Each year I try to find ways to be more intentional - to buy, give away, and receive less "stuff." And, the truth of the matter is that for me, I just enjoy the time with family. I would be just fine with no presents under the tree.
Emily, from Remodeling This Life has an interesting post in her "31 Days of Living Simply" series. It's called Gifting: How To Not Give Or Receive Junk. In her post, Emily subscribes to the theory of giving her kids, "Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read." I like that.
At our house, we like to cook and bake. And, we like to do it together. (Yep, we are blessed with a 13 year old who enjoys spending time in the kitchen. He actually brings us recipes he wants to try.)
So, I enjoyed seeing an e-mail from the Container Store this morning which highlights not only their containers but also gives recipes from Real Simple to fill them.
Full disclosure here. I would likely buy the containers from the Dollar Store, Hobby Lobby or Michael's with a 50% off coupon.
Edited to add: Oh, look! Hobby Lobby is having a 50% off sale this week!
And, rather than use the Real Simple recipes, I would likely head off to my pal Lisa's amazing blog, The Cutting Edge of Ordinary for delicious recipes and mouth watering photography. Or, there's always my fall back - the amazingly simple - as healthy as you want em - Honey Oatmeal Cookies.
And, of course, we don't have to fill the jars with sweet stuff. We could give dry rubs for meat, maybe with some nice smokey paprika or adobo, and we could make some savory toasted nuts, too.
Very happy. Cuz after all...
Wasn't love the gift that gave us the season in the first place?
What will the Christmas season look like for you?
4 comments:
Thanks for the link love girl!
You know I'm all about the homemade Christmas pressies. This year I'm thinking about giving some homemade taco seasoning mix? Sounds good huh? Last week I canned up some apple butter and applesauce, so those are always on my list for some special people in my life.
Last year I made a spice rub, which everyone really seemed to like. We are also making some primitive shelving for a few ppl too.
In the past I've make some "soup in a jar" gifts. For people who have trouble making a soup, it was the perfect gift.
I'm anxious to see if anyone else has any great ideas, cause this is the time of year that we really get moving on making the presents!
We made Peppermint Bark last year which was a huge hit! (I thought I blogged about it, but guess not.) That would be fun again. And Bacon Candy would be tasty. I suppose we could also bottle up some homemade "Gyros/Lamb Burger seasoning." But, spices can get expensive...the pondering continues.
too bad the archives for GEFP are gone... there have been some great truffle making posts. I did it a few years ago myself. I've also done a variation on ABs peppermint pinwheel cookie (I didn't like his chocolate dough, so I did half peppermint and half vanilla dough with the peppermint tinted pink, and then dipped the finished cookie in dark chocolate).
this year I'm gluten free so I'm not gonna torture myself by making cookies I can't even taste. instead, I'm gonna gift all of my classmates with a hand-mixed loose-leaf and herbal tea blend with ingredients that are associated with focus and memory (Hanukkah falls the week before finals this year). I ordered everything I needed online and will do the mixing and bagging as soon as midterms are over.
I love inviting all of my friends and family for our annual Christmas party. It's an open house. People RSVP for breakfast or lunch. Then, we sit around, eat, visit, and those who didn't sign up, simply pop in to munch on the left overs or fresh baked cookies. I always keep a batch of cookie dough in the fridge in case I run out of cookies.
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--Dana