I was not overly impressed w/the beaded servers but they are nicer in person than in the pictures & the "beads" are more squared off than they look, so they fit nicely in your hand, not uncomfortable like I expected.  Not my style though.

 

I agree about the plates - they are christmas plates, so just call them Christmas instead of Holiday.  I would much rather have seen snowflakes or snowmen on a blue-tinted plate or even just green trees with snowy highlights & no stars on top.  I think the coloring is a little gaudy (for lack of a better word right now) & something a little less "graphic" in style would have been better.  I'm sure some people will love them (they aren't heavy at all, btw) but I wonder what all the people who don't celebrate christmas will think?? 

 

I love the salt & pepper mills - I prefer to grind sea salt, when I do use it, and have been waiting for this BUT the price is outrageous!  I thought at first the price was for a set, not one.  Yes, they are nice & large, too but for the price I would have expected something that felt heavier.  I think I might wait until it's on special.

 

I'd love to know why the new "cookbooks" are so much smaller - they're just like spiral-bound recipe card collections.  All the new ones have fewer recipes than in the past- not sure I'm liking this trend.  Oh & was it just me or do the drink charms all look alike??  I know there are different colors on each end but it only looked like there were 2 or 3 colors... not 4.  Did I just not see the 4th color or were 2 of the colors just so close that I couldn't tell them apart?  That one really puzzled me.

 

oh jeez, that practically turned into a novel, didnt it?  Sorry about that.