shiny piece of jewelry would to other women:

This one isn't mine, sadly I don't have any good pictures yet,
but it's the same except for the color. Mine is a lighter silver.

My first stand mixer! Visions of butter creaming and dough kneading danced through my head. Can you make sugar plums with a stand mixer? And did he skimp on the features? Nope. My man knows quality. 6 quart capacity! 575 watts of power! I hope cinnamon buns and sugar cookies have a good range of vitamins because my diet for the next few days will consist of things made by stand mixer. The downside is I'll have to find other ways to get arm workouts other than creaming and kneading.