gift giving

I've been working feverishly to finish up all of our Christmas gifts for teachers, friends, family, etc. And I've been doing lots of baking the last couple days so I can mail out some treats to family. Living out of town makes the holidays a little more challenging because everything has to be mailed out...which also means Christmas gifts have to be done early if they're going to reach their recipients in time for Christmas. I had planned on being ahead of everything this holiday. But with Ben's leg and other things going on it just hasn't happened.

Like most years, I've made a lot of gifts. It saves money but more importantly I feel it makes the gift so much more personal. I like people to know that I took the time to think about them and make something for them. Most appreciate it. Some don't. But it doesn't matter. I still like the giving and that's what this season is about.

So here's a few things I've worked on. I made these candy jars from some canning jars I had stored in my cabinets. Not only do they make cute gifts but they emptied out some room in my kitchen! And, I found a *huge* bucket of the peppermint candies for $5.88 at Walmart. I'm giving these to the teachers along with a card holder.


Little chipboard pieces are perfect for these kind of things cause they make the cutest accent!

I also made some snowman soup for my daughter's class friends. I didn't have time to get super fancy with the packaging but I still think they turned out cute!

I also made gift bags for my son's preschool friends but didn't get a picture of those. I put a little 4 pack of crayons and candy cane in their bags.

If you want some more ideas my friend Tami made the most *adorable* gifts on her blog. You can check it out here. I had already bought the stuff for Reindeer food but now I'm gonna go get jars like hers!!