The Tangrens

This year I decided I was NOT going to bake for neighbor gifts. We always end up with a kitchen full of plates to the point that it's hard to use the kitchen at all until we deliver them. People get so many plates of goodies anyway so I decided to do something different. But they couldn't be expensive because we were sending out 24 (or so said our FIRST list). A couple of years ago my mother in law gave me a whole bunch of Christmas goodie ideas so I decided to try one of those. This is how they turned out...
The snowmen were the thin mint peppermint patty type things wrapped in a piece of computer paper and I made the hat and scarf out of fleece. Really very simple and I think they turned out pretty cute. The tag says "These are "mint" to wish you a "frosty" and merry Christmas!" It probably cost us $26 to make 24.

Since I wasn't baking for neighbors all my baking was just for us. Which is really rare in our house. Derek loves baked goods and is always hinting that he'd like me to bake more. But every time I bake it's for something else and Derek just ends up with the left overs. So I made a list (man I really do make a lot of lists for Christmas) of the treats I was going to make for Christmas. Kissy cookies, puppy chow and chocolate covered pretzels, I figured three was do-able. The day I made the cookies Derek kept sneaking them. He was really surprised that I wasn't getting mad at him until I told him they were just for us. He was so happy. I really need to bake for him more often.

As it always happens we forgot some people that we should have had on the list and so I had to do some quick thinking and had to sacrifice some of our treats (which we couldn't have or shouldn't have eaten all by ourselves) to neighbor gifts. I put some puppy chow in a clear cellophane bag (with a few chocolate covered pretzels on the top) with a note saying "Dog gone it we sure hope you're covered in cheer this holiday season" Not to shabby. I think I may do that next year for neighbor gifts. Just act surprised if you get one, okay? It would also help if you gush about how cute and clever they are too. :)